The MeidasTouch Podcast - Exclusive: Rep. Dan Goldman Demands DOJ Answers on Epstein Files

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Congressman Dan Goldman joins MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas for an exclusive interview following his bombshell letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, demanding answers about the delayed release of the ...full Jeffrey Epstein Files. Goldman alleges the Trump DOJ is stonewalling the public—possibly at Trump’s direction—to hide damaging information, including Trump’s own ties to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:31 ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. This is the letter that Donald Trump fears the most. A top Democratic Congress member is alleging that into detail about the very suspicious timeline
Starting point is 00:01:27 here from when the MAGA Republican influencers were invited to the White House to hold up phony binders claiming that they had the Epstein files, which it was not the Epstein files. It was like an Epstein call list that was released years ago. By the way, Trump's phone number and the phone number of people related to him were on that. When the MAGA influencers and the White House and Bondi were called out on that, they then said they were bringing in more FBI agents and DOJ lawyers to go through the files and actually produce it. They've blown deadline after deadline after deadline, and they're making up new excuses each time. There was undercover footage recently by a right-wing influencer, James O'Keefe, where they send someone into a restaurant to talk to Pam Bondi. This is like a random individual who said she was a nanny, shows up, speaks to Bondi and says,
Starting point is 00:02:24 hey, when are we going to get the Epstein files? And for the first time, Bondi's now saying, well, actually there's 10,000 videos or tens of thousands of videos of child pornography and that's why. But she's never said that to the public and she's saying it to a random nanny who's undercover and working for a right-wing influencer who wants to see the files. Just to remind you, I want to go through this letter, but let me just show you that undercover footage quickly. Do you know when the Epstein files are going to get released? We hope soon. Okay. Any dates? No. You know what it is? It's all with little kids, so they have to go through every one. So she says that to a random nanny and not in public.
Starting point is 00:03:10 It's just excuse after excuse. This is the letter right here from Democratic Congress member Dan Goldman entirety, potentially at the direction of the sitting president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Then goes through the timeline I talked about, February 27, 2025, to much fanfare. The DOJ claimed it was releasing the Epstein files after the underwhelming, what they called a phase one release. They said they were going to release these files. And then the letter goes on to say it's now 74 days past the issuance of both your 24-hour demand and 14-day deadline for a comprehensive report, yet you have provided no additional materials nor an explanation
Starting point is 00:04:05 of a delay. And this is written, again, by Congress member Dan Goldman, who's a former 10-year DOJ prosecutor. And he goes, I remind you that as attorney general, your oath of office requires you to represent the United States' interest without fear or favor, not Donald Trump's personal interest. The letter then goes on to basically say, if you're redacting information, if you're deleting information that has Donald Trump's name on it, or that has his name, image, and likeness on it, or if there are videos with him on it, you need to tell us right now what the hell is going on here. Let's bring in Democratic Congress member Dan Goldman, who sent this letter. And Congress member, I give you a lot
Starting point is 00:04:45 of credit for sending this letter. It's an important issue that people are talking about, that it seems Trump and all the MAGAs no longer want to talk about anymore. Tell us about this letter, why you think it's so important and why you're sending it. Well, as the letter says, and as you just recited, I think very well, there was a very aggressive move to release all of the Epstein files. And certainly you had right wing folks calling for it. You had Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who was all over this threat making threats, confronting the Department of Justice. And then after the first batch of the Epstein files were released and everyone realized this is just public information that's already been out there,
Starting point is 00:05:33 the Attorney General made it very clear to blame it on the FBI and to say, oh, well, that's what I got from the FBI. So it's the FBI's fault. She then demanded to have the FBI turn over all of the materials within 24 hours, and she wanted a comprehensive report within 14 days to explain what has transpired. Now, we haven't heard anything since then, other than that one undercover comment that prompted her to say something similar publicly. And so the 24 hours goes by, the 14 days goes by. Congresswoman Luna now is quiet. Everything is very, very quiet, except when there's reporting that a bunch of agents.
