[0:00]Here's Joe Frier. >> Good morning. We [music] are coming on the air on a busy Friday morning with breaking news at the Justice Department. That's where Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch is holding a news conference
[0:10]and NBC News has learned from two senior administration officials the focus is on the Epstein files. Let's listen in. >> Responsive materials under the act. We are also releasing today a letter. We
[0:22]are transmitting to Congress and various internal protocols associated with our review. I want to take a moment to thank the professionals at the Department of
[0:31]Justice who met twice daily, sometimes more, for the last 75 days to get to where we are today. the leadership teams from the office of
[0:43]the attorney general, from the deputy attorney general's office, the associate attorney general's office, the criminal division, the national security division, the FBI, the Southern District of Florida, the
[0:54]Southern District of New York, and the Northern District of New York all gave up many hours every single day on top of their other, of course, full-time obligations to fulfill the President
[1:05]Trump's promise of transparency to the American people. I also want to thank the more than 500 lawyers and professionals across all
[1:16]those divisions that I just mentioned and others who worked uh long days, nights, weekends, Christmas, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, nights, weekends, and holidays to complete this
[1:28]production. These highly trained reviewers spend their careers putting bad guys in jail and effectuating the mission of the department.
[1:39]And to a person, they work tirelessly to protect victims and comply with the act since its passage. So, thank you to all of them.
[1:49]Today, we are producing more than 3 million pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
[1:59]In total, that means that the department produced approximately three and a half million pages in compliance with the act. Just a quick note about the the videos
[2:10]and images. The 2,000 videos and 180,000 images are not all videos and images taken by uh Mr. Epstein or someone
[2:20]around him. They include large quantities of commercial pornography and images that were seized from Epstein's devices but which he did not take or
[2:30]that someone around him did not take. Some of the videos though and some of the images do appear to be taken by Mr.
[2:37]Epstein or by others around him. Now I want to talk for a few minutes about the department's document
[2:46]identification and review protocols. It consisted of multiple layers of review and quality control designed to ensure
[2:56]compliance under the act and protect uh victims. On top of the review protocols that the department had in place, the United States Attorney's Office for the
[3:06]Southern District of New York employed an additional review protocol to ensure compliance with a court order requiring United States Attorney Jay Clayton to
[3:16]certify that with respect to certain materials, a large quantity of the materials, a rigorous process was undertaken to protect victims against any clearly
[3:26]unwarranted invasion of their personal privacy. >> [snorts] >> The department's collection effort resulted in more than six million pages being identified as potentially
[3:36]responsive, including department and FBI emails, interview summaries, images, videos, and various other materials collected and generated during the various investigations and prosecutions
[3:47]that the act covered. We aired on the side of overcolcting of materials from various sources to best meure ensure maximum transparency and
[3:59]compliance which necessarily means that the number of responsive pages is significantly smaller than the total number of pages initially collected. That's why I mentioned a moment ago we're releasing more than 3 million
[4:10]pages today and not the the 6 million pages that that we that we collected. I want to address what we didn't produce.
[4:20]The c the categories of documents withheld include those permitted under the act to be withheld. Files that contain personal personally identify information of victims or victim's
[4:31]personal and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. [snorts] Any depiction of CESAM or child
[4:43]pornography was obviously excluded. anything that would jeopardize an active federal investigation. And finally, anything that depicts or contain images of death, physical abuse,
[4:54]or injury, also not produced. Although the Although the act allows for withholding for items necessary to keep secret in the interest of national
[5:03]security or foreign policy, no files are being withheld or redacted on that basis. Further, as we previously stated in our
[5:13]December 19th letter of last year, the department withheld or redacted files contain covered by various privileges as we always do, including deliberative process privilege, work product
[5:24]privilege, and attorney client privilege. As you all know, under the act, the department must subsequently submit to the House and Senate committees on the judiciary a report listing all
[5:34]categories of records released and withheld, a summary of redactions made, including leg the legal basis for such redactions, and a list of all government officials and politically exposed
[5:45]persons named or referenced in the act. We will do so in in due course as required under the act. [snorts] I want to talk for just a moment about the redactions that will be obvious to
[5:57]anyone who reviews the materials that we just produced today. In addition to the documentary redactions, which includes personal identifying information, victim
[6:08]information, and other privileges, there is extensive redactions to images and videos. To protect victims,
[6:18]we redacted every woman depicted in any image or video with the exception of of Ms. Maxwell. We did not redact images of any men
[6:29]unless it was impossible to redact the woman without also redacting the man. >> [snorts] >> To this end though, um, and to ensure transparency, if any member of Congress
[6:40]wishes to review any portions of the responsive production in any unredacted form, they're welcome to make arrangements with the department to do
[6:48]so, and we're we're happy to do that. I want to talk for a minute about something that is important. Every single day of the year, the
[6:58]Department of Justice investigates and prosecutes those who abuse and traffic young women and children. Just last year, the FBI loc located over
[7:09]2,700 victims of child exploitation. The Department of Justice found and terminated 3.8 million dark web
[7:19]pedophile accounts. In August, we charged 11 defendants for extensive sex trafficking in Los Angeles of illegal immigrants and underage women.
[7:30]Last month, we charged five men who were engaged in a sadistic extort extortion network of deranged young men abusing women. Over the past um several months last
[7:41]summer and into the fall, we executed Operation Restore Justice, rescuing 205 child victims and arresting 293 offenders. I point this out because I
[7:52]take umbrage at the suggestion which is totally false that the attorney general or this department does not take child exploitation or sex trafficking
[8:02]seriously or that we somehow do not want to protect victims. We do. There are some select members of Congress and some in the public eye,
[8:13]including those most critical of our efforts at full transparency under the act, who remain silent as to all the work that we have done and continue to
[8:22]do every day in this space [snorts] while quickly pointing a finger at the attorney general or this department because we were careful in our review of
[8:33]millions of pages of documents over the past two months. The attorney general, the director of the FBI, and our partners throughout this administration work hard every
[8:44]single day to protect the most vulnerable among us. With [snorts] the protection of this magnitude, mistakes are inevitable. We of course want to immediately correct
[8:54]any redaction errors that our team may have made. And so, the department has established an email in inbox for victims to reach us directly to correct redactions and any concerns when
[9:05]appropriate. that's that's been in existence uh since December. Um and and we've been doing that since then. Finally, a very small portion of the documents collected pursuant to the act
[9:17]include materials that a law firm produced to the SDNY in 2019 pursuant to a grand jury subpoena. This was during the criminal investigation of Ms. Maxwell.
[9:28]We determined it would be prudent to seek an order from the court in the Southern Discord of New York seeking production of these materials subject to the protective order in that civil lawsuit. To that end, the department has
[9:40]filed that motion with the appropriate judge in the SDNY. And if that motion is granted, we'll release those materials with appropriate redactions um immediately.
[9:51]Today's release marks the end of a a very comprehensive document document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people and compliance with the act. The
[10:02]department has engaged in an unprecedented and extensive effort to do so. After submitting the final report to Congress as required under the act and publishing the written justifications
[10:14]for redactions in the Federal Register, the department's uh obligations under the under the act will be will be completed. I'm I'm happy to take any
[10:23]questions anybody has about about that. >> Todd, I'd like to ask you about this and I have a Minnesota question for you. On the Epstein release today, it was
[10:35]recently made public that Gain Maxwell claims more than two dozen men signed secret agreements with the federal government not to be prosecuted. What is
[10:45]your reaction to that and what does that mean for her case? >> I read an article that described I I wasn't aware that it was actual men that she's claiming. I thought it was
[10:56]accompllices, which I I'm not sure if if that's a reference to some of the financial institutions or or other individuals that >> 25.
