WATCH: Ghislaine Maxwell not cooperating because she is campaigning for Trump pardon, Democrats say

PBS NewsHour
Duration: 20:59 · 86 segments

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQjI9z1IrSU

[0:00]Good afternoon everyone Gallaine Maxwell is a monster. She facilitated, aided and abetted Epstein's crimes engaged in those crimes. She was the enforcer. who
[0:16]threatened the victims and the survivors of those crimes, and today we looked into the eyes of that monster in the deposition. What we did not get were any substantive answers to the questions
[0:32]that were asked that would advance our investigation. to help us learn who were the other men involved in these crimes. to help us learn who were the others who knew about these crimes.
[0:46]to help us learn what exactly was said between Todd Blanche and Gallaine Maxwell that led her to be transferred to a minimum security prison. What we did get
[1:00]was another episode in her long running campaign for clemency. from President Trump and President Trump could end that today. He could rule out clemency
[1:14]for Glaine Maxwell, the monster. He could rule out a pardon for Gallaine Maxwell, the monster. The question for all of us today is why hasn't he done that and why won't? he do that?
[1:29]Is there a conspiracy of I'm going to turn it over to my colleague from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Sua Superman. Thank you. Just to reiterate, Gillaine Maxwell should have no hope of ever getting
[1:43]out of prison, but today she through her lawyer explicitly stated that she wants to be out of prison through a clemency that this president would grant, and she is campaigning over and over again to get that pardon from President
[1:58]Trump, and this president has not ruled it out, and so that is why she's continuing to not cooperate with our investigation. The reality is that she is a monster. She should be behind bars She she should stay there. She should answer our questions, but she is not willing
[2:12]to do so because she is looking for that pardon and looking to absolve any people related to this administration, so we will continue to call for this president to completely rule out a pardon for Glaine
[2:25]Maxwell. I'm going to hand it over now to the representative from Texas, Miss Crockett. Thank you so much Listen, um, as an attorney, I was, I was wondering exactly where all we were going with her planning
[2:38]to invoke the Fifth Amendment. You know, Fifth Amendment is about self-incrimination. We all know that she has been finally convicted. She is exhausted all of her appeals, but they've decided to file a writ habeas corpus. In my opinion, they have filed this writ of
[2:51]habeas corpus just to use it as an excuse to not answer more questions because again, we know that she's a monster. We know that a jury was able to listen to all of the evidence and find that she should
[3:03]be found guilty and even Donald Trump's Supreme Court, which that is saying a lot. Even his Supreme Court has decided to affirm every single thing that took place on the trial level. So
[3:16]the fact that this woman is continuing to invoke the Fifth Amendment tells us exactly what my colleagues have already stated. She is a monster. She does not care. She has no remorse. She is not seeking to bring about some kind of closure for these women. She doesn't
[3:31]care. and frankly, it seems like this administration overall does not care. All they care about is protecting the powerful and protecting pedophiles. They will do anything to distract from that, including deciding to put up in the middle of Black History Month, the most
[3:46]racist thing that we've ever seen come out of a White House. But I am here to tell you that House Democrats specifically on the oversight committee and the Judiciary Committee as we do have Pam Bondi coming before us here in a minute. We will not be deterred, we will not
[4:02]be distracted. We know who it is that needs to be held accountable, and we will go in and we will make sure that we continue to dig. This will not stop us because his co-conspirator decided that she
[4:15]was going to try to play games with us this morning. I got news for you, Miss Maxwell, we're not done. We're gonna continue to go. And it is my hope that this Court resolves this sham of a um um
[4:30]I don't even know what to call this scam of a maneuver that she has filed in court. That is what we will call it. We hope that that is resolved quickly and we can bring her on back since we're not physically moving her, she's still in her cushy, uh, jail cell down in Texas.
[4:46]We will bring her back so that she can answer questions and hopefully finally start to answer questions truthfully. And now I'm going to pass it over to my good friend out in New Mexico, Ms. Dansbury. All right, well, good morning, everyone. It is Monday, February 9th.
