Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2025-09-04 Thursday

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Democracy Now! Thursday, September 4, 2025

From New York, this is Democracy Now. I was only 14 years old when I met Jeffrey. I ended up dropping out of high school before ninth grade. And I never went back. From 14 to 17 years old, I went. work for Jeffrey. I was a 16-year-old high school student athlete who made good graves and had high aspirations for college. Why was Maxwell the only one held accountable when so many others played a role? Why does the government hide this information from the public? This secrecy is not protection.

It's complicity. Survivors of sexual predator, Jeffrey Epstein, held a news conference outside the Capitol telling their stories, showing support for a rare bipartisan bill that would make release of the Epstein F. Steen Files Law. The bill was introduced by Republican Thomas Massey and Democrat Roe Kana. A nation that allows rich and powerful men to traffic and abuse young girls without consequence is a nation that has lost its moral and spiritual core. We'll speak with Congressmember Rokana, as well as Lauren Hirsch of World Without Exploitation, who organized the testimony of the women. Then the Trump administration bars the Palestine delegation from entering the United States

ahead of the UN General Assembly here in New York. They have chosen to ban the Palestinian president and his delegation of some 80 diplomats, intended to attend the General Assembly. And doing so at precisely the moment when the UN GA is going to be taking up a lot of critical discussions around the question of Palestine, the genocide in Palestine, the two-state solution, multiple recognitions of the state of Palestine. We'll speak with former UN official Craig Mokhyber. He resigned over the UN's failure on Gaza. His new piece, how the UN could act today to stop the genocide in Palestine. All that and more coming in. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

Israeli forces move deeper into Gaza City Wednesday as Israeli leaders dismissed a statement from Hamas that the group is willing to release its remaining hostages in exchange for an end to Israel's assault. This comes, as Palestinian health officials report Israeli forces have killed at least 84 people and wounded 338 others over the past 24 hours. In Gaza City, Palestinians mourned their loved ones killed, and Israeli are strikes. He was martyred. He was hit by a strike inside his room. They killed him with his wife and children. They erased them all. No one is left for me. Yesterday, he was with me. He told me, I have your back. I will not leave you. What whatever happens to you happens to me. But no, he's gone and left me alone. To whom are you leaving

me, my brother, Mohammed? To whom are you leaving me? In Israel, far right minister Bezal Smotrick on Wednesday proposed annexing 82 percent of the occupied West Bank. The plan would effectively end prospects for a future Palestinian state. In response to the United Arab Emirates, said any efforts to annex the West Bank would cross a red line that could unravel the Abraham Accords that normalize relations between Israel and some Arab nations. Meanwhile, the Washington Post is reporting a post-war plan for Gaza circulating within the Trump administration would relocate the enclave's two million residents. Gaza would essentially be turned into a trusteeship run by the United States for at least

a decade where Palestinians who own land will be offered a digital token in exchange for rights to redevelop their property. Palestinians could redeem the token to move outside the strip or into an apartment in one of the new cities to be created under the plan. The proposal was reportedly developed by some of the same Israelis who created the Shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation with contributions from the Boston Consulting Group. Scotland's top official announced Wednesday his governments paused funding to weapons manufacturers that sell arms to Israel, as he ordered the Palestinian flag to be raised above Scottish government buildings. First Minister John Swinney made the announcement as members of the Scottish Parliament voted 65 to 24 to recognize the state of Palestine, urging the UK government to follow suit.

In the face of genocide, there can be no business as usual. We will pause new awards of public money to arms companies whose products or services are provided to countries where there is plausible evidence, of genocide being committed by that country. That will include Israel. On Capitol Hill, two U.S. military veterans were removed from a Senate hearing Wednesday after the accused committee members of complicity in genocide in Gaza. Former Army intelligence officer Josephine Gilboe was led away in handcuffs alongside

retired Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Aguilar. He worked as a security contractor for the militarized U.S. and Israeli. back so-called Gaza humanitarian foundation before blowing the whistle on the group's deadly attacks on Palestinian civilians seeking food. These are being arrested right now for interrupting a foreign affairs hearing on nominations because the U.S. is complicit in genocide. They are complicit in the slaughter of babies. When the United States Congress comes after veterans, they will come after you.