[11:06]>> So, yes, I don't I don't I don't have a reaction to to her filing. I can tell you that we reviewed, as I just described, every single piece of paper
[11:16]that we have associated with um with these investigations, Mr. Epstein and and Ms. Maxwell and um and to the extent that such arrangements exist, I'm not
[11:28]aware of them. >> And on to Minnesota, if I may ask you real quick, that's in the topic in the headlines right now. There's new video of a man believed to be Alex Prey who's spitting who's kicking out a tail light
[11:40]of a uh law enforcement vehicle. [clears throat] Does that change the perception of a potential DOJ investigation? Is there going to be a civil rights investigation into his
[11:50]death? Where does that land now that that video is out? Then I have a quick followup on that. >> I don't So, look, I don't think a a single video should change any perception the Department of Justice may
[12:01]or may not have about that tragic occurrence last Saturday. We've said repeatedly over the past week that of course this is something that we're
[12:11]investigating and and we are. Um that's what we would we would always do in circumstances like this. And so there's an investigation that's ongoing which I'm not going to talk about. But just
[12:23]look the the the problem is an initial reaction to a particular video one or another. You're talking about one that happened apparently some days ahead of
[12:33]of last Saturday. Um the it's an investigation. So an investigation necessarily means um means just that. It means talking to witnesses. It means um looking at documentary evidence, sending
[12:45]subpoenas if you have to. and and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division has um the best experts in the world at this that they've been doing it for decades and and so I expect that that
[12:56]investigation will will proceed with that with those parameters in mind. >> Are you looking at a nexus of left-wing groups? This DOJ said that that's something that you guys were concerned
[13:07]about. Are you following money? Are you looking at a potential that all of this may be related somewhere? >> I mean, yes. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Attorney General.
[13:18]You said in your remarks that you've withheld some documents because of ongoing investigations. I've done this long enough to know you can't comment on ongoing investigations, but can you say
[13:29]a little bit more because, as you know, the department has been criticized for not bringing charges against more people. Are there still open investigations related to Jeffrey
[13:39]Epstein? So, what I was laying out in my comments is the the statutory um what the statute talks about about what we can withhold and the reasons we can
[13:49]withhold it. I wasn't pointing to any particular I wasn't trying to be koi or otherwise suggest there's some investigation. Um as you all know um Jay
[14:01]Clayton in in New York is is is in charge of any potential investigations and and I'm not going to comment beyond that on that. >> You're referring to Clayton. Excuse me. >> You were referring to Clayton's investigation. >> I wasn't referring to anything. I was
[14:12]just saying that Congress in their wisdom um allowed us to withhold documents if there were ongoing criminal investigations. Um that's one of the four reasons I wanted to make clear with
[14:23]respect to any national security information that we were not withholding. Um there's not some trunch of super secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we're that we're withholding. We're actually not
[14:34]withholding anything based based upon um NDI. Deputy Attorney General Branch, thank you for your time. Two questions for you. Number one, pushing politics aside and everyone else aside, some of
[14:46]the victims of Epstein have expressed frustration with the entire process. I want to give you the opportunity to speak directly to them. >> Well, I don't I don't know what you're what you're speaking to. I mean, um, if
[14:58]there's frustration with quote the entire process, uh, same here. I mean, you have a situation where uh for many many years, nobody even breathed the word about Jeffrey Epstein and then all
[15:09]of a sudden it was all anybody would talk about um going into the uh last spring and summer culminating in the passage of the Transparency Act and President Trump has said for years, what I think everybody will find to be
[15:21]exactly true. Um which is detailing his relationship and lack thereof with Mr. Epstein and and what he thought about Mr. Epstein and and notwithstanding what
[15:31]the department has been saying for a very long time, um we're still where we are today. Listen, victims of of Mr. Epstein um have gone through um
[15:41]unspeakable pain and and there's nobody that that that should say anything differently. And and I I to the extent that there's frustration, um I I understand where that comes from just
[15:53]from what we know about Mr. Epstein. Um, I hope that the work that that the men and women within this department have done over the past two months
[16:03]um hopefully is able to bring closure. Um, I think that um what we what we told our reviewers is that that was the goal.
[16:13]You know, there was there's this mantra out there that oh, you know, the Department of Justice is supposed to protect Donald J. Trump and that's what we were telling. That's not true. That was never the case. We are always
[16:24]concerned about the victims. When we said that we were not legally allowed to release documents, that's a fact. Um that was true. It remains true today. And then with the acts passage, we are
[16:35]able now and directed to release documents, which is what we are doing. Um but but so hopefully hopefully some of those frustrations are now
[16:45]eased. Listen, we any victim that wants to speak with the department has a has a has done so. Hopefully. if not they should. Um the the prosecutors from this
[16:56]case in New York have have given hundreds if not thousands of hours to working with victims and and that's what we do every day and that's what we did in this case as well. So,
[17:06]>> and very quickly, can you assure can you assure [clears throat] the American public that President Trump, like every other prominent person whose name came up in relation to the Epstein files that
[17:16]all documents, photos, and anything relevant to him connected to the case are being released? >> I I mean, yes, I can assure that we complied with the statute. We complied
[17:27]with the act. And there is no um we did not protect President Trump. We didn't protect or not protect anybody. I mean, I think that that we that there's a a
[17:38]hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents. Um, and and there's it's not there's nothing I can do about that. But President Trump, of
[17:49]all the people in Washington DC and around this country that have said for years, the same consistent message about Jeffrey Epstein is President Trump. Um,
[17:59]and so there's not been a change of course or anything. And certainly his direction to the American people and the Department of Just sorry, his direction to the Department of Justice was to be as transparent, release the files, be as
[18:11]transparent as we can, and that's exactly what we did. >> I want to clarify your remarks on the Alex Prey killing. Are you saying that the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into his
[18:22]death? >> Yes. Yeah. I mean, look, and and I know there's a lot of there's been a lot of discussion among the media around that, but but just think about what that means. All that that means is that DHS,
[18:33]as they've as the secretary has said, is is conducting an investigation, as they should and as they do every time there's there's a tragic event like this, and the FBI in their role, which is a
[18:45]separate role from DHS, is is also take looking into it and conducting investigation. And and that's not um that shouldn't be treated as as as making news. It's just we we've said
[18:57]that for a week and and it remains as true today as it was last Sunday when I said it. >> Two questions for you. One on topic and one separate. >> Yeah. Two questions for you. One on
[19:06]topic and one separate. On topic, do you uh have any information that you could just share because 3 million documents is a lot. For people who are watching this at home, are there any new names or new people, public people uh in
[19:18]positions of power who you're found in [clears throat] these filings? I >> I don't have anything to share about what's new or not new and there's No, I don't have anything to share about that. >> And to follow up on that, uh do you have
[19:29]a reaction to the arrest of Don Lemon overnight? >> Do you have a reaction to what? >> To Don Lemon's arrest overnight. >> Do I have a reaction to it? >> I don't know what that means. What are you looking for me to do? Jump up and
[19:40]down? No, I don't have a reaction to it. I don't know that his that the charges are unsealed yet. Um so I No, I can't I'm not going to comment on that. >> Uh thank you. Um um you said this is the
[19:51]end of the Epstein uh of your review of the Epstein files. So just to clarify, are is the public going to learn the identities of the men who abused the
[20:01]girls with the information that you're releasing? And if not, why not? And then I have a quick followup. I mean, you just baked in an assumption into your question that I have never said and I
[20:12]don't know to be true. Is the public going to learn about men that abuse these girls? Like, what does that mean? I mean, I don't understand what that means.
[20:21]>> Well, I mean, there the men who abused the young women through Epstein's um >> we we said in July um and it remains as
[20:32]true today as it was in July. um if we had information, we meaning the Department of Justice about men who abused women, we would um we would we would prosecute them, right? We talked
[20:44]about the work that we're doing. That's why I said that there's that I said this earlier. There's this built-in assumption that somehow there's this hidden trunch of information of men that we know about that we're covering up or
[20:56]that we're not we're choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case. I don't know whether there are men out there that abuse these women. Um, if if we learn about information and evidence that that allows us to prosecute them,
[21:07]you better believe we will. But but I don't think that that that the public or you all are going to uncover um uh men within the Epstein files that abuse
[21:18]women, unfortunately. >> Okay. Then just a followup on the investigation into um uh federal federal chairman Jerome Pow. Is the Justice Department What's the status of that
[21:29]investigation now? Now that President Trump has nominated a new Fed chair, are you is is the Justice Department looking to bring a close to the investigation into Chairman Pals as soon as possible?