[5:01]We are just walking out of the deposition with Gallaine Maxwell after the House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Ms. Maxwell to speak to the committee in our ongoing bipartisan investigation into the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and to hold those accountable who have
[5:15]not yet been investigated and convicted of those crimes, as was evidence this morning. Gallaine Maxwell did not provide information to the committee and instead invoked her blanket Fifth Amendment rights.
[5:30]While we are not able to speak to the specifics of what was said within the deposition until the deposition record is made public. It is very clear that she used this opportunity to not only campaign for clemency as she has been doing, but also to send a direct message
[5:46]that she is hoping that people who were sitting in the deposition will transmit to the President of the United States, which is that her silence can be bought through clemency. It is very clear that that is the message that she is trying to send directly to Donald
[6:02]Trump himself. directly She is telling Donald Trump through her deposition that she is trying to buy her clemency. Now she did state that she is taking and invoking her Fifth Amendment rights because of a pending
[6:17]habeas petition before the Southern District of New York, but let us be clear, her case appeals have already gone to the United States Supreme Court, and they have been denied. She is not being released
[6:30]from jail unless of course, Donald Trump buys what she's selling. So we want to be clear that she is exactly where she's supposed to be in terms of her conviction, and she needs to go back to the prison where she belongs. Now we have a lot of questions for Ms. Maxwell
[6:46]with regards to what actually happened in Epstein's affairs, who was directly involved in the sex trafficking, money laundering, and influence peddling scheme that she and Jeffrey Epstein were involved in. how Donald Trump was involved and whether or not he committed
[7:02]any crimes himself, as did his many associates who are named in the Department of Justice files. Let us be clear that Donald Trump is not only named thousands of times in the latest release from the Department of Justice. He has named over 38,000 times in the files
[7:18]that were released two weeks ago alone, and we know that that only represents half of the files that the Department of Justice has in its possession, including files that were used for direct investigations
[7:31]of perpetrators, people who committed crimes, people who were co-conspirators in those crimes and individuals who knew of those crimes. We know that there are multiple administration officials, including Howard
[7:44]Lutnick Elon Musk, who served as the appointee for the Doge efforts in the White House. We know that the Secretary of the Navy, we know that that Steve Bannon, we know that there are more than 3 dozen
[7:59]associates, family members, and individuals directly associated with Donald Trump named in those files. Now there are now at least 9 or 10 other countries across the world that have opened investigations
[8:13]or forced their leaders to step down because of their mere association with Jeffrey Epstein and the United States government is engaged in an active cover up of the largest sex trafficking scandal and
[8:28]influence peddling scandal in the history of the United States and Donald Trump is right at the center of it, and the person who is living to provide the evidence, who knows what is going on, is trying
[8:41]to invoke the fifth to buy her clemency. So let's be clear on what we saw here today. This was an effort to essentially try to secure her pardon by keeping her mouth shut. and we will not allow this
[8:54]silence to stand. It was announced late last week that the Department of Justice would allow members of Congress to view the unredacted files of the files that have been released, and many of us will head
[9:07]to the Department of Justice today to look at the memos and internal documents of Department of Justice that were removed from the website to understand why names of survivors were unmasked and why and who
[9:21]the Department of Justice is shielding as they have redacted files that include perpetrators and co-conspirators, and with that we will stand for questions. Can you talk about if there was a conversation around Howard Lutnick, for example. I know Comer said he didn't want
[9:36]to disrupt the other five depositions that they have scheduled, but I don't know how even just trying to speak to Comer would disrupt the other five. So I wonder if you could help us understand with regards to this deposition or with regards to any future deposition
[9:49]with Howard Lutnick or some of the others that you described. The committee is keeping an ongoing list of individuals we would like to subpoena. It's really important for folks to understand that in order for us to subpoena anybody, the majority has to consent, and
[10:05]so while we appreciate that there is bipartisan cooperation in this case. We have a whole list of individuals we would like to subpoena before the committee that they have not consented to. Of course we would like to speak to Secretary Lutnick, and I personally believe
[10:21]that Mr. Lutnick needs to step down immediately. What is your message to what is your message to survivors amid this sort of wall of silence that we've seen today from Gillaine Maxwell. Our message to survivors
[10:34]is that we are here to bear witness, to fight for justice, and to fight for convictions. Yeah, I mean, we're standing with them. We have been in um communication with those survivors that are really um
[10:48]there are a certain number of survivors that are really more involved than others, and they are standing for their fellow other survivors. They're out front. We are standing with them and we are telling them that we're not going to back down, which is why we're very clear
[11:01]about the fact that yes, this took place today and basically Gullaine was like, I'm not gonna participate, but we're not gonna stop, you know, there are those that thought we would stop when we were able to get the discharge petition done. There were those that thought
[11:14]we were going to stop when it didn't seem like we had the votes once we finally got that done. I mean, the House Speaker shut the house down so that we would not go there, right? And now that they have violated the law because this is actually in law. We are not stopping.