Every American sitting at home right now needs to realize that you are paying for a genocide. To see our interview with Anthony Aguilar, go to DemocracyNow.org. Senior Democratic leaders are asking the Trump administration to reveal details about who exactly is funding the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. In the letter to Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and Office of Management Budget Director Russ Vod, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, write, quote, the State Department should immediately cease funding GHF and transfer or restore funding to experienced aid organizations

given the strong and growing evidence that GHF is failing to accomplish its humanitarian mission, unquote. According to the United Nations, nearly a thousand Palestinians have died near GHF's sites since the group started operations in May. Survivors of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein gathered on Capitol Hill Wednesday to share their stories as they called on Congress to release files and documents related to the serial sex offender. This is Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips. Congress must choose. Will you continue to protect predators or will you finally protect survivors? And also, I would like to announce here today, us Epstein survivors, have been discussing creating our own. list. We know the names. Many of us were abused by them. Now, together as survivors, we will

confidentially compile the names we all know. All 212 House Democrats are expected to vote in favor of measure to compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, meaning six Republicans would need to join them to pass the resolution. So far, four Republicans have signed on. Their Kentucky Congress member Thomas Massey, Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Green, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Lauren Bobert of Colorado. Meanwhile, President Trump's turned up pressure on Republicans to let the story die. Trump was asked Wednesday about the demands of Epstein survivors. So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends.

You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation. We gave them everything over and over again, more and more and more. and nobody's ever satisfied. From what I understand, I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given, but it's really a Democrat hoax. After headlines, we'll play more of Wednesday's testimony

from Jeffrey Epstein survivors who are both Democrat and Republican, and will be joined in Washington, D.C., by Congressmember Rokana, who co-sponsored the House resolution to release the Epstein files with Republican, Congress member Massey. President Trump is expected to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the $5 million verdict in the civil suit that found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll.

Carol's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said, quote, we do not believe President Trump will be able to present any legal issues in the Carroll cases that merit review by the United States Supreme Court, unquote. In 2023, Carol testified Trump had violently attacked her in a dressing room at a department store in the mid-1990s. She also won $83.3 million in a defamation case against Trump after he called her a liar. Florida plans to become the first state to end all vaccine mandates for children to attend school, including for preventable diseases such as measles, mumps, chickenpox, polio, and hepatitis. On Wednesday, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Lattapo said that the vaccine requirement is, quote, wrong and drips with disdain and sands.

slavery, unquote. The American Medical Association responded to Florida's plant and vaccine mandates, saying it would, quote, undermine decades of public health progress, unquote. According to the World Health Organization, vaccines have saved the lives of 154 million people globally over the past half century, many of them infants and children. Meanwhile, California, Oregon, and Washington have announced their forming a new health alliance to provide unified vaccine recommendations. After Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew federal COVID vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children back in May. He will testify before Congress today. More than a thousand current and former workers at the Department of Health and Human

Services sent a letter to Congress demanding the resignation of RFK Jr. over his pseudoscientific claims and his attacks on public health. This comes just days after the New York Times published a joint op-ed by nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control headlined, we ran the CDC. Kennedy is endangering every American's health. They write, quote, this is a time to rally to protect the health of every American. Congress must exercise its oversight authority over health and human services, unquote. A federal judge in Boston has ruled in favor of Harvard, saying the Trump administration broke the law,

violating the university's free speech rights when canceling nearly $2.2 billion in research grants. In her ruling, Judge Allison Burroughs wrote, quote, A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other that the government used anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for a targeted ideologically motivated assault on this country's premier universities, unquote. Harvard was the only university to sue the Trump administration after it targeted the school's research funding. over claims of anti-Semitism. The Trump administration also tried to prevent Harvard from enrolling foreign students and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status. The White House says it plans to appeal the decision.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is defending the Pentagon's decision to strike a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 people. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Rubio said, quote, instead of interdicting it on the president's orders, we blew it up, and it'll happen again, he said. The White House has failed to provide any evidence backing its claims the boat was carrying illegal drugs from Venezuela.

Legal experts warned the strike may have violated international law and the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress rather than the president the power to declare war. And in Italy, audience members at the Venice Film Festival rose for a record 22-minute standing ovation Wednesday after the premiere of the premiere of the show. the voice of Hind Rajab, a docu drama about the real-life story of a Palestinian girl who's killing by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 24 reverberated around the world. The film by Tunisian director, Kaitha, Banhanja, incorporates real audio recordings of phone calls from Hind as she was trapped under Israeli fire for hours, begging to be rescued from a car

where her aunt, uncle, and three cousins lay dead. Hind was ultimately killed, along with two Palestinian paramedics dispatched to rescue her. Ahead of the film's premiere, actress Saja Kilani read a statement on behalf of the cast and crew. On behalf of all of us actors and in the name of the entire team, we ask, isn't it enough? Enough of the mass killing, the starvation,

the dehumanization, the destruction, the ongoing occupation. The voice of Hindrejab does not need our defense. This film is not an opinion or a fantasy. It is anchored in truth. Hind's story carries the weight of an entire people. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the warrant peace report.