[21:41]>> I don't have a comment on that. Um on on the subpoenas that were issued, I don't think the timing of President Trump's decision to nominate somebody is is is
[21:51]is a controlling factor in any investigation. >> Hi, I just wanted to um follow up on Alana's question. Um, so you're saying that the shooting investigation of u
[22:01]Alex Prey is now a civil rights investigation. You're saying you're implying that that's always been the case. Um, can you also say if has that what about
[22:12]the shooting of Renee Good? I mean, is she is that why or why or why not is that a civil rights investigation? >> I didn't say it was always the case. I said it's the same thing that we said as of last Sunday as with respect to last
[22:22]weekend. Um there are thousands unfortunately of law enforcement events every year where somebody is shot. Um
[22:32]the civil rights division of the department of justice does not investigate every one of those shootings. There has to be circumstances or facts or maybe unknown facts but
[22:43]certainly circumstances that warrant an investigation. So when we talked about when I talked about last weekend and when others have talked about this week
[22:54]the fact that of President Trump has said repeatedly of course this is something we're going to investigate. That's what I meant about what we're doing. It doesn't mean that every time that there's a federal officer related
[23:05]shooting um that that that's something civil rights takes up. It depends on the circumstances. >> Follow up on that. Um, can you just I know you can't be specific about details of the investigation, but can you kind of just characterize the scope of the
[23:17]PRY investigation, what kinds of things that they'll be looking for >> and who will be involved? >> Well, I mean, it's an investigation. So, what do we think we're looking at? We're looking at everything that that would
[23:29]would get shed light on what happened that day and in the days and weeks leading up to what happened. And that's like any investigation that that the Department of Justice and the FBI does
[23:40]every day. It means we're um looking. >> You were listening to DEP Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch discussing a major release of Epstein files today. We should note those files have been
[23:51]released and posted online. Our team is looking through them now. Blanch is the DOJ releasing 3 million pages, 2,000 videos,
[24:01]180,000 images. Let's bring in Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker. Kristen, just help us understand the significance of this moment today and what is standing out to you?
[24:12]>> Well, Joe, a couple of things standing out to me. You have the deputy attorney general effectively confirming that the Justice Department has now released the
[24:22]remainder of the documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein files. Remember, the deadline was more than a month ago. You heard the deputy attorney general defend
[24:33]the process, say this was an all handson deck effort by DOJ and effectively saying that they were pouring through these documents extremely carefully to
[24:44]make sure that they were protecting the identities of any potential victims, saying that they did redact the images of the women in the files, but not the men unless they couldn't do so without
[24:56]protecting the women's images. So, I thought that that was very notable. Another very notable exchange. You heard him pressed repeatedly on whether the Justice Department took pains to try to
[25:07]protect President Trump. He pushed back against that narrative saying that look, they had released everything in these files. There were some headlines as it
[25:17]relates to the death of Alex Prey. Of course, that observer in Minneapolis who was shot and killed last weekend saying that an FBI civil rights investigation
[25:27]has now been opened into that death. So, a significant headline on that. It is certainly notable though that the Epstein files have been released amidst all of the unrest in Minneapolis, Joe.
[25:39]>> Yeah, and a lot of headlines there. We know journalist Don Lemon, an independent journalist, former CNN anchor, has been arrested in association with a protest that took place recently at a Minnesota church. And we haven't
[25:50]even heard yet if he's been asked about Luigi Manion. Of course, the death penalty now off the table in that case after a judge dismissed two federal charges. A lot to cover. That's going to
[26:01]conclude this NBC News special report, but we are going to continue our coverage on our streaming channel NBC News. Now, we'll also have more on your local station online at NBCNews.com
[26:11]and a full wrap-up tonight on NBC Nightly News. I'm Joe Frier. Good day. [music] We continue our coverage here on NBC
[26:26]News. Now, let's bring in NBC News justice reporter Ryan Riley. I mean, Ryan, this is a massive project with hundreds of attorneys involved. Deputy
[26:37]What responsibility does the Justice Department have for the criticism that has come over the handling of the Epstein files? I'm >> I'm not commenting on criticism. People can criticize all they want. I my my
[26:49]point was just to make plain that when it comes to what we've been doing the past 2 months and why um we weren't able to complete the review of six over six
[26:59]million pages, okay, so you're talking about two Eiffel Towers, okay, of pages in 30 days in a way that made sure we complied with the act, right? So the the
[27:09]act had multiple requirements. Get it done in 30 days and you better not release any victim information. All right. So there's a lot of statutory
[27:20]construction. There's a lot of case law that exists that says that if if those two are in conflict, we obviously many millions of documents, Joe. So I think it's just going to take us a while to
[27:30]figure out what exactly is revoly here. Um and he was given sort of an opportunity to maybe identify the things that uh might have been uh that stood out to him. Um he he did not he sort of
[27:41]declined uh to do so. Um, and I think that that sort of speaks to them trying to obey the law, you know, and and follow this rather than necessarily uh just sort of throw some names out there
[27:52]um that might be satisfying um uh to various political um political interests here. So, it's a certainly a unique u moment here and I think there's a lot of we're certainly, you know, going to be diving into these these files um
[28:04]throughout the day and probably beyond that. Yeah, certainly journalists were trying to pro him to see if he would lead them toward any major names or major headlines that will come out of this, but it's going to take journalists digging through these files, doing a lot
[28:14]of reporting and researching here. Ryan, clearly this was supposed to take 30 days according to the Transparency Act. Uh after those 30 days, just a small number, a mere sliver of those files were released compared with what we're
[28:26]seeing now. Help us understand at least how the attorney general, the deputy attorney general explained that this redaction process is working, what is going to be included and what is not included. Yeah, I mean from talking to folks
[28:38]within uh DOJ, I mean this has been a a major focus. A lot of people who normally work on other things within uh the Justice Department have been sort of detailed and assigned to this and working on this on a on a regular basis.
[28:49]This was a massive project to get this um over over the line um and comply with um with the law there. I think, you know, you heard a few comments from uh from the deputy attorney general there
[29:01]up up front saying that, you know, people only became really obsessed with this um going into last year. sort of making I think a little bit of his feelings clear um on the underlying um basis for this. But this was a
[29:11]bipartisan um measure, one of the few bipartisan things that that gets through Congress uh these days um because there was sort of you know interest from both parties both um both dem you know
[29:23]Democrats were looking at what for mentions of Trump and then you know you have Republicans who have long been interested and conservatives who have long been interested in looking at um Democrat mentions Democratic mentions in here. So, um, there's, you know,
[29:34]obviously both sides of of of the political spectrum are are looking for their sort of political opponents being in these files. >> All right, Ryan, thank you so much. Let's go to our senior White House correspondent, Garrett Hake. Uh, Garrett
[29:45]Blanch expressed his own frustration with the Epstein files. He also just, I mean, point blank said, "We did not protect President Trump in this situation." Um, talk about some of the reaction we expect to hear from the
[29:57]White House moving forward with this. Well, notably, Joe, the White House appears to be in the process of opening up an event to the pool of reporters who cover the president every day here, suggesting we may hear from the president, even within the next few
[30:09]minutes, about his reaction to this. But I can tell you generally that the White House will be enormously relieved that this day has come. For 6 months now, the president has been bedeled by questions
[30:20]about Epstein, about their long friendship in Palm Beach, about what he knew and when. So much to the point that he's been followed by protesters. He was heckled at a Detroit auto plant
[30:30]recently. Joe, our reporters in places as far-flung as Greenland and Denmark found people in those countries talking to them about the Epstein files. It is one of the things that has permeated the
[30:42]culture and distracted the White House from political messaging in to a degree that has enormously frustrated many of the people who work here. We know, for example, that the chief of staff was
[30:52]frustrated about Pam Bondi, the attorney general's handling of this matter and all of the oxygen the files have gotten. The president has long dismissed sort of everything related to he and Epstein's
[31:03]relationship as a scam or a hoax. Um, I suspect we'll hear from him in some capacity about this today if he's asked about it, but then I think you'll see a wholesale shift from the White House and
[31:14]the administration to be talking about something anything else. All right, Garrett, we're going to ask you to stand by here knowing that the president could be speaking any time now. A lot of questions being asked of Deputy Attorney
[31:25]Blanch, Deputy Attorney General Blanch right now, not just the Epstein files. What's happening in Minnesota? Don Lemon, the Federal Reserve, also questions about the Luigi Manion case. Let's listen in.
[31:36]>> You expect the affidavit in that search warrant matter to become public anytime soon or do you have any comment or explanation as to why that was necessary? >> Listen, I'm not going to comment on it's a criminal investigation. I'm not I will
[31:47]not comment on it. I will say that that um it should be no surprise to many in this room that or anybody watching that election integrity is extraordinarily important to this administration, always
[31:58]has been and always will be. And so um the fact that that that President Trump and this administration are are investigating to to make sure that well are investigating issues around
[32:10]elections to make sure that we do have um completely fair and appropriate election elections should not be surprising but I I can't comment on any um criminal investigations. Yeah. to
[32:21]follow up on that. Uh, regarding Fulton County, can you explain Tulsi Gabard's role in >> Could you please explain Tulsi Gabard's role in DOJ activity regarding the Fulton County search?