Starting point is 00:06:22 And it sounds like it may have been dozens of special agents with the FBI and here in the New York field office, were pulled off of their regular duties of investigating terrorism and fentanyl and corruption and securities fraud and everything that that field office does in order to review around the clock the materials for redaction. Now, again, that's two and a half months ago, and we have not heard anything. And so there was a mad dash and a big rush to release everything, and everyone was talking about it. And now there's radio silence and the begs the question, according to the attorney general's promises of transparency, but are still there. And there's no explanation. And the concern I have, of course, is we know Donald Trump had a friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. We know Jeffrey Epstein had numerous numbers for Donald Trump. And the question then is,
Starting point is 00:07:49 was this some sort of directive from Donald Trump or someone on his staff or an agent of his to the Attorney General to kill this? And that would be yet another pretty egregious act of corruption using his position as president for his own personal benefit. Now, you're a former federal prosecutor before being a member of Congress. So you've seen in many cases documents that have redactions in it, documents that need
Starting point is 00:08:21 to be filed under seal, even documents that could potentially have classified markings on it and how you go about handling it. And you've dealt with cases that have voluminous discovery of the type or even more than what we're dealing here within the Epstein file. And as you gear up for trials and you have teams of people, you go through it, you're able to look through it, you're able to look through it, and you're able to produce the thing. From a federal prosecutorial perspective, I think it's interesting also that you have the background in how you do big document reviews, and this to you strikes you as very
Starting point is 00:09:00 unusual because the initial deadlines that were set based on all of your experience should have been met fairly easily. And now you bring in this massive team and they should have been met within days. Am I wrong about that or maybe speak to that? Well, there are a couple things that are important to remember. Child victims, minor victims or victims in general need to be redacted. And if there are a lot of videos, that is a more cumbersome process than just redacting out the name and social security number of somebody. So I don't mean to minimize the A, the importance of these red, and B, the comprehensiveness of them. So it's possible it could be days or even weeks. And it sounded like from reporting and rumors that there were dozens of agents working very long hours to do this. And so if that is the case, it should not take two months to do it.
Starting point is 00:10:07 What should not be redacted is anything related to Jeffrey Epstein or his co-conspirators or any accomplices or anyone who was with him, any adults who may have wittingly or unwittingly been involved in whatever the conduct was, and that would include Donald Trump. as they have done with volume two of Jack Smith's report on the classified document information, even though that investigation is completely over and there's no reason not to turn that over. This is this is their M.O. in the Department of Justice is to act as Donald Trump's personal lawyer to protect him from politically and personally. And so I am sensitive to the need for the redaction of victims and that that may take some time, but it certainly shouldn't take this much time. And if that were the case and they intended to release it,
Starting point is 00:11:19 you would expect to have heard from the Attorney General what the new timeline is and why it is. And of course, we haven't heard anything because here are some of the facts, too. We know based on prior document productions where Donald Trump's name has already appeared. It is on a call list with Trump's number, bodyguard number and people affiliated with Donald Trump's numbers. We also know that Trump was identified as Doe 174 in one of the releases that happened a few years back. So you can pretty much go, if we were prosecutors or we were doing a document request, release all of the information relating to Doe
Starting point is 00:12:05 174, you know, and to see what's there. We know that Trump's name appears on the flight logs at least seven times because that had been released, but that was only a partial release of the flight logs. We know that Epstein had been on Trump's plane at least one time before. We know that Trump said that Epstein is a great guy who likes women on the younger side. There are videos of them hanging out together. We know Epstein's victims, like Virginia Giuffre, were actually found at Mar-a-Lago. And she died by suicide recently. But Ghislaine Maxwell found her working at Mar-a-Lago and then brought her to Epstein. So there are all of these,
Starting point is 00:12:47 like, it's not a minimal connection. There are all of these things here. And, you know, I think with this letter, you know, you're saying, look, this is not only fair game to be asking these questions about Trump's connection. This is actually very, very, very important stuff. Release it. Tell us why you think it's so important before we go. Yeah, that was a great recitation of all of what we would ordinarily call, I mean, circumstantial evidence, but some of it is direct evidence of Donald Trump's involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, including in ways that other co-conspirators were also identified by flight logs, by phone numbers, by videos, by comments, right?