I'm Amy Goodman. And I'm Narmine Sheikh. Welcome to our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. Survivors of serial sexual predator, Jeffrey Epstein, held a press conference steps away from the Capitol Wednesday to share their testimonies and demand lawmakers release all government files related to the Epstein investigation. Calls for the full files to be released have continued to grow, particularly among President Trump's base. Trump campaigned on releasing the files but has called it a distraction and a distraction. quote, democratic hoax since taking office. The women were joined by members of Congress who've introduced a rare bipartisan bill that would make release of the Epstein investigation

files law. In a few minutes, we'll speak with Congress member Rokana, who co-sponsored the bill and Lauren Hirsch of World Without Exploitation, which helped organize their survivors who spoke out Wednesday. But first, the voices of survivors. My name is Marina Lacerdom. I was minor victim one in federal indictment of Jeffrey Epstein in New York in 2019. I was one of dozen of girls that I personally know who were forced into Jeffrey's mansion on 9 East 71 Street in New York City when we were just kids. Today is the first time that I ever speak publicly about what happened to me. I never thought that I would find myself here.

The only reason that I am here is because it feels like the people who matter in this country finally care about what we have to say. As an immigrant from Brazil, I feel empowered knowing that the little girl struggling to get by at 14 and 15 years old finally has a voice. For the first time, I feel like I matter as an American. I was only 14 years old when I met Jeffrey. It was the summer of high school.

I was working three jobs to try to support my mom and my sister when a friend of mine in the neighborhood told me that I could make $300 to give another guy a massage. It went from a dream job to the worst nightmare. Jeffrey assistant Leslie Groff would call me and tell me that I needed to be at the house so often that I ended up dropping out of high school before ninth grade. And I never went back.

From 14 to 17 years old, I went and worked for Jeffrey instead of receiving an education. Every day I hope that he would offer me a real job as one of his assistant or something, something important. I would finally have made it big, like we say, the American dream. That day never came. I had no way out. I was until you finally told me that I was too old. There are many pieces of my story that I can't remember, no matter how hard I try.

The constant state of wonder causes me so much fear and so much confusion. My therapist says that my brain is just trying to protect the self. But it's so hard to begin to heal knowing that there are people out there who know more about my abuse than I do. The worst part is that the government is still in possession right now. of the documents and information about that could help me remember and get over all of this maybe and help me heal. They have documents with my name on them that were confiscated from Jeffrey Epstein's house and could help me put the pieces of my own life back together. My name is Haley Robson. I was a 16-year-old high school student athlete who made good grades and had high

aspirations for college when I was recruited and asked by a classmate of mine alongside with a 20-year-old male if I wanted to give an old rich guy a massage but what high school girl would not want to do that that day changed my life forever and when I got into the massage room Jeffrey Epstein undressed and asked me to do things to him my eyes welled up with tears and I have never been more scared in my life when it was over he made, he paid me $200 and requested in exchange that I bring a girl each time to make another $200. I told him I did not want to do that and then he gave me an ultimatum. Either you

come here and massage me when I call you or you bring me friends of yours to massage and I will give you $200 per girl for each time she comes. I felt in hope to never hear from him again, but he called me every day. He was so wealthy and powerful and he would not let me go. I felt I had no choice. If I disobeyed him, I knew something bad would happen. So knowing I did not want to be sexually abused, I'm sorry, I started to bring him other girls from my high school, and he paid me $200, $200 for bringing them. I just hoped each time it would be the last time. One day, the stepmom of one of the girls brought him and called the police on Jeffrey Epstein. The police then called me, called me in for questioning. I had told them the truth despite the fact. that I was a teenager and a minor, and I was able to tell the police the names of all the other victims. The police treated me like a criminal. I had, by this time, had turned 18. I had been with Jeffrey since I was 16 and for two years. So they had told me I distributed to the, so they told me I was going to be arrested. My name was then distributed to the press as a co-conspirator

of my abuser, who I detested. My entire world was crashing in around me. and I started being threatened and bullied till this day still receiving death threats. My name is Chantey Davies, and I'm here before you today as a survivor, a survivor of decades of pain, the trauma and betrayal at the hands of Gieland Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, and the people who enabled them, and a government that for far too long refused to help. I was just one of the many young women trapped in his orbit. I was even taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures. In those moments, I realized how powerless I was.

If I spoke out, who would believe me? Who would protect me? Epstein himself was the most powerful leader of our country. Epstein surrounded himself, I'm sorry, with the most powerful leaders of our country and the world. He abused not only me, but countless others, and everyone seemed to look away. The truth is, Epstein had a free pass. He bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president, Donald Trump. It was his biggest brag, actually.