[32:32]>> What do you mean her role? >> Uh, it was reported that um >> she was she happened to be present in Atlanta. I mean, yes, I'm I I saw the same photos you did. I mean, she's not she doesn't
[32:44]work for the Department of Justice or the FBI. She's an extraordinarily important part of this administration. um this administration coordinates um everything we do um as a group and so I
[32:55]think her presence shouldn't be um there shouldn't be questioned of course I that's that's a big part of her of her job and so the fact that she was um
[33:04]present in Atlanta that day um you know is is is something that shouldn't surprise anybody >> maximum >> All right just two more go ahead >> just following up on that so are you
[33:16]saying that Gabbard's appearance in that area had nothing to do with the Justice Department action. The fact that >> I most certainly did not say that. [laughter] No, I did not say that. I said that
[33:27]exactly the opposite. I said this administration um works closely together um in in all kinds of different areas. And so, um, the the
[33:36]I'm not sure if they're surprised at the that the administration is working together on things like election integrity, but if there is surprise, let me unequivocally state we are working together um as an administration on
[33:48]election integrity type issues. Um, and so that's that's all I can say about that. All right, one more. >> Can you um clarify who at the Justice Department is involved in the PR investigation? Is it the Civil Rights
[34:00]Division? is at the US attorney's office in Minnesota. >> So the I want to be careful about I want to choose words carefully about
[34:10]involved. Um investigations like this are led by law enforcement. So that's the FBI. There's coordination with the with the civil rights with with Harmy Dillan's group and and there's trial
[34:22]attorneys there that have this is their their lives. They've done this for decades. And so to the extent there's questions during an investigation that require a trial attorney to weigh in or
[34:31]if if you need a a civil rights attorney to draft a search warrant or or help with an investigative uh process. I I expect the civil rights division um here
[34:42]at Maine Justice will be part of that effort. But I don't I don't want to overstate what's happening. There's I don't want the takeaway to be that there's some massive civil rights investigation that's that's happening.
[34:53]this is a what I would describe as a a standard investigation by the [clears throat] FBI when when there's circumstances like what we saw last Saturday and that that investigation to
[35:05]the extent it needs to to involve uh lawyers at the civil rights division that will it will involve those. All right, thanks a lot everybody. I appreciate >> merit the same kind of investigation.
[35:16]>> Do you have comment on the career prosecutors that are resigning in Minneapolis? All right, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch holding a news conference there about the Epstein files and so much
[35:27]more. Let's bring back Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker. And Kristen, I'm struck by the fact that on a day when 3 million pages of Epstein files are released and our team is going through those now. There were a lot of
[35:38]questions about a lot of other things that involve the Trump administration and specifically the Department of Justice. >> Absolutely. You had a number of
[35:48]questions about the death of Alex Prey, who specifically is involved in the investigation. You heard him say there he doesn't want to get into too much detail beyond saying the FBI is in fact
[35:59]investigating. Significant for the deputy attorney general to announce that publicly. Certainly, Joe. And then you heard him press there on the fact that the director of national intelligence
[36:11]Tulsi Gabbard has been looking into uh the election of 2020 down in Fulton County, Georgia, reviving some of those
[36:21]allegations presumably that there was some type of fraud that took place during that race. Of course, those allegations have already been proven to be false. You heard the deputy attorney
[36:32]general say everyone in the administration is involved in election integrity. But the question there why is the director of national intelligence who is largely focused on foreign
[36:44]events, national security now looking into the election from 2020. So a lot of ongoing questions about that and then of course the questions about this document
[36:55]release. And I think one of the big questions looming large, Joe, of course you had Deputy Attorney General Blanch saying, "Look, we've released the rest of the documents. Will this be enough to
[37:05]quell the criticism, some of the criticism that we've heard from lawmakers and some of the criticism that we've heard from survivors, the Trump administration, wildly unpopular in
[37:14]terms of its handling of this issue. 66% disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. 22% approve. That's according to a
[37:24]recent poll conducted in January. Our most recent poll back in November found 71% disapproved. Joe, so this has really been a cloud hanging over the administration. We'll have to see how
[37:35]the fallout uh continues today. >> All right, Kristen Welker with Meet the Press. Kristen, thank you so much. Let's go to our senior White House correspondent, Garrett Hake. We are waiting for President Trump to appear on
[37:46]camera at an executive order signing. A a lot of questions could be directed at him today, right, Garrett? Yeah, I think that's right. The president yesterday did not take the normal amount of questions that we're
[37:57]used to seeing at his cabinet meeting or at a later event in the afternoon. He did take some last night on the red carpet for the premiere of a documentary that was released about his wife. But I think all of the questions that Deputy
[38:08]Attorney General Blanch faced today about uh the release of the files, what it says about the department's posture, those investigations in Minnesota into the arrest of Don Lemon and to what's
[38:19]going on in Georgia with Tulsi Gabbard's appearance. I was struck by the manner in which Todd Blanch didn't answer questions about her involvement there. That was particularly interesting. And one question that I can answer that
[38:30]Kristen Welker just raised about how the White House is going to manage uh the fallout on these Epstein files. Joe, I'm looking at my phone as we are listening to the deputy attorney general and it appears that the White House or the
[38:41]Department of Justice uh set up an interview for him uh with another news outlet, Fox News, uh to be released timely to this, White House aids are posting it on social media even now in
[38:53]which um Blanch is quoted saying, "In none of these communications between Epste and others, even when doing his best to disparrage President Trump, did Epste President Trump had done anything
[39:03]criminal or had any inappropriate contact with any of the victims. That's farther than Blanch went in the press conference, but it's clearly meant to get out in front of any questions that
[39:14]the president might face on this topic today, Joe. >> Yeah, at the press conference, he said there's this mantra that the DOJ is supposed to be protecting President Trump and he said that's not true. We did not protect President Trump.
[39:25]Garrett, we know you'll continue to stand by there. Let's bring in NBC News justice reporter Ryan Riley. Blanch addressing a lot of topics beyond the Epstein files, including, as Garrett just mentioned, the arrest of journalist
[39:36]Don Lemon. To recap this situation, he was basically arrested in connection with a a protest. Some protesters in Minnesota, went into a church earlier
[39:46]this month. Lemon was broadcasting that, speaking with people who were involved with it. Now, he and three others, including another independent journalist, have been taken into custody. Ryan, what are we learning
[39:57]about this? Yeah. So, uh, it was interesting to see the deputy attorney general's reaction to that. He said, you know, what are you looking for me to do? Jump up and down when talking about, uh, Don Lemon's arrest. Here's what we know
[40:07]about the arrest of, uh, Don Lemon. Uh, to be clear, the documents in this individual case have not, uh, come out yet. So, we haven't seen, uh, an indictment, um, which is the likely, uh, situation that we're looking here at
[40:19]here, when that document eventually comes out. Um but what we do know is that when the justice department presented this previously to a federal magistrate judge presented this case in connection with this protest that the
[40:30]federal judge found that they had no probable cause uh which is the lower barrier to get past that initial charging stage um to charge Don Lemon. There were individuals who were a part
[40:41]of this group who he did allow those cases to move forward. Um but the the statute here is really unique. The statue that we're talking about is the FACE Act. And the Face Act was passed in
[40:51]the wake of the murder of numerous abortion doctors in the 1990s. And in 1994, they passed this legislation that mostly focused on uh those abortion clinics, but as a matter of compromise,
[41:01]they also added in churches here. Now, historically, they've never used the FACE Act uh in this way before. They've just never brought cases against individuals who protested at a church. And obviously there are just basic
[41:13]distinctions between uh how a church would operate which is generally open, you know, welcomes in members of the public um versus uh a medical facility such as an abortion clinic. So there are
[41:23]just a lot of of questions uh about what will ultimately happen um with this case. And we know that because a federal judge sort of flagged those uh red questions by taking uh the very rare
[41:34]step of rejecting uh an affidavit from uh from the federal government saying that they should arrest someone. just finding that there was not a basis to conduct those arrests. And um alongside with Don Lemon, there are other
[41:45]protesters who have been charged um under this um really unprecedented use of of the FACE act. Um so ultimately how that plays out uh will be uh determined, you know, going forward in the future
[41:56]once that gets before uh a judge and once that gets before um potentially jurors at some point. >> Yeah. and and Don Lebanon's attorney is Abby Lel who did put out a statement saying instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful
[42:08]Minnesota protesters. The Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention, and resources to this arrest and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case. He added, "This unprecedented attack on the First
[42:19]Amendment and transparent attempt to distract attention from the many crises facing this administration will not stand. Don will fight these charges rigorously and thoroughly in court."