[11:30]So I want people to understand that House Democrats, we are gonna be on their asses. Like that's just the reality. And what is your message to President Trump in that same thing. We're gonna be on his ass. I mean, you know, it is, it is so
[11:47]I don't really know where we are in this country. Why are we even having this conversation. The United States is falling apart right now. Partially because he's going out and randomly allowing for the killings of people in the middle of the street, but the other part
[12:00]of it is that we have a 34 count convicted felon, and there are people that are still shielding him from any type of accountability as it relates to a child sex trafficking ring. It is time to take the blinders
[12:13]off. Like I don't understand why we are pretending like any of this is normal. And I think that that is the level of frustration that so many people are bringing, whether you're a Democrat, Republican, or Independent, specifically to the Epstein file situation because
[12:27]right now we know that they were willing to try to throw the Clintons in prison for not showing up, yet they won't even allow us to bring other people into committee who we know are mentioned in these files
[12:41]and mentioned so much more. When we went through the hearing as relates to the Clintons, I said, listen, we know that Donald Trump's name is mentioned Moore. Bring him in too. Like, I'm not saying that this should be partisan. This should be whoever. I want to be clear about
[12:55]that. This, for the Democrats, this isn't partisanship. This is about right versus wrong. I just want to say with respect to the survivors I spoke with a survivor this morning. Many of them are on Capitol
[13:09]Hill today at the Judiciary Committee hearing and what I said to her is what we need. is for members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans to show just a tiny bit
[13:23]of the courage that the survivors have shown. If we can find it, if our Republican colleagues can find just a little bit of courage when the survivors have demonstrated incredible courage throughout this ordeal. We can make progress and get the transparency they're
[13:38]asking can I just ask, the Epstein files could possibly bring down a British Prime Minister. Why do you think that is happening there, but it's hardly politically
[13:52]hurting an American president. Well, I think it's important to note that right now the Congress is controlled by Donald Trump's allies, and our Speaker of this House preferred to keep the House of Representatives
[14:06]shut for more than 40 days so that we could not advance the Epstein files Transparency Act. He is being actively shielded by members of his own party, whereas in other countries, including the UK, members
[14:19]of Parliament are demanding accountability, and that is why our plea is to the American people. We need to hold these people accountable, and my message to Donald Trump is we're coming for you. We are not moving on. I'd like to ask you just a couple of things. First of
[14:37]all, about the demeanor of Gillenn Maxwell. What did she say? How did she look? Can I also ask, we've heard from your committee before that you want to hear from the former Prince Andrew and from Peter Mandelson. Do you think there are questions for the broader British
[14:51]royal family, King Charles. Ghislaine Maxwell was once again unrepentant. She's very robotic, and you know, she was not at all remorseful about pleading the fifth today, I think again this is all strategy for
[15:05]her to try to get a pardon from President Trump, and she has never shown any remorse for the victims in this entire case, so as it relates to that part, I think that we want to speak to anyone who has information. Now, again, being an attorney has been quite frustrating that the
[15:21]Department of Justice has continued to hold files against the law and against the subpoenas, right? But what you would normally do is you would start with the evidence. So it's a matter of us taking a look at the evidence and trying to see who it is that is involved
[15:35]in this very tangled web. I think that we should speak to anybody, even if that means that we go that high. Now, do I have any evidence to suggest that there's anything there at this moment, not necessarily, but I do want to see everything and I will be clear about this. When
[15:50]we had our large round table where we talked to so many survivors, they did say that this is impacted high levels of government across the world, not just in England. They talked about multiple other countries. And so for us, we want
