The MeidasTouch Podcast - Rep. Garcia Discusses Trump's Cover-Up of Epstein Files

Episode Date: August 11, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Republican leaders making fools of themselves as Trump’s cover-up backfires, and speaks with Congressman Robert Garcia, the Democratic ranking member of the Oversight Committee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You do not get free health care. You do not get free health care. Now, I've showed you that clip before. That's Maga Republican Congress member Mike Flood of Nebraska. He was getting booed there saying, you do not get health care. A lot of his constituents, though, who were out that town hall wanted to know,

why are you covering up the Epstein files? Why is Donald Trump out there helping a convicted sex trafficker like, Geelaine Maxwell and Mike Flood gaslights his audience and says, look, we're going to have Geelaine's deposition. It's happening right away. We're doing all this stuff. We're being super transparent.

No, you're not. You're out there trying in every way to give Trump the space to cover this up and block for it. But here was Maga Republican Congress member Mike Flood when asked about Epstein. Let's play. Okay. Next question. Why are you covering up the Epstein files? Let's be very clear.

At the next pro forma session of the Congress, you'll find my name as a sponsor on a resolution from the House Rules Committee to release the Epstein file. Really? Really? We'll see about that. Here's Maga Republican Congress member James Comer. Let's play this clip. Here's what he says.

The media is trying to make it out that Republicans didn't want to get to the bottom of this. The Republicans didn't want to be transparent. I can assure you Republicans won't transparency more than Democrats, and we're going to do our job. We're going to provide oversight. And I think that we've got an administration that wants to be transparent. So I'm anxious to get started with this, and hopefully we'll be bringing people in very soon to depose them and interview them. Well, I saw some of those deposition notices that you sent James Comer. the Democrats outmaneuvered you and got the Rook subpoena for the files, but then you subpoenaed

not the victims. You didn't subpoena Alex Acosta, who was the United States attorney who engaged in the non-prosecution agreement with Epstein back in 2007, who was Donald Trump's labor secretary. You moved Ghislaine Maxwell's deposition, which was supposed to take place on August 11th. But here's what James Comer says. He goes, I'm not worried. I think that Trump is going to tell you. Tell the DOJ to just turn over those files.

Here's what Comer says. Let's play. The American people, I don't think we'll have to put up a fight with the Department of Justice because President Trump has said he's going to release the Epstein files. I take him at his word. I take him at his word. You take Donald Trump at his word. I don't take him at his word.

Let's bring in Democratic Congress member Garcia. Congress member, great to see it again. Ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. newly became that position, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. You saw all those clips. What do you make of it? Well, I'm going to ensure that James Comer keeps his work.

I mean, clearly the chairman of oversight is saying that we're going to, that subpoena is going to be follow through on. They're going to get the files. That's what we expect. The subpoena was bipartisan. We grabbed a few of those Republicans to come over, but the chairman of that subcommittee voted no,

as did other Republicans. It's a complete joke that somehow Republicans want transparency. It's Donald Trump that's involved in a massive cover-up. It's Pam Bondi, who apparently has the files on her desk, who's involved in a massive cover-up. It's J.D. Vance now backtracking what the president has said in the past and trying to maybe organize part of this massive cover-up. And so James Comer and the rest of the Republicans are trying to now divert attention to other things or other created scandals. When we know the true scandal is that Donald Trump spent his entire campaign talking about releasing the Epstein files, saying he's going

to get it done. He puts in place an FBI director that was also committed to getting those Epstein files out and now has just flipped. Why is that? Why is he not censoring the victims, but we're going to get to the bottom of it? So here we are August 2025. They put a Trump regime put a thousand, a thousand, it's like a series number, a thousand. It's like a series number. A thousand. FBI agents and DOJ lawyers to go through these files, and now we're learning to find Donald Trump's name and redact the references every time Donald Trump was mentioned, over 300 gigabytes of information that could have been released at this point months ago, but now the only thing that's been released is Geelaine Maxwell. No one said, even talk to her,

yet alone, release her, and they moved her to a minimum security facility in Canada. Brian prison in Texas right next to the Texas A&M College that has a lot of these restorative justice programs where you work with the students there because it's a minimum security female facility. A sweetheart deal happened in plain view. I know what's in those Epstein files must be bad based on the way Trump's reacting. But what about what's happened just right now in front of us all promoting the sex trafficker? That's exactly right. And a couple of things are really important here. I mean, number one, let's remember who actually cut this deal with Glenn Maxwell. Todd Glantz, the Deputy Attorney General, was Donald Trump's personal lawyer before