[42:29]Ryan, to the best of our knowledge, Don Lemon was arrested last night in Los Angeles because he was apparently there covering the Grammys. I know we don't even have this unsealed yet, so we don't know all the details, but what would we
[42:39]expect to happen next? That's a really great question because in the other cases of the original what were to be co-defendants of Don Lemon, the Justice Department moved to hold them in custody
[42:51]until trial. um which judges uh uniformly rejected against all three of those individuals that the Justice Department sought to have locked up
[43:00]until trial. Um which is a really um I'd say bold move because you know what they argued was that this was a crime of violence and the judge came back in two
[43:10]of those cases and said there's no evidence that this was um a crime of violence and and shot down the Justice Department's uh proclamations there. And so they've really struggled uh with this
[43:20]case um in Minnesota. Um, but obviously how this plays out in the future is is is to be determined. But there is a nonzero chance that the Justice Department could move uh to uh hold Don
[43:31]Lemon in custody until trial given the fact that his wouldbe codefendants they moved to try to detain them even though that was rejected by a judge. So, we don't know when this initial court appearance um will take place. And
[43:43]obviously Don Lemon can't speak for himself right now. He has to speak through uh lawyers if he can even contact them um because he remains in in federal custody. All right, stay tuned on this one. Ryan Riley, thank you so much. Our Chief Justice and National
[43:54]Affairs correspondent, Kelly O'Donnell, was inside the press conference when Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch was speaking and joins us now. Kelly, a lot of ground covered on a busy news day.
[44:05]What stood out to you? >> Well, certainly the breadth of what we were talking about. Obviously, the Epstein case has dominated uh parts of the national conversation for a long
[44:15]time. The deputy attorney general was trying to put an end note on this with the release of the three million pages, the uh thousands of images and videos
[44:26]and trying to prepare the public that there will be significant react redactions, blocking out information. also offering to victims ongoing opportunity to weigh in if they feel
[44:38]that they have somehow uh been exposed in a way that is uh harmful to them to let the justice department know about that. It will also probably not satisfy
[44:48]the public. Those were uh the views of Todd Blanch, the deputy attorney general. Uh based on his sense that uh the volume of material here and the number of years that have been at play
[44:59]and the political dynamics, he does not expect that there will be a satisfied public in some of those corners that have been demanding this for a long time. He also said that uh there was no
[45:11]oversight from the White House uh directing this review of the documents. As you know, it was required by law and then the Department of Justice needed
[45:20]additional time. They talked about how there were endless days, 75 days seemingly of review by many, many lawyers and staff members of the Department of Justice to review this
[45:32]material. Today, the deputy attorney general said there was no oversight, no uh coordination from the White House about what would be made public. At the
[45:43]same time, he acknowledges that Donald Trump is in the files, as are many uh people who are notable, and a lot of that has already been made public. He did not provide any insight that there
[45:54]would be any new actionable information that would lead to new investigations or any potential for uh someone being held criminally responsible for the actions
[46:05]surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and his network of abusing young women. So, that's that piece, but there's so much going on. We also talked about the events in Minnesota, and it was very
[46:17]notable that Todd Blanch said yes when asked if there was a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Alex Prey. That refers to the kind of investigation where the federal
[46:28]government would look at as an American cit citizen uh Alex Prey exercising his first amendment rights of uh speech and association, his second amendment rights
[46:39]to bear arms. Were those infringed upon with the altercation that led to his death? That is notable uh because it's been very difficult to get a clear
[46:49]picture of exactly what lanes of investigation have been going on with that shooting and there was less clarity when it came to Renee Good. The first instin uh instance where an American
[47:00]citizen was shot dead that involving the woman in the car when she was turning away from officers or at least it appeared that on the video and she was shot uh several times. So trying to find
[47:10]out more about that and still trying to learn who is leading the investigation. Initially it was Homeland Security Investigations. Uh last night on uh Fox, Secretary Gnome said no, it's the FBI
[47:22]that's leading it. And today he seemed to be saying all of these entities are working together. And then still more of course related to Don Lemon and what you were just discussing discussion of his
[47:33]arrest along with uh others who were in the church at the time of those protests. also discussion of Fulton County, Georgia. That's where the FBI went in and seized what the local officials say are 700 boxes of election
[47:45]records. So, a blast of different topics and news, all very important, all touching different parts of the American uh conversation and political space
[47:56]right now. And we're still working our way through these avenues to find out how this material related to Epstein will become public and accessible uh to our viewers. and then the next
[48:07]dimensions of these investigations in Minnesota and in Fulton County, Georgia. Joe. >> Yeah. And Kelly, perhaps you can help uh our audience walk through here when we're dealing with 3 million pages, all
[48:18]of these videos, all of these images. It's our team that will carefully go through them and figure out what is newsworthy in them. But this is just an overwhelming amount of information that
[48:29]is being released after what about 75 days after the transparency act was passed and signed that is now made available to the public. Kind of walk us through what you see happening next here.
[48:41]>> Well, it is the ultimate crowdsourcing moment where journalists and news organizations will be reviewing this information and reporting on what they think is notable and in the public
[48:51]interest. Citizens will do the same and post about it. What is notable is there was no direction provided by the Department of Justice. They did not want to uh give sort of an outline of what is
[49:03]new in these files or uh any sort of direction about what might have the most potential evidence to answer questions that the public has. Uh they simply
[49:14]acknowledge that there are different buckets of material. There are videos, there are photos. They were clear to say not all of that was generated by Epstein or his close associates. some of it was
[49:24]commercially available pornography. There will be significant redactions in that kind of material. Uh we were not told of any new public figures that would come to light as a result of this.
[49:36]That's something that the public has often those especially who have been interested in transparency on the Epstein files. They've demanded knowing more. So there's no guidance in a sense.
[49:46]There's no table of contents or index provided to help people consume this massive amount of information. It will take time and likely it will even take uh the sweep of significant time for
[49:58]people to have a very thorough sense of what was in it. Try to piece together what was redacted and there are legal reasons for redactions on a variety of
[50:09]areas both protecting the victims and and there are issues of attorney client privilege and work product meaning lawyers talking amongst themselves for strategic reasons. There are a lot of reasons why there will be plenty of
[50:20]redactions. What we don't know is will there be any so-called smoking gun moment or some new revelation uh that will catch the public's attention. We
[50:30]simply don't know that yet. And there's also the technical capability of this volume of information both in text and picture and video and having people
[50:41]trying to access that both people with a professional interest and the public's interest. Uh it's going to be quite a job and uh it'll take some time to really find out is there something new
[50:53]to be learned in such a massive amount of information. Joe >> Kelly O'Donnell at the Department of Justice. Kelly, thank you so much. Let's bring in trial attorney and NBC News legal analyst Misty Maris. Misty, as we
[51:04]mentioned, we do have a team reading through these files. could take some time. But from a legal perspective, just for our viewers, what's important for them to understand about the reactions, about the information that's made
[51:15]available, what's the context do you want people to have in mind as we go through this? >> Yeah, so I actually have been working my way through the documents and as Kelly said, there really there isn't an index. There really isn't any direction. So,
[51:26]it's uh just working through what we see so far. And I am seeing a lot of uh a lot of redactions in what appears to be some emails and travel records. And
[51:36]remember, there were specific buckets that are excluded from what needs to be disclosed. And some of that relates to uh confidential information relating to
[51:47]certain individuals or victims, relates to privilege. So, there's several buckets of information where we would see these reductions. It is of note in this new slew of documents we're seeing,
[51:57]there is an age verification page, when you come onto the Department of Justice website with these new documents, specifically because we have these explicit photos that we uh know will be
[52:08]redacted in some sense, but that they are also going to be a part of this information that is now becoming public. But uh it's certainly something to that's going to take a bit of time to be
[52:19]worked through as to whether or not there is new information that was not previously known, especially since we did not necessarily have any guidance uh with from the press conference.