[16:05]to follow this because for all I know, yeah, um, we know that Epstein is gone, but does it mean that the ring is gone because of the sophistication in the way that this was set up, we need to make sure that we're
[16:17]not only fortifying our democracy here. We need to make sure that there's not some cabal that is operating currently and still engaging in this type of behavior, and I think that is why it's so important
[16:30]that these survivors have come forward in this moment because we don't know that it's not continuing to go on right now. We just know that Epstein is gone. We know that Maxwell is gone, but it wasn't just the two of them, and I think that that is why it is important
[16:45]that we review those files. And anyone that we feel like is involved based on the files, based on the evidence, we feel like they need to come forward and speak to us. So we're gonna take two more questions. One, so Congressman Biggs came out and said that Maxwell's lawyer
[17:00]said that she had no indication that either President Trump or President Clinton were implicated in any wrongdoing. Wondering if you'd confirm that you heard that, but also how you evaluate that statement given some of the comments you're making about her clemency plea. We'll take your question and then we'll answer and wrap up. I just wanted
[17:14]to ask what you all make of um Congressman Homer's back and forth with the Clintons on closed door tape deposition versus public testimony. And if you're worried that this might derail what's going on right now and lead Republicans back to pursuing contempt.
[17:27]on the Clintons and Trump. She did say that you know she is happy to talk on the record to confirm that there was no wrongdoing on their part. I think that is part of her campaign again to get a pardon
[17:40]and get support from both parties. That's why she's mentioning Clinton too as well, but they were very explicit on saying she'd love to talk on the record to absolve the Clintons and Trump. I'd say about the back and forth part of things, um, you know,
[17:54]Secretary Clinton made it clear, if you want to do this, let's do this. Out front and in, in the open, right? Um, and it seems like they don't want that to happen because what they want to do is they want to go behind closed doors and then come out with whatever spin
[18:08]that they want to put on it and have it be a he said she said. I also do believe that this is yet another way of them trying to distract and hopefully trying to get Democrats to say, well, never mind, we don't want to talk about it if you're going to go after the Clintons
[18:21]again for us, this is not about partisanship. This is right versus wrong. And frankly, we've not seen anything that would have made me believe that Secretary Clinton of all people should be coming in front of them in the first place. Um, so this is about getting
[18:34]to the truth for us, and we understand that if there are names mentioned that we should follow that evidence, but we do know that Comer is playing games, because if he really wanted to get to the bottom, you would start with the person that actually has the information,
[18:48]which would be Pam Bon di Pam Bondi is the first person that should have came in front of our committee to answer questions about why it is that she violated our subpoena. Instead, he's ignoring her violation, and then once we ended up with the Epstein Transparency
[19:02]Act, she has violated the law as it relates to that, and he still doesn't have anything to say. So I want people to be very clear, clear-eyed. They are playing games right now and again, this is all about shielding and distracting from the President of the United
[19:17]States who is absolutely mentioned in those files, and frankly we know that he had already been sued prior to him ever entering office, where there were allegations that he sexually molested a child. This
[19:30]is on the record. Now granted, the case didn't go through and whatever, but we know that the allegations were there way before he even took office the first time. And I'll, I'll just wrap this one very briefly
[19:43]and just say this. The Clintons are cooperating. There are no grounds whatsoever at this point for any kind of contempt motion. The deposition is scheduled as far as anyone knows it will occur. I just want to say this the fact that Andy Biggs walked out of that
[19:58]room and delivered the message that Glaine Maxwell wanted. was exactly what she wanted to send to Donald Trump. Clearly, he was acting as her messenger because we were told explicitly to not repeat things
[20:12]that were said in that room. It's very clear she's campaigning for clemency, and it's very clear that Mr. Biggs delivered the message to Donald Trump. Thank you. I forever,