And while I, what I endured will haunt me forever, I live every day with PTSD. I live as a mother trying to raise my child while distrusting a world that has betrayed me. This kind of trauma never leaves you. It breaks families apart. It shapes the way we see everyone around us. But one thing is certain. Unless we learn from this history, monsters like Epstein will rise again. There are files.

government files that hold the truth about Epstein, who he knew, who owed him, who protected him, and why he was allowed to operate for so long without consequence? Why was Maxwell the only one held accountable when so many others played a role? Why does the government hide this information from the public? This secrecy is not protection, it's complicity. And as long as the truth is buried, justice remained out of reach. That is why this bill matters. Passing it will bless you, endure, ensure that the suffering of survivors is not in vain. Passing it will bring accountability, transparency, and prevention. It will help protect the next generation of predators who seek to place themselves above the law

through wealth, influence, and connections. This is not just my story. It is about every survivor who carries invisible scars. It's about the weight we live with daily. It is about the family's broken and the future stolen. So I ask you, President Trump and members of Congress, why do we continue to cover up sexual abuse and assault? Who are we covering for? Let the public know the truth.

We cannot heal without justice. We cannot protect the future if we refuse to confront the past. Those were some of the Epstein survivors who spoke out Wednesday in a news conference outside the Capitol. They also called for the passage of the Epstein. Epstein Files Transparency Act, introduced by Republican Thomas Massey and Democrat Roe Cunna, who will join us in a moment. World Without Exploitation helped organize the survivors who spoke out. It's the largest anti-trafficking coalition in the country. For more, we're joined by its national director, Lauren Hirsch, the former chief of sex trafficking unit here in New York. Lauren Hirsch, welcome to Democracy Now.

If you can talk about the significance of this moment, you had scores of women of survivors. Some of them had never spoken before surrounding the group of women who did speak. Talk about this moment. And also what it means for them to be calling for something that the Trump administration said they were protecting the victims when they were not releasing the files. calling for the release of the Epstein files. Well, good morning and thank you so much for having me. This was truly a historic moment.

We saw more than 20 Epstein survivors come together. They stood in solidarity with one another and so many survivors of other exploiters who joined them at the Hill yesterday to listen to their voices. And it was historic for so many. many reasons because this was really the first time that these women were coming together and really connecting with one another. But also, it was so powerful to listen to their stories and

also listen to their call to action and listen to the other women who surrounded them, many of whom were exploited by other people. But interestingly, we were approached by several other Epstein survivors who we didn't even know who were in the space who said, I needed to be here today. I needed to listen to my survivor sisters. And this gave me strength and empowered me for the very first time. Well, that's extraordinary, Lauren. Do you think any of those people would be willing the people who were there who were also survivors of Epstein's or his consorts, cohorts, subject to sexual abuse by them, whether they would also be willing to speak out?

Well, what we know is courage is contagious. And we saw that yesterday. I'm not sure if any of these women who came yesterday, who were Epstein survivors, who had never said that out loud, if they plan to even approach some of us. And yet, once they listen to these surveillance, speaking their truth, they felt empowered and safe enough to come forward and say, yes, me too. So I think this may be the moment where we are unlocking even more, more voices,

more survivors, and the possibility of so much more truth coming out. I wanted to turn to President Trump's response when asked about the Epstein Survivor testimony as he was sitting in the Oval Office. So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. I think we're probably having, according to what I read, even from two people in this room, we're having the most successful eight months of any president ever. And that's what I want to talk about. That's what we should be talking about.

Not the Epstein hoax. So that was President Trump, Lauren Hirsch, a hoax. I keep thinking of one of the women saying, I'm a Republican. I voted for President Trump. This doesn't have to do with party politics. Your response, Lauren. I mean, what I want to talk about is listening to the voices of survivors, right? They said loud and clear, this is not a political issue. This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue about people. This is an issue about what these women collectively and individually have experienced over decades. has been so much trauma. There has been so much terror. And they're finally at the point where

they're saying, no more, we are ready to speak our truth. And truthfully, this is not the first time that women have come forward. Many have come forward individually saying we want these people to be held to account. But this is really the first time that they're collectively coming together. And so we want to make sure that we're centering those voices, we're listening to the voices, who are saying very loud and clear, it's time to release all of the files. And Lauren, if you could comment on the significance of the survivors saying that they are, in fact, compiling a list of clients themselves, they didn't say necessarily that they would release that client list, but just the fact that they're compiling it, your response to that?

My response is there is such power in this incredible community. What you're hearing from them are decades of frustration. These are women who have been let down by system after system, and they're at the point where they're saying, we've got answers. We know the truth. And if we come together, we can provide the truth. And so that is what they intend to do. It's very powerful.

Lauren Hirsch, want to thank you so much for being with us, National Director of the largest anti-trafficking coalition in the country, world without exploitation, former sex trafficking prosecutor in New York. The organization helped to organize the survivors who spoke out Wednesday, just steps from the Capitol. This is Democracy Now. When we come back, the co-sponsor of the bill that would make the release of the Epstein-Files law, California Congressmember Rokane.

