The MeidasTouch Podcast - Rep. Garcia on Trump and GOP Cover Up of Epstein Files

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on how Republican leaders like House Oversight Chairman James Comer are freaking out as Trump’s cover up is now implicating them and Meiselas interviews Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia who serves as the Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast⁠ Legal AF: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af⁠ MissTrial: ⁠https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial⁠ The PoliticsGirl Podcast: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast⁠ Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan⁠ Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen⁠ The Weekend Show: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show⁠ Burn the Boats: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats⁠ Majority 54: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54⁠ Political Beatdown: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown⁠ On Democracy with FP Wellman: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman⁠ Uncovered: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Maga Republican leaders are panicking as the American people are absolutely livid at the Trump regime's cover-up of a child sex trafficking ring as the Trump regime violates the Epstein transparency law, not producing any of the documents essentially that were required under the Epstein transparency law. And the documents that were produced like 2% or 3% of the file highly redacted. Mager Republican James Comer wrote the following earlier. today. The Trump administration is delivering unprecedented transparency in the Epstein case and will continue releasing documents. Americans deserve answers for the government's failure

and survivors deserve justice and accountability. So as you are all involved in a child sex trafficking ring, cover up, that's how you're gaslighting the American people. Then James Comer went on state regime media, which calls itself Fox. And he said, we all know that Trump has nothing to do with it. There's no liability of Donald Trump here. Watch what he says. Play this clip. The narrative that they've tried to put out to the public along with the liberal media that Donald Trump has a huge amount of liability in this, I just don't think that's there. So the Democrats are going to be outraged. They're going to try to make people not believe what they say with their own. And then James Comer says that Congress is overwhelmingly voted for this. This is

it's a mission accomplished. Transparency has been achieved. He says, all of the files that have been released are great. This is amazing. He says, this is how stupid the MAGA Republicans treat the American people as. Here, play this clip. Documents, but this is what the American people wanted. This is what Congress overwhelmingly voted for. And I applaud the Trump administration for complying with this request and getting these documents

so that everyone can lay eyes on them and judge for themselves who the bad guys are in this whole disastrous Epstein saga. More from James Comer, who says the real focus needs to now be on former President Bill Clinton. He goes, that's the real. That's what we really need to be doing. Let's bring in Clinton and speak about him because, yeah, the American people won't be like,

yeah, are you just trying to distract from Trump? Here, play this clip. End of the day, Donald Trump has answered thousands, maybe tens of thousands of questions about Epstein. I don't know anywhere Bill Clinton has ever answered a question. So we're not trying to come in, bring the former president, embarrassing. This is a substantive investigation. No one's accusing him of wrongdoing.

But he needs to answer questions because Jeffrey Epstein spent a lot of time with Bill Clinton, more time with Bill Clinton than any of the prominent names that we've seen thus far. And yet Bill Clinton hasn't, to this day, answered any question. And then James Comer says, we all know these things take time, relax it. everybody. No biggie. Your play this clip. Well, I think that there's been so much written about Epstein over the years. I think a lot of what's released, people say, well, I've seen that or I already knew that, even though they, in fact, are new documents. There are just a lot of documents out there. This is a very high-profile case. This dates back 20-plus years, over five previous

presidential administration. So there's going to be a lot of documents, and you can't just upload a million pages of documents in one day. Remember, these victims wanted their names redacted, anything that would pertain to their privacy. They wanted it redacted. So it takes a long time, and several eyes have to gaze over each document to determine whether or not this particular line or that particular line should be redacted.

So it's going to take time, but I'm confident that Trump administration is going to do that. They're complying with my subpoena and the request of Congress in that. discharge petition to produce the documents and they're producing the documents. I love this when earlier Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, is like, this guy Comer is a joke, he's an embarrassment, he's a clown. Here play this clip. James Comer is a joke, an embarrassment, an unsurious individual, and a malignant clown.

So then take a look at what the Department of Justice posted right here. They're calling it its fact sheet for the Epstein release. And then it goes, we're here to focus on the continued unprecedented support of the Epstein Transparency Act. Then it says, why is the material being released now? It blames the judges. It says prior to Trump's enactment of the Epstein Transparency Act, various judges had declined the Trump Department of Justice's request to unseal Epstein-related material. And then they said, it's because of the judges that they did this.

Then they said, how much more material can we expect to be released? It says hundreds of thousands of pages of materials that will be released, including material that must comply with court orders. Do you see what they're doing right here again? This is what I always predicted, trying to blame the judges for this one. They're the ones in possession of it. And then it talks about just generally like we produced it. We're doing it in phases.

that was all supposed to be released last Friday. I want to bring in Democratic Congress member Robert Garcia, a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. Congress member Garcia, it's good to see it. I mean, how dystopian. They put out a fact sheet filled with lies to cover up their violation of the law. They're blaming the judges. So I guess what the American people want to know now is,

what can you do, what can Congress do, what can the survivors do? What can we do at home to say, release this? They violated the law. They're criminals. What do we do? Hey, this is clear. First, let's be very honest about what's happening. This is a White House cover-up.

They are now involved in an illegal cover-up of the Epstein files. They're defying Congress. They're defying their own base. They're lying to the American people. And I think what's really important is that the American public, I think, gets it. And I'm hearing, I'm here back home in California. I'm hearing now folks on the ground. I'm hearing Republicans saying, what the hell is going on.

So there is, I think the American public now, on the same page that Donald Trump and the DOJ are clearly hiding the Epstein files. And this release was no release. And I want to clarify, people need to know first. What they actually released, a large chunk of it was already public information. So it was already released to the public. Then the other big chunk of stuff, the new stuff that was been released, was highly redacted. So all we really got was some photos.