Starting point is 00:13:30 This is exactly the type of thing that, you know, as a prosecutor, you would start looking for and then you would track down all of these different leads and speak to witnesses and try to get a fuller picture. And because there's so much smoke around here and around Trump and Epstein, and Trump is notorious for saying one thing and doing another. As you may remember, Ben, when he said, oh, I would love to speak with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. I'd be happy to do it. And then he blamed his lawyers. It depends on my lawyers. Well, what we saw in the Mueller report is a systematic effort to avoid testifying, to refuse testifying, to delay testifying,
Starting point is 00:14:22 completely, completely different than what he said publicly. And so he has a pattern of is revealed that he is involved in these materials in a greater degree than just his name on logs and phone numbers, that could be certainly embarrassing. But it also could give rise to questions about whether he was an accomplice or involved in Jeffrey Epstein's, you know, massive child trafficking scheme. Congressman, one more question while I got you here. Unrelated. The news broke on Sunday about Trump getting a $400 million jet from Qatar that not only
Starting point is 00:15:19 will he get it after he leaves the office, it's like bequeathed to him in perpetuity. They're saying through his library. What's your immediate reaction to that? Well, it's breathtaking corruption that just continues a week after a $2 billion deal that his crypto company that he has significant personal interest in is made with the UAE and another company that had been involved in crypto money laundering and other criminal activity. It is really unprecedented. This just continues. This corruption continues to escalate and escalate. And you know it's bad, Ben, when Laura Loomer, the sort of wacky right wing conspiracy theorist who seems to have Donald Trump's ear, even calls it out. Even Laura Loomer has more of a spine than House Republicans in calling out this blatant corruption. a second ago, the thing that jumps out to me as well is that Pam Bondi ostensibly gave her blessing to this deal, saying that it is not corruption because there's no associated
Starting point is 00:16:33 official act with what is clearly a bribe. And it's not a foreign gift to Donald Trump because it doesn't go to him personally. This is such bogus. It is just garbage. And there is an Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice that is responsible for these types of legal memos that are binding on the executive branch. Pam Bondi has completely gutted that Office of Legal Counsel. And that Office of Legal Counsel is an independent sort of lawyer for the executive branch that calls balls and strikes and says, yes, we can do this. No, we can't. They issue memos. Those memos are cited over and over and over. Decades later, they create sort of binding precedent on the executive branch. They're just ignoring all that. They're pretending
Starting point is 00:17:25 as if that is not how the Department of Justice works and that Pam Bondi gets to make decisions about what is legal and what is illegal. And by the way, the last thing on this, Ben, which I'm sure you know, is before she was Attorney General, Pam Bondi was a paid lobbyist for the Qatar government. Well, it's a lot there, a lot there to look into. And, you know, I'm sure when Democrats, you know, get that majority, it's going to be some important investigations to bring sunlight to all of this. But well, Ben, I just want to interrupt for a second there, because we can't wait until January of 2027. And this corruption is beyond anything anyone has ever seen. It is so blatant. It is so brazen. There is no dispute that it is violating the
Starting point is 00:18:15 Constitution. You can't dispute that it's violating the law, except with this completely phony rationale. And so it's not just Democrats who are responsible for upholding the Constitution. It's Republicans, too. It's congressional Republicans who also take an oath to the Constitution, not to Donald Trump. And it is long past time that they stand up for their oath to the Constitution and call out Donald Trump's blatant corruption. It's not good enough to mumble in private that, oh, this is bad. It's time they come out publicly and that they call him out and they do oversight that Congress is responsible for doing.
Starting point is 00:18:59 So let's not say Democrats will do this in 2027. That is far too long away, far too far away for us to wait. It is incumbent upon the Republicans currently in the majority to do their damn job, do their job and conduct oversight over the president of the United States. Stop sucking up to him so much. I think it's a great point because, you know, you're almost programmed at this point to be like, well, the Republicans don't give a crap about anything, but it's like, you're right. You should be calling them out right now. Yes, they are in charge and they should not be complicit in this. You're absolutely right, Congressman. Thanks for being on and thanks for that letter. It's a powerful one indeed. And keep us posted on what you hear back. Yeah, not expecting a whole
Starting point is 00:19:43 lot, but appreciate you covering it. And let's keep on it because something is really fishy here. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Love this video? Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at Midas Touch
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