Stay with us. I was a wing In heaven blue On on the ocean Sword over Spain And I was free I needed no body It was beautiful

It was beautiful I was beautiful I was a pawn Couldn't make a move Couldn't go nowhere No future at all yet I was free I needed nobody

it was beautiful it was beautiful and if there's one thing could do for you You'd be a wing. Wing by Patty Smith, performing in 2010 during the launch of Democracy Now's news studios. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Nourmetzsche.

We're joined now by Congressmember Ro Kana. He's one of the co-sponsors, along with Republican Thomas Massey of Kentucky, of a rare bipartisan bill that would require the release of the full Epstein. files. All 212 House Democrats are expected to vote in favor of the measure that would compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, meaning just six Republicans would need to join them to pass the resolution. So far, four Republicans have signed on. They are Kentucky Congressmember Thomas Massey, Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Green, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Lauren Bobert of Colorado. Meanwhile, President Trump has turned up pressure.

on Republicans to let the story die. Congress member Roe Kana of California is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which on Tuesday released more than 33,000 pages of records related to the Justice Department's investigation and to Jeffrey Epstein. Congressmember Kana is also vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Congress member, welcome back to Democracy Now. So you heard President Trump, one, calling this a Democratic hoax, and number two, saying we've already released thousands of documents. Is it true that the number of documents that have released

is something like 3% of the Epstein files? And talk about what your bill is all about. Well, it's actually less than 1%. There are 300 gigabytes of data according to the FBI. And they've released less than 1 gigabyte. And of that 1 gigabyte, 97% is public. So 3% is the new information of one percent. Basically, they have not released anything. But this is not about politics. I wish that every American could hear the survivors yesterday. They were in tears. They were reliving, being raped, being assaulted at the age of 13, at the age of 14. They were asked to recruit their friends at junior high schools and high schools to come and meet with Jeffrey Epstein and face sexual assault. They were asked to recruit these girls to

be farmed out to other rich and powerful men. And all they're asking this country, all they're asking, progressives, independents, moderates, MAGA supporters is to release the files so they can have some closure. Some of them do not have access to these files themselves. They need these files to help them remember what happened. And I hope this country can come together. Our bill calls for the full release of the files. We have 216 signatures. We need two more people. to sign it, to force a vote and get these files released. And Representative Kana, if you could say, I mean, not only was very little new information released, as you pointed out, but also a lot of information was redacted from the documents.

Do you know what kind of information that was? Well, some of it that was redacted was to protect the victims, but some of the information that was redacted has to do with. financial information. But the bigger issue is that most of what was sent was already in the public domain. What we did not get were the financial transactions. What we did not get were the interviews with the other men who covered up Epstein and Maxwell's crimes. What we did not get is any of the investigations into other men who may have participated in the sex trafficking. So it's very clear what we need. The victim's lawyers have seen the files and they have

asked for those files to become public for the American public. So let's go to your co-sponsor of the bill. Kentucky Republican Congress member Thomas Massey, questioned by reporters after your news conference. The reporters block the view of him on camera. They're being threatened. I mean, look, I've got $2 million of ads running against me back in my district. And it's funded by three billionaires.

One of them's in Epstein's Black Book. I mean, this is what happens. Your consultants, your political consultants will abandon you. When the White House gets mad at you, the Speaker will block all of your bills. They'll shut down your fundraising. This isn't political, but it is. I mean, the opposition to this is very political. What's your president of the White House seeming to whip against this vote so actively?

I have no idea why they're doing it other than I. do believe they're trying to protect some people who are rich and powerful and connected, like the Republican donors. Are you personally worried at all by the White House's threats against you or Representative Arbitrategor? No, I'm the threat that's already happening. I mean, they're already running $2 million of ads against me. It's three billionaires, two hedge fund managers. One of them is in Epstein's blackbook.

Who are these great names? John Paulson is one of them, Paul Singer is another, and Miriam. Edelson is the other, but the one who's in EFsaint's Black Book with John Paulson. What conversation is mean? By the way, those are max donors to the Speaker of the House. They're max donors to the NRCC. They're max donors to the RNC. They're max donors to Trump's campaign.

These are seven and eight-figure donors. And those are among the people who don't want these files released. So that was Republican Congress member Massey of Kentucky, who's joining you. Congressmember Rokana in co-sponsoring this bill to release the Epstein files. And he's making very serious charges. He is saying that the people who are funding a campaign to unseat him, like billionaire John Paulson, were actually involved with Epstein. Can you tell us more? Well, the reality is he's getting enormous special interest money thrown at him from a number of places. First, of course, Donald Trump, his entire political team is putting millions of dollars to defeat him.