[52:29]>> Deputy AG Blanch mentioned he's not holding anything back due to national security. He did say they wouldn't produce things that might jeopardize any sort of ongoing investigation, which did
[52:40]spark some questions from the press corps there. What do you make of those comments, >> Joe? But I actually thought that was very notable because we were talking about those exceptions, what can be held back under the transparency act. One of
[52:52]those buckets is information relating to the interest of national security. So many people have opined that that would be a safe haven of sorts where
[53:03]information regarding Donald Trump could be shielded potentially under that specific exception. Blanch made a point to say that that is not one of the
[53:13]categories where the Department of Justice has actually shielded information that there's other privileges and and investigative issues where some information may not come to
[53:25]light, but it is not because of that national security bucket. And I think that was another uh specific statement relating to how this investigation has not been impeded by the president, which
[53:37]Blance said multiple times throughout the course of this process with the Epstein files. >> Let's talk about Galileain Maxwell. She remains behind bars, convicted as an accomplice of Jeffrey Epste. Of course,
[53:48]Epstein died by suicide a few years ago. Uh she continues a legal fight here. recap us on what it is uh she is claiming and how she is trying to get
[53:58]sort of her case tossed out. >> So this week she's gone through a whole host of appeals. She's been exhausting the appellet process, but she has a new filing this week called a habius corpus petition, released the body. She says
[54:10]her conviction should be overturned because she has now come to find out that there are 25 men who settled cases. This is civil, not criminal. Civil
[54:21]settlements that were not disclosed to her at the time of her trial. Those could have been co-conspirators. Those could have been witnesses. Those the identities of those individuals have yet to be disclosed. Actually, one of the
[54:32]reporters asked Todd Blanch about this filing. But this is Galain Maxwell's latest bid to get her conviction overturned, saying because she did not have this information. and uh her legal
[54:43]team says that it seems that for some reason these particular individuals are being shielded by the Department of Justice because these 25 individuals in these cases have not become public. And
[54:54]of course this is earlier this week. So maybe we will see some of that. But that's her latest bid to get her conviction overturned saying that she was severely prejudiced and that she should not be behind bars. It is
[55:06]notable, Joe, that Blanch said that there is at least one civil case where at the SDNY that they're seeking for those documents to be unsealed, and that
[55:16]is with a judge. So, are there more to come on that front perhaps? But all of that, of course, intertwined and reporters not skipping a beat and following up on that recent filing with Todd Blanch today.
[55:27]>> All right, Misty Maris, we appreciate your analysis on so many issues that are unfolding right now. Thank you so much. The president's executive order signing is just getting underway. We are going
[55:37]to bring it to you if he does take any questions at all from reporters. Again, to recap some of the major headlines happening this morning. About 3 million pages of files from the Jeffrey Epstein
[55:48]case from the Department of Justice released. Our team is going through those three million pages, 2,000 videos, and 180,000 images. We will provide any updates on anything. Also making
[56:00]headlines, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch saying that the DOJ has opened a civil rights investigation into the death of Alex Prey in Minneapolis. I'm
[56:09]Joe Frier. Stay with NBC News Now for continuing coverage throughout the day. [music] Hi everyone, thanks so much for ending
[56:22]your week with us. Today is Friday, January 30th. We have breaking news. The Justice Department dropping millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. I'm Vicky Wyn. >> I'm Morgan [music] Radford.
[56:32]>> NBC News Daily starts right now. Now, the massive release. It includes 2,000 videos, 180,000 images. What we are learning about the latest trove of documents. >> And in custody, federal agents arresting
[56:44]former CNN anchor Don Lemon. Why his coverage of a Minnesota protest a week ago [music] is now under DOJ scrutiny. >> Next in line, President Trump nominating a new Federal [music] Reserve chair.
[56:55]what we know about his pick and his reputation as an inflation hawk. >> And major development, the accused killer of a United Healthcare CEO [music] spared from facing the death
[57:04]penalty. The latest from Luigi Manion's federal pre-trial hearing. [music] Welcome to NBC News Daily. This Friday,
[57:15]we begin with that breaking news. Within just the last hour, the Justice Department announced a massive drop of Jeffrey Epstein files, more than two months after President Trump signed a bill ordering their release. Take a
[57:26]listen. >> Today, we are producing more than 3 million pages, including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
[57:38]In total, that means that the department produced approximately 3 and a half million pages in compliance with the act. DOJ officials say today's documents [music] include images taken by Epstein
[57:50]and others that were on his devices but not taken by Epstein himself. We start with NBC News senior justice reporter Ryan Riley there in our DC bureau. Uh Ryan, our team is currently looking
[58:01]through this massive new drop of files, but what do we know about what's inside and what's not? >> Yeah, I mean this was just I mean the the scope of this cannot be sort of understated. uh the Justice Department,
[58:11]it took them a month with 500 lawyers uh to go through um all of these documents. And so it's going to take a while, I think, um in this sort of crowdsourced um sense to go through a lot of these
[58:22]documents and figure out what exactly um is the is the most uh interesting facts here, what the most revoly information is. What Todd Blanch did not do in that press conference is sort of flag
[58:33]anything uh that he thought was of particular interest, which I mean speaks to abiding by the law, right? that would he the law was written to get all these documents out. It did not say sort of
[58:44]put out a report and flag all of the highlights. It said put all of these documents out. And so that's what the Justice Department appears to be doing here. So it's really going to take I think a lot of work by journalists and the public to figure out what is the
[58:54]most uh revoly information here and compare that against what we sort of knew from the past. But it just is a a massive trove of information of videos uh that folks are going to have to make their uh their way through here.
[59:06]>> Yeah. A lot to go through. Well, Todd Blanch was adamant in his response, Ryan, when he was asked whether the department had a list of men involved in the potential abuse of women, the potential trafficking of women. What did
[59:17]the Justice Department say about those accusations that it's withholding an Epstein client list or protecting any alleged abusers? >> Yeah, they sort of made an interesting rule here where they decided that
[59:29]they're going to redact the faces of of any woman um in uh any of these documents whatsoever, but you know, not of of of the men, right? So, they just sort of drew that line. It doesn't matter except for Gla Maxwell. She was
[59:40]the one exception to this uh this rule. But that's sort of they sort of drew this gender uh divide and that's how they're going to um put these documents um out there. That's just their which
[59:50]you know is their their rule there. We're in unprecedented territory here. So, that was sort of the way that they decided to go about this um in the uh the most fair way. This you know obviously involved a lot of you know
[1:00:01]career professionals within the justice department who are typically um in other roles within DOJ. This you know talking to people within DOJ there were people who typically are working on matters far
[1:00:12]a field of this who were um getting sort of sucked into uh this document review which obviously took a lot of work and um by Blanch's account they do not believe they could have ever met that
[1:00:22]statutory uh deadline just given the massive trove of information uh that they're talking about here. So now, you know, more than a month after that original uh deadline, um they have been
[1:00:33]they have now disclosed those millions of documents. >> You know, Ryan, there has long been criticism from critics of the president who say that given his history with Epstein, this is a conflict of interest.
[1:00:43]So, what about the victim's allegations that the DOJ itself is trying to protect the president? >> Yeah, I mean, I think we have to look at what the documents show and I think that's going to take a little bit of
[1:00:54]take a while, right? and we'll be able to sort of compare and contrast what we know has been released um previously um with what is out there uh what was now coming out there now. So, you know, I
[1:01:06]think that will be an identifiable pattern if that was uh the case. But um Todd Blanch was pretty firm that they were not um sort of taking that into account. So, I think you know the pure
[1:01:17]volume of this is just it's not as though you can just instantly say control find and look for Trump here. It's going to be a little bit uh more than that because of just the the nature of these files, how they're being
[1:01:28]released. It's it's going to it's going to be a long haul, I think, for going through all these documents. >> No, the volume itself is is staggering. Uh Ryan Riley there from our DC bureau. Ryan, thank you. Let's bring in NBC legal analyst and former prosecutor
[1:01:40]Kristen Gibbons fed in now. Uh Kristen, the legal deadline, as we know, for the DOJ to release all of these files was a little over a month ago. What did Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch say about
[1:01:50]the delay? And as Ryan alluded to, all of the redactions and the efforts that had to go into sorting through this three and a half million pages, not to mention the photos and videos, >> and that's exactly it. What he's
[1:02:02]basically saying is that the delay was about process, not defiance. So he acknowledged that they missed the deadline, but he framed it more as a release of as full compliance with Congress's transparency law. His
[1:02:13]explanation basically is that the sheer scale of the material, those millions of pages pulled from multiple FBI investigations, required an extensive review before the release. But here's
[1:02:25]the key point. You know, legally the deadline did matter. Congress didn't say release when convenient. They said release by a date. And the delay really kind of reinforced what I believe to be
[1:02:35]the public skepticism that the government was taking kind of a slow walking disclosure, you know, especially after months of mixed messaging about whether or not the records actually exist and what they said. So Blanch's
[1:02:46]position is that today cures the violation. But whether or not the public accepts it is going to be a different question. You know, Kristen, when we just think about the scope of this, what
[1:02:57]kinds of protections does the DOJ have in terms of what they can redact and ultimately prevent the public from seeing? >> I think this is important because there
[1:03:08]are legitimate legal protections that allow redactions and limited withholdings. And this is not inu unusual at all in cases involving sexual exploitation. You know, first and which
[1:03:19]is paramount is victim privacy, names, identifying information, medical information, explicit material involving minors that is legally protected and must be redacted. Second, the DOJ can
[1:03:31]withhold material tied to ongoing investigations, intelligence methods, confidential sources. That really includes anything that could compromise a law enforcement's techniques or third
[1:03:41]party privacy rights. Right? And then there's also the constitutional protections including due process for individuals mentioned but not necessarily culpable or never charged.