There was some information about one particular case, which was important. But beyond that, there's nothing there about the. men who abused and trafficked and raped women and girls. And that is going to be critical for us moving forward. And the public pressures will be important. As far as what we can do, there's a bunch happening. So we anticipated, by the way, that this was a likely posture that DOJ was going to take. So we, under no illusion that there was somehow going to release everything. So we've been working, I've been working directly with Jamie Raskin, who, by the way, is one of the best constitutional lawyers in America. And we have a plan that's a legal plan that we're moving forward

right now, Rokana and Tom Massey are also moving forward with plans within the Congress, looking at possible ways of holding Pambandi in contempt or even beyond that. And what's really critical about that piece, because we don't have the majority in Congress, and we have to be honest about that, is Tom Massey is considering leading that effort. So if we can get a Republican leading this effort to hold Pambandi actually accountable in a way that hasn't been done in the Congress, quite frankly, in decades, that's going to be. a very powerful way of holding her and the DOJ accountable. And then we have a bunch of incredibly smart lawyers and advocates across the country right now,

including those that work with the survivors, looking at what our legal options are in the courts as well. And so all hands are on the are on deck right now. All the options are on the table, and we'll see what happens in the next few days as more releases come out. Look, I think everybody expected them to do a further cover up. I think everybody expected them not to produce all of the records on Friday. I think though that some expected that their cover up would be a little bit more sophisticated or that they would do a little more than what they ended up doing right here. I mean, this is as brazen as it gets. It is insane how much they have botched this rule. I mean, besides breaking the law and completely the illegality of what

they're doing, the fact that they release things this way, I mean, look, they put out that picture that had Trump of some pictures in the desk. And then they remove it. And then, of course, oversight, Dems, and others call it out publicly saying, what the hell are you doing? In fact, my, I mean, you guys were really involved in that early on.

You guys caught that early on and put that out. That kind of reporting and the work that we put in now has forced them to repost the photo and come up with some bizarre explanation as to why they took it down. This is a cover up. They're trying to hide the truth. Where are the, where are they?

the names of the men that abused the women. That's what we want. We want to know who abused and raped children. Those folks need to be held accountable. And the DOJ has to produce that information. So we're waiting for that information so that we can actually get justice for the survivors. You know, look, they keep blaming the judges. And I know that infuriates these judges. Judge Engelmeyer in the Southern District of New York, Judge Berman in the Southern District of New York. There's the federal judge in the Southern District of Florida, part of these judges agreeing to turn over the grand jury transcripts was because the judges asked the DOJ, are you really going to be turning over the rest of the files pursuant to

the Epstein Transparency Act? And these judges said list for us all of the files you plan to release. And they forced the DOJ in court documents to do that. And now the DOJ refused to do that. I just wonder, you know, and I'm sure the lawyers are looking into this, why not go to a Judge Engelmeyer or go to a judge Berman who already has jurisdiction, if you will, I think, and you have these, you know, the DOJ basically admitting as such in these filings, get some independent discovery referee appointed by a federal judge and then get these documents, you know, rolling out there from an independent person. I just worry that if it's done through Congress with James Comer and all of that, you know, So these Republicans, unfortunately, your colleagues other than Massey and maybe two or three

others are part of the child sex trafficking ring cover up. I, you know, it's interesting, everything that you said, believe it or not, we're discussing. And so we are talking about how we directly gain information from the courts because clearly it's not working to get the information from the DOJ. And so that is something that has been discussed. I will say there are some incredible groups, Democracy Forward and others that are also taking legal action outside of Congress to help get some of these documents.

There's some Freedom Information Act cases and other things and strategy that is moving forward as well. And so we're taking an all in approach. Congress is a role, but so do these lawyers outside of the Congress. Look, we don't control the Congress. And so that we are limited in our power, even though I think we're making really good progress. We do need the public and the outside lawyers also be engaged because James Comer has the power right now to subpoena all the information we need, all the bank records we need, bring in all the folks from the FBI, the DOJ, Pam Bondi, Cash Patel, the former FBI directors, Galane Maxwell.

Imagine if we had all of these people in front of us who were asking questions. But of course, Republicans, they don't really want the truth, do they? It appears that they're not interested in the truth. And that's, I think, something that is becoming more clear every day. I just, while they're aiding and abetting a child sex trafficking ring, like before our eyes, like they've implicated themselves in the child sex trafficking. It's wild to me. Before we go, I got to just ask you quickly about your reaction to CBS censoring their report

that it was going to do on 60 minutes, where it was going to expose some of the conditions, the torture, sexual abuse, physical abuse, at sea. Apparently, Barry Weiss, the new editor-in-chief, pulled it, censored it, the CBS 60-minute staff is pissed. Is this something that you see in the future if Democrats gain control, oversight, investigating, and what's your overall reaction to it? This is insane.

And you probably remember, I went to El Salvador. I went down there to advocate for the release at the time of Abrago Garcia and Andrew Hernandez, who, of course, were at SeaCard, and was taken to Seacot while he was trying to, was trying to actually go through the asylum process. And so we met with people on the ground that knows Seacot well. We heard stories directly from folks and who had family that were taking into Seacot. We tried to get, we try to go to, and some of these prisons, of course, that were

in El Salvador. And so we're very aware of the Trump administration and the horrors that they have done. But to do this for CVS and for the new leadership there, which is clearly connected to folks in Trump's orbit, to take this off the air and make that call. And clearly right now they are trying to take control of all of media, including media that have been, have a long history of reporting balanced news. And so we've got to be very aware of this. Absolutely, these issues are on the table. There's a lot of folks in the Congress looking at this issue in particular.

And I think CBS is still a lot of explaining to do. Congressman Garcia, thanks for your time. As always, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to six million. subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack at Midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at Midasplus.com.