Second, he has told me that a number of the billionaires that are funding against him may be implicated in the Epstein files. He doesn't have direct evidence, but there is certainly circumstantial evidence around that. And third, he's got APEC that is pouring money against him because he has spoken up for human rights in Gaza. But this whole issue is about whether the rich and powerful can get away with basically impunity in this country or whether we're going to have a system of justice that holds rich and powerful people accountable. So can you tell us more how this bill operates, the idea that it stays open until you get the six Republicans and the role of the House Speaker Johnson, who was there two days ago at that roundtable, wasn't sponsored by Comer, the head of oversight, as he is doing Trump's bidding.

But both Democrats and Republicans were there. Nancy Mace, the Congress member of South Carolina, walked out crying. She said, sweating, having a complete anxiety attack. She, a rape victim herself, and she is signing on to the call for the Epstein Fowles release. But the role that Johnson is playing, can they subvert this bill? And what does it mean to say you're keeping it open for days, weeks, until you get the number of Congress members you need to have the files released? Well, we need 218 signatures.

We have 216. We have to get two more Republicans on the bill. And we're in talks with at least 10 who are strongly considering it. I'm very confident we're going to get to the 218 number. But the petition can be open as long as Congress, is in session for this Congress up until 2026. And so I am confident, though, by the end of this month, we will hit the 218 number. After we hit the 218 number, there's seven days before the House must have a vote. And so I expect a vote by early October on the full release of the

Epstein Files. And then one more question on Johnson. I mean, he shut down Congress days before it was supposed to end this summer, because this was the main issue in Congress. Then he starts again the day after Labor Day, Congress resumes. It's the first issue on the agenda. He certainly builds himself as a family values man, and yet you have one survivor after another talking about being sex, traffic, rape, sexually abused when they were 13, when they were 14, not only in some cases by Jeffrey Epstein, but by Gilane Maxwell as well, who is just sent to minimum security prison camp as she talked with Trump's former private lawyer, who's now the deputy attorney general. How does he justify not joining you in this call for the release

of the files? Well, it's unfortunate because I think he's morally conflicted. He heard the survivors, it was emotional. I mean, on the press conference, they were in tears. In the roundtable, they were in tears. They're reliving the worst trauma. And at the same time, he's getting tremendous pressure from Donald Trump. And he's basically chosen to do what Donald Trump wants, not what the base of MAGA wants, not what many of his members want. And in this case, not what is morally right. And how do we know what is morally right here? I have a simple test. Let's look. Let's listen to what the survivors want. They were asked over and over again at the press conference, do they want the full release of the files? Do they support my and Massey's bill to do that?

And they said, yes, that's what they need for justice, for closure. I wish this country would come together on that. They were asking the country to come together. They weren't going against Speaker Johnson. They weren't going against President Trump. They were pleading with them as citizens of this country who were abused, who were abused, who were. We're abandoned. Stand up for us. Stand up for basic decency. And that's the spirit within Chmassy and I are trying to convince our colleagues. Take the politics out of this. This is a moral issue. And Alex Acosta, his role, the former U.S. attorney in Florida, who became one of the cabinet members of President Trump first term, had to quit because of, they call the sweetheart deal,

the non-prosecution agreement of Epstein, where he would go to sleep in the jail for about 13 months. And then the day he could go to his office where apparently sexually abused one girl, one woman after another during that whole time. And then over the next years before he was indicted again in 2019, raped or sexually abused what's believed to be possibly up to a thousand women and girls. Alex Acosta and his testimony before your committee. Well, what we need to understand is why? Why was there such a cover-up when these girls were going to the police, when they were going to law enforcement and saying, help us? And Jeffrey Epstein, according to the survivors, was saying, well, I know presidents, I know foreign leaders, I know business leaders, nothing is going to happen. There are two things we have to get at. First, who were the other rich and powerful men who may have assaulted and raped these young girls?

Second, who are the rich and powerful men who covered up for Epstein, so he did not get prosecuted. The survivors were not even consulted in that initial sweetheart plea deal. And from Acosta, what we really want to get at is why was this system so rigged? Who were the rich and powerful influences that were corrupting the process? And finally, Congress member, Kana, before we conclude, we wanted to ask you about another issue. You've joined more than a dozen House Democrats in signing on to a letter urging the Trump administration to recognize a Palestinian state. If you could talk about that, together with your response to the Trump administration facing growing criticism for suspending visas for Palestinian passport holders, visas to come into the U.S., including officials meant to attend the U.N. General Assembly later this month. I am leading a letter calling on the United States to officially recognize the Palestinian state.

It would be a Palestinian state with democratic elections, with no Hamas, that recognizes the state of Israel. It is the true state solution that 147 other countries support, that France now supports, that UK supports, that Canada supports, that Australia supports. And all the letter does is call on the United States to join every other major democracy and the vast majority of other nations in recognizing a Palestinian state. This is important when Netanyahu, Ben-Gavir, and Smokritch are literally trying to erase the Palestinian identity. They are putting more settlements in the West Bank. They are pushing people out of Gaza.