[1:03:52]With that said, redaction really should protect victims, right? Survivors, not institutions. And when redactions obscure patterns of conduct or decision-m, that's where legitimate
[1:04:02]oversight questions really do arise. >> Kristen, that is such an important distinction. And and on that topic of survivors, how will they be able to weigh in now that these files have been released?
[1:04:14]>> Well, I think that the release actually reopens the door for survivors. You know, first they can review the materials either directly or through their council and they can see whether
[1:04:23]their experiences appear in federal records for the first time. And and that could be powerful. It can be validating. And quite frankly, it could be legally significant because these files could
[1:04:35]support potential civil claims, including claims against enablers, claims against institutions, corporations, or even individuals who facilitated or ignored the abuse. You
[1:04:46]know, civil accountability has been where Epstein related justice has moved forward most meaningfully for some of these survivors. You know, and I think one of the other last things I'll
[1:04:57]mention is that the victims now have a standing in the public conversation and that really matters. >> It it certainly does. Kristen Gibbons, thank you so much. >> NBC White House correspondent Monica
[1:05:08]Alba joins us now from her post there in front of the White House. Uh Monica, I have to ask, how is the administration reacting to this drop, but also specifically to the allegations that we
[1:05:18]just mentioned coming from the victims that the DOJ is protecting the president? Well, look, Morgan and Vicki, the president is actually speaking now on a completely unrelated topic. He hasn't
[1:05:29]taken questions yet from reporters, but if he does, certainly that is something that I am sure they will want to press him on. And in the past, when he has been asked about the Epstein files
[1:05:39]overall or this entire issue, he has sometimes been a bit dismissive, saying that that is not something that should be given as much attention perhaps as it is. But remember that he has certainly
[1:05:50]then evolved in recent months and also continued to push for the transparency in getting more of these files out there. But what is notable and what is telling is that there are some senior
[1:06:02]White House officials who are amplifying an interview that the deputy attorney general Todd Blanch did with Fox News in which he communicated there that according to him and the review of these
[1:06:12]additional pages that they found no evidence again according to the president's own deputy attorney general of any wrongdoing committed by the president. So that is something that
[1:06:23]they are amplifying again without expanding upon and certainly we haven't had a chance to go through all of those many many many documents. But it just does give you an insight into how the White House is approaching it in this
[1:06:34]moment. Again likely they will tout the transparency aspect because they know this is something that many in their base have been calling for repeatedly. >> Monica Alba is there from the White
[1:06:45]House. Monica, thank you. >> Snow is expected to hit the southeast starting [music] tonight. The latest on a developing nor easter less than a week after a powerful storm that left more
[1:06:55]than 200,000 people still without power. You are watching NBC News Daily. [music]
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[1:09:35]>> Former CNN anchor Don Lemon has been taken into custody. in relation to a protest at a Minnesota church just earlier this month. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirming today that Lemon was arrested by federal agents this morning
[1:09:47]in Los Angeles for his alleged involvement in a quote coordinated attack. His attorney says Lemon will fight the charges in court, calling the move an attack on the First Amendment. >> This comes two weeks after
[1:09:57]anti-immigration protests disrupted a church service in Minneapolis. In video posted to his YouTube channel, Lemon could be seen walking inside the church with the protesters and interviewing
[1:10:08]people there. NBC News correspondent Liz Kitz has been following this story, joins us now. So Liz, Lemon is one of four people who have been arrested for their alleged involvement in this protest. What do we know about these
[1:10:19]charges that he could be facing? >> Well, hey guys. Good morning. We're outside one of the federal buildings down here as we await his potential hearing today. We are still waiting
[1:10:29]awaiting details on when he will appear in court and exactly where, but we know that he was arrested last night here in Los Angeles. Uh, as far as the charges
[1:10:39]he could be facing, uh, the uh, it has not yet been unsealed, so we don't know the specific charges against Don Lemon, but we do know that the others who have been charged in connection with this protest that happened in Minneapolis at
[1:10:51]a church um, were uh, Good day everyone. [music] Good day everyone. I'm Kate Snow in New York. We want to take you to the White
[1:11:02]House where President Trump is taking some questions. He just signed an executive order in the Oval Office. It comes moments after the Justice Department released 3 million documents
[1:11:12]>> rate hikes too. But uh he's very smart, very good, strong, young, pretty young. And uh I think he's going to do a good I
[1:11:22]mean he he was the central casting guy that people wanted. Kevin was great. I tell you what, I met numerous people. Every one of them were fantastic. Really fantastic. I wanted to keep Kevin here.
[1:11:34]Um and I thought that uh I called Kevin one, Kevin two. And we have uh I said it's going to be a Kevin. But uh you know Kevin really has been fantastic at
[1:11:45]the White House. You all know him. You know him very well. And so we have Kevin Kevin W. Uh >> are you concerned, Mr. President, about the confirmation hearings? We've heard Senator Tillis. You think
[1:11:56]>> with the DOJ investigation going on? >> This is in the whole country. I would say that this was the, you know, perfect candidate. This was not a surprise or anything. This was the man that's most
[1:12:08]qualified. Uh top student, best schools, everything was like perfect. Youngest person ever to serve on the Fed. uh got the whole package. Looks don't
[1:12:19]mean anything, but he's got the look, right, Roger? Looks don't mean anything, but if they have the look, it's okay. But he's got the whole package, and I think he's going to do a great job, and he loves the country.
[1:12:28]>> Mr. Speaker, please. Yes. >> Uh are you giving Iran any kind of deadline to make a deal before potentially taking >> Only they know for sure. Have you
[1:12:39]communicated that to? >> I have. >> That timeline for when you're going to pull back potentially the federal presence there? >> No, we'll see how it all works out. You
[1:12:50]know, they have to float someplace. They might as well float near Iran. But it's a rough situation going in. So, I stopped 837 people, as you know, last week from being hung. They were going to
[1:13:02]hang. 830 was all set. And uh I mean I'm looking at the people behind me. They say, "What kind of racing's a lot a lot nicer than that?" Uh they were going to
[1:13:13]hang 837 people and I told them if you do it, you're going to pay a price like nobody's ever paid before. They pulled back. I appreciated that, but a lot of people are being killed. So we'll see what happens.
[1:13:25]I can say this, they do want to make a deal. >> I can say this. They do want to make a deal. Virginia. Actually, Virginia flipped the governor's here and now they're looking at 50 proposals to increase taxes. What
[1:13:37]do you think about that? >> Well, I think it's terrible. I think a lot of people will leave Virginia. I I saw that. Look, uh Glenn was a friend of mine, Glenn Yncan, and worked so hard on
[1:13:48]cutting taxes. This that this woman came in and in one swoop, she raised everything up higher than it ever was. I don't understand it. I mean, people voted for Democrat, but she came in and
[1:13:59]she raised and I'll work with her like I work with everyone else. But she came into Virginia, raised everything to a point like no taxes that nobody ever
[1:14:08]even heard of before. And I I don't understand how do people get elected with this kind of philosophy. This is only in the very modern age. You know, I grew up and I've always heard
[1:14:19]politicians, we'll cut taxes. We'll cut everybody screaming, "We're going to cut taxes. I'd cut taxes. I gave you [clears throat] the biggest tax cut in the history of our country in the great
[1:14:29]big beautiful bill. No tax on tips, no tax on social security, no tax on overtime, interest deductions, Roger. When somebody buys a car, they can deduct the interest of the borrow money.