joining the Justice Department. Literally Donald Trump's personal lawyer before he became president. He becomes Deputy Uag, and now he is the one actually somehow working with Ms. Maxwell on what is likely some kind of reduced sentence. She's trying to get a pardon, completely, that's just complete corruption clearly, right? And then she gets this reduced sentence. She's not for a reduced facility, this new kind of place where she's going to be at that is much lighter, she can roam free. It's really not this maximum security situation where she should be in and she's not eligible for even in the rules. And so Todd Blanche moves her to this. Why? Because obviously he wants her broadly involved in some kind of cover-up that they're all right now trying to

put together. And what's really concerning about all this, and of course this isn't even my opinion, but it's really concerning about this is that you have this woman who we know is a convicted sex trafficker, a known liar. She's a monster. She's hurt young women. She's hurt girls, minors. She's been involved in some of the most sick actions a person could do to other women and girls. And yet, Todd Blanche wants her to this new facility. Donald Trump is unwilling to say one negative thing about her. And this idea that he might be considering some kind of reduced sentence or pardon, it's shameful. And it's all because we think Donald Trump wants to continue to hide the fact that he's in these files. And remember, the DOJ's already told, according to

reporting, the DOJ's already told Donald Trump that he's actually in the EPSC files. As far as what they say, what they implicate, we don't know yet, but we need to find out. So call me a cynic here, but I feel like the MAGA Republicans in Congress led by Mike Johnson and James Comer, are not going to let these files get released by the Department of Justice. And they're not going to allow Geelaine Maxwell to ever have a real deposition under real terms by the House Oversight Committee. I want to know what you're going to do to push back. But let me give you these data points. So they've, James Comer has already moved that deposition under the auspices of we're just negotiating in good faith with Geelaine Maxwell's lawyer.

So we just pushed it back until after the Supreme Court rules on her petition for a new trial. But then she had a list of other demands, habeas corpus petition, and she gets the questions in advance and all of these things. And she, as far as I know, hasn't assured everyone that she won't invoke her Fifth Amendment rights and just not talk. So that's Elaine. And then call me the cynic as well here. But I feel like Comer then sent these deposition notices to all of these other people. like Roberto Gonzalez and James Comey and Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and all these are the people, which is fine, you want to do that.

But I kind of feel like he's then going to say, well, well, that's how James Comer well, they haven't responded. They haven't done it yet. So why should the DOJ have to do it? That's a big, deep state cover up. So as long as they're not responding, the DOJs doesn't have to respond. Pox on everybody's houses. To me, that's what he's setting up for.

you think I'm cynical you think that's where he's going what are you going to do to fight that i mean i don't think it's cynical because i think republicans will do they'll do whatever they can to protect don't they don't really care about anything else so i don't think it's cynical look i think right now i'm going to take james comer at his word he has said that he is interested in getting the files the full files of course we want to protect the victims in any redactions but only the victims and he has moved forward an issue that subpoena let's see what his reaction is when we get response from the DOJ. But he can't have it both ways. He says he wants the files. He says they're going to be released. He says Donald Trump wants transparency. Well, let's see it then.

Let's see what actually happens. And so we're going to hold him to his public comments and his word, which has been pretty clear, in my opinion. The other piece I think is really, really critical in this moment, is the Republicans keep trying to somehow create some kind of opportunity for Ms. Maxwell to redeem herself. This is a vile person. We should be censoring the victims. We have members of our oversight committee that are right now working to try to create a hearing or opportunity for victims to come forward, those that may want to, so that we can actually hear from them. Those are the voices that we need to be hearing from. And look, Republicans can bring in whoever the hell they want, depose whoever they want, they have the majority to do so,

and go ahead. We have said, we don't care who's implicated. I don't care how powerful you are, or political party you're in, if you were an elected official, a powerful business leader, if you cause harm on these women and girls, we do not care. You should be exposed and we should have justice for the victims. To that point, Congressman, a lot of the victims have said they've reached out to Todd Blanche and the Justice Department who has not returned their calls. The Trump regime has never reached out to the victims to get their stories, to hear what happen with them to hear about their experiences. So you mentioned looking into a potential hearing to bring the victims in to tell and share their stories. What can you talk about that? Where is

that along in the process and what happens there? Well, we've made that request. We are obviously the oversight committee and the team, there is communication happening, of course, with a variety of folks involved in this broader case, including people that have been involved with and represent the victims. And so we're treading very carefully. We want to be very respectful that the victims are not we traumatized, that they've gone through a horrific experience, and that we protect those that want to have their privacy intact, that we respect that. And so that's really critical to our work. But we're not going to let this issue go. And if there are victims out there, and we've been communicated with some folks that want to tell their story or want to come forward,

they know that they can contact the Oversight Committee and that we will listen and do whatever we can to work with them to protect their identity they want to be public. We are there and we've said that to a lot of folks and we are definitely having some conversations. Congressman Garcia Ranking Member, the House Oversight Committee for the Democrats,

thanks for joining us as always. Thank you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. The truth is more important than ever. Check out our new truth over lies collection at store.midastouch.com, all 100% USA union made.