They are killing civilians. Jay Street has endorsed our letter. We have 24 signatures. but the reality is APEC is strongly opposing it, and this is going to be a fight over the next couple weeks. I believe that if you are a progressive Democrat, you should be on this letter. This is the time for the United States to recognize a Palestinian state. And finally, do you support an arms embargo against Israel, and the number of APEC funded in the past or even present Congress members who are changing their position and saying they do support

an arms embargo, especially when they go back to their districts and their constituents are demanding this. Yes, I do. And you're right. 27 out of the senators, the majority of Democratic senators supported Senator Sanders' bill to stop military sales to Israel that are being used to kill civilians. And I'm on Delia Ramirez's bill, which does that in the House. It goes beyond Senator Sanders' his amendments and says, if we are sending any military weapons that would be used to kill civilians, we need to stop doing that. I hope that progressive Democrats listening, that progressives listening around the country will ask their members to both join my letter and join Delia Ramirez's bill.

It is the most consequential thing we can do to stop what is going on in Gaza and to recognize the Palestinian humanity. There's a famine there. They're denying visas. It is a moral stain on the United States because of our complicity. Congress member Rokana, Democrat from California, member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, thanks for joining us. When we come back, the Trump administration, as we were just saying, has barred the entire

Palestine delegation from entering the U.S., ahead of the U.N. General Assembly, where so many, Western nations will be recognizing a Palestinian state. We'll get response. I don't I I said me

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Carl Laura performing in our Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democritory Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Nirmine Sheikh. The Trump administration is facing growing criticism for suspending visas for Palestinian passport holders, including for Palestinian officials set to attend the annual UN General Assembly in New York later this month. When the U.S. denied a visa to Yasser Arafat to address the U.N. in 1988, the General Assembly was moved to Geneva, Switzerland, and the U.N. faces similar calls now. This comes as Belgium says it will recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly this month, along with France, Britain, Canada, and Australia. Belgium also plans to impose 12 sanctions on Israel, which include a ban on all products from illegal settlements in the West Bank and a review of public procurement. policies with Israeli companies. For more, we go to Niagara Falls, where we're joined by Craig

McIber, International Human Rights Lawyer, formerly served as the director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, where he worked for more than three decades as a human rights official. He resigned in October 23, over the UN's failure, he said, to adequately address large-scale atrocities in Palestine and Israel. His new piece for Amanda Weiss is headlined how the U.N. could act today to stop the genocide in Palestine. Craig, welcome back to democracy now. Let's begin with this denial of any visas for Palestinian passport holders. Talk about who the Palestine delegation is and what it means as Western state after

Western state, joining more than 100 others, will recognize a Palestinian state. state, but the Palestinian officials at the UN will not be allowed to be there. Does this threaten the whole notion of what it means to have a United Nations? Well, Amy, thanks for having me. I mean, first, I have to say that this trend of the denial of visas for Palestinians is just the latest step in what has been an expanding U.S. government trend of effectively importing the racist ideology of the Israeli regime into the laws and policies of the United States. This particular Trump and Rubio policy has been rolled out in three phases. First, barring visas for Palestinians from Gaza, including children horribly wounded by Israeli attacks who are seeking medical

treatment in the U.S. That already, an incredible act of cruelty. And then, of course, it later announced that it was barring visas, essentially for all Palestinians by denying visas to Palestinian passport holders, whether they're from Gaza or the West Bank or any country in the diaspora. And now, as you say, it is announced. that it will deny visas to the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations, including the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 Palestinian delegates who are supposed to be participating in the General Assembly in September. I have to say first, this is a direct breach of the legal obligations of the U.S.

under a binding UN headquarters agreement and under the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. So it's indicative not only of the lawlessness of the Trump administration, but it's also an indication of the unprecedented degree to which the U.S. government has handed the levers of its foreign policy over to the Israeli regime. And the result has been further isolation of the U.S. on the global stage. And it is not lost to anyone who follows the United Nations that the U.S. is barring the Palestinian delegation from attending the U.N. General Assembly precisely during a session that will have, as its centerpiece, the situation in Palestine. The genocide in Gaza, the recognition of Palestinian statehood, as you've said, by a number of new additional

delegations, a conference on the two-state solution, and very importantly, in advance of extraordinary action that's expected in the UN General Assembly, when the UN's one-year deadline for Israeli compliance with the demands of the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly expires in September, and at which point the UN General Assembly is expected to adopt further measures to hold the Israeli regime accountable. It will not work. The U.S., as you say, has tried this before in 1988 by barring Yasser Arafat. The result of that was for the GA to move to Geneva in an act of global solidarity that further isolated the U.S. at that time as well. It won't work this time as well. The GA may not move to Geneva this time because it doesn't need to.

there is modern technology that allows participation from around the globe. There is a Palestinian delegation that is resident in New York. So it may not be necessary, but it's already clear that the U.S. has failed, that it is further isolated, and that the Palestinian voice in the U.N. will not be silenced. It wasn't in 1988. It won't be in 2025, and it won't be in the future. Well, Craig, you mentioned this. Let's talk about that, the options that are available to the UN General Assembly, as we

approach the 18th of September, the deadline that you mentioned, which is the expiration at the UN for Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice on ending the occupation and implementing provisional orders. People think that with the Security Council deadlocked because of a perpetual U.S. veto, there's nothing the UN can do. But the UN General Assembly does actually have the power to intervene. If you could explain what the Uniting for Peace resolution is, when it was last used, and how effective it's been? Yes, that's right. There is this mechanism in the United Nations General Assembly known as Uniting for Peace. It has been long on the books adopted in 1950. It has been used

many times, sometimes with very practical effect, other times just symbolically. But there is an opportunity now to use it to actually change the situation on the ground in Palestine, despite the U.S. veto in the Security Council. You know, far too many delegations have gotten into the habit of hiding behind the U.S. veto by throwing up their arms and saying, well, we tried, but the U.S. vetoed it. But Uniting for Peace allows the member states of the United Nations, 193 of them in the General Assembly, to circumvent the U.S. veto and to adopt concrete action. As it did, for example, in 1956, by mandating the U.N. emergency force to deploy to the Sinai

in the middle of the Suez crisis against the wishes of two security council members, the United Kingdom in France, and against the wishes of Israel. It could do the same thing now in September by mandating a UN protection force for the people in Gaza and more broadly in Palestine that is specifically mandated to protect civilians, that is mandated to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, to preserve evidence of Israeli war crimes, and to begin the process of reconstruction most importantly to change the incentive structure for Israel and its co-conspirators in the genocide that's happening in Palestine. Other measures could be adopted in such a resolution. For example, denying the credentials of Israel in the UN General Assembly,

as was done with apartheid South Africa, establishing a criminal tribunal to hold Israeli perpetrators to account, reactivating the anti-apartheid mechanisms to deal with Israeli apartheid, a whole range of measures that could be adopted that would have actual teeth and that could not be vetoed by the United States or any other state. And there is an indication from previous votes around Palestine that they would have the two-thirds majority that is necessary for adopting these measures in the General Assembly. Israel would have no legal right to refuse or to obstruct. This is the final important point that I'll make on this one. Just last year, the International Court of Justice, the highest court in the world, found that Israel has no sovereignty in Gaza or

the West Bank. It has no legitimacy, no authority, and no right or legal standing to either consent or to refuse the intervention of a force to protect the Palestinians. The state of Palestine has requested such a force. Palestinian civil society across the board has demanded such a force, and there's an opportunity here now for that to actually be created in September. Two quick questions. You know U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres very well. You were at the UN for more than three decades. Is it just him that's stopping this from moving forward? And how would a Palestinian state, the recognition by it of more and more countries, stop the assault on Gaza? Well, it's not the Secretary General. He has no real power here, although there's

much more he could have done in the past two years of this genocide to use the visibility of his office, the influence of his office, to first of all call out the genocide by name and also to call on states to take the kind of measures that we're discussing here today. These have always been on the table. They could have happened at any point during this genocide. But the beauty of the Uniting for Peace mechanism is that the Secretary General cannot block it, the Security Council cannot block it, the United States cannot block it. It only requires a two-third majority of the member states. There is a move underway to build that majority now, and the hope is that that will take place. Now, you ask what could obstruct it, a lot

of things could obstruct it. The United States does not play fair in international diplomacy. One could expect that acting on behalf of Israel, it will use every carrot and sticks, sticks in particular threats against delegations, not just allies, but delegations with developing economies that rely upon a foreign aid, although foreign aid has been effectively slashed. We just have 30 seconds, Craig? So the threats could derail this by the United States, but hopefully the world is ready to stand up and provide protection. Under the glare of publicity, every state will have to say they either do or do not support

protection for people undergoing genocide. And how would Palestinian statehood stop genocide? It will not. It is important. but most of the world is already recognized a Palestinian state. Some of these things, these distractions of recognition, of talking about two-state solution, in the middle of a genocide that is burning across the land is not the kind of focus that we need. We need protection for the Palestinian people, and we need the beginning of their liberation,

of their freedom. We have to leave it there. Craig McIver, International Human Rights Lawyer. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Mimi Goodman with Nirmin-Sheikh.