[1:14:40]That's the biggest thing in terms of the car business, right? >> American midwives. >> Correct. So, uh, we have, you know, I give tax cuts and they give tax
[1:14:50]increases. I don't I don't know how they get elected. They get elected because they cheat. You want to know the truth? >> If they didn't cheat, if they didn't cheat, uh, they'd have no chance. They
[1:15:02]have horrible policy, transgender for everyone. They have, uh, the little thing about open borders so that the world's prison population and mental hospitals could be emptied into our
[1:15:14]country. It's just a crazy men playing in women's sports. Roger, are you a fan of men playing in women's sports? only as a bet. You'd like to bet if you like. No bet.
[1:15:25]>> Not You're not a big You're not a big fan. I don't think so. I I don't want to get him in trouble, but >> I think he joins in 99%. They say it's an 8020 issue. I think it's a >> 99.
[1:15:36]>> It's a It's maybe 99. It's 99. >> Mr. President, why are you administration and the IRS? Why are you suing? >> Who are you with? >> I'm with ABC News.
[1:15:46]>> You're a loud person. Very loud. Let somebody else have a chance. >> Can you answer the question? Why are you suing ABC fake news. >> Go ahead. I didn't call on you. Go ahead, please. Go ahead. >> Go ahead.
[1:15:58]>> Yeah. >> Do you think the upcoming >> ABC, by the way, is truly one of the worst? >> Go ahead. >> Do you think the upcoming talks between Russia and Ukraine stand a chance without US Envoy Wikov and Jared Kushner there? >> I think it's I think they stand a
[1:16:10]chance. We've been trying. I' I've ended eight wars. All of them I thought were going to be maybe tougher than this one. But Zalinski and Putin
[1:16:20]hate each other and it makes it very difficult. But I think we're getting very close to getting a settlement. Uh hundreds of thousands of people, mostly soldiers have been killed. Last week
[1:16:30]they lost 29,000 people. Last month they lost 29,000 soldiers. Can you believe that fell? 29,000. You lose one race driver and it's it's a big deal. 29,000
[1:16:41]soldiers in one month. 27,000 a month before. Uh, I think that, uh, yeah, I think that we have a good chance of getting it settled. Yeah. Ma'am, please. >> Mr. President, um, on the wor
[1:16:53]nomination, what what is your strategy for getting past the hold that Senator Tillis has on this process? He said he won't allow >> Well, that's, you know, that kind of
[1:17:03]thinking is why he's no longer a senator. You know, he's going to be uh out of office. It's too bad. I always liked Senator to tell us actually, but he did some things that were not smart
[1:17:15]and whatever. I mean, you know, if he doesn't approve, we just have to wait till somebody comes in that will approve it, right? So, that's it. But, uh, I saw that he wants to be an obstructionist,
[1:17:25]but we have a lot of obstructionists. I've had a lot and and we've created the best presidency maybe ever. Yeah. >> Iran follow. If Iran doesn't make a
[1:17:35]deal, is your plan to replicate there what you just did in Venezuela? >> I don't want to say that. I don't want to talk I mean, I don't want to talk about anything having to do with what I'm doing militarily. But we have a tremendously powerful fleet there. We
[1:17:47]have the most powerful ships in the world. We have the most powerful military by far in the world. We showed that on numerous occasions. I mean, I rebuilt the military in my term. If I didn't, you know, I wouldn't, I think,
[1:17:58]be able to say that. But I rebuilt the military, the entire United States military in my first term. And now we're building it bigger, better, stronger than ever before. I'm adding to it.
[1:18:09]We're adding something called the battleship. You would find this interesting. You know, the oldfashioned beautiful battleships, and we're adding up to 25 of them. Uh each battleship is
[1:18:20]100 times more powerful than the battleships of the 1940s, so speak powerful ones with the guns because of what the ships carry. But we're going to build 10 and then we'll see how we like
[1:18:32]them. And we're going to go and do another 15 after that. Could be up to 25 battleships. 100 times more powerful. Can you imagine that? >> And and it's peace through strength. We don't want to use them, but if we have
[1:18:44]to use them, we will. >> Mr. on the on the Fed, should uh the DOJ continue with its investigation into Jay Powell? That seems to be a sticking point for Senator Telus.
[1:18:54]>> Well, he's got a building that uh you know, I build buildings and I build them under budget, ahead of schedule. I build them, but they're within reason always.
[1:19:04]And uh this is a small little complex that's costing billions of dollars. Most expensive job per square foot ever built. And it's a little complex. It's a
[1:19:15]little Fed complex. I built the uh hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and I built it for around $200 million. And it's bigger than that. They're spending uh many
[1:19:26]times that amount to do a renovation of a building. I've heard numbers as high as $4 billion. $4 billion to build a building. I could have I could have renovated that building and fixed it up,
[1:19:37]made it beautiful for $25 billion. They're going to spend close to $4 billion on it. So, it's either gross incompetence or it's theft.
[1:19:49]Somebody's making money because you can't spend it's more per square and you have half a building there. You know, you have the structure, you have the exterior skin that they're not changing much. Uh they're building a building and
[1:20:00]they're spending almost I mean I'm hearing numbers of between three and four billion dollars. It's the most expensive structure ever built per square foot. So he's either incompetent
[1:20:12]or he or somebody is a crook and we'll find out. Mr. >> President on Minneapolis um Governor Tim Walls
[1:20:22]recently likened the conflict on the ground to Fort Sumpter sort of imply that this is the beginning of a civil war. Do you agree with that characterization? Do you feel like there's a civil war brewing?
[1:20:33]>> Does he know what Fort Sumpter was or do you think somebody wrote it out for him? Uh, no, this is uh I was elected on law and order. I was elected on a strong
[1:20:43]border. We had a border that allowed 25 million people to come in. Many were murderers. They murdered people. We had 11,888 murderers. We had prisons, including
[1:20:53]Venezuela. But Venezuela opened its prisons. So did the Congo. The Congo in Africa opened its prisons and dumped people into our country. Many countries did that. I would have done that if I
[1:21:04]were leading a country. I would have dumped the prisoners into our country. We had open borders. Uh we had all these things. I was elected on law and order. I was elected on the economy. I was
[1:21:14]elected on a lot of reasons because when I took over, we inherited a mess. I had prices were too high. Inflation was the highest it was in 48 years. I say ever,
[1:21:24]but the media always corrects me by saying it's only 48 years. I think 48 years almost sounds worse. But when I was elected, I was elected to do a job. And one of the big things I was elected
[1:21:36]to do is law and order. We now have the lowest crime rate in the history of our country. We have the lowest murder rate in the history of our country. We have Washington DC, which was a dangerous
[1:21:46]place to walk, is now a totally safe city. You can walk with your husband or your wife. You can walk with your ch your children right down the middle of the city. Nothing's going to happen. We did a great job. We have we had the
[1:21:58]National Guard. We have soldiers. We have people that uh nobody's going to mess with. And we've taken out, remember, it's not just that. In Washington, we've removed over 2,000
[1:22:09]criminals. And you know, if you look at the numbers, uh, a very small percentage of your population, 2% 3% of your population causes 90% of the crime. So
[1:22:21]when you move a small, it's amazing how that works. But the criminals go over and over and over again. So 2 to 3% of your population can cause over 90% of
[1:22:31]your crime. So, it's not that complex. We moved 2,000 people out of Washington. We brought them back to their countries where they came from. They came through open borders by sleepy Joe Biden. And I
[1:22:43]will tell you, uh, Washington is safe. Uh, if you look at New Orleans, as you know, we went there about four weeks ago. I was with the mayor of New Orleans last night. He was at the premiere, and
[1:22:54]she was at the premiere. She was great. Uh, I believe she's a Democrat. She came over. She thanked me so much. She said, "Crime is down more than 50% in just a few weeks." And you couldn't even walk
[1:23:05]down the street in New Orleans. It's so bad. And now, uh, they let us in there. And she is thanking me so much, so profusely. She was great last night. I'd do that. If I were a Democrat, I'd say
[1:23:16]call Trump in, let him do what they do. But we remove people, criminals, from from the cities, and they become safe cities. Uh if you look at uh Minnesota,
[1:23:27]Minneapolis, we have crime down there because we took out thousands of people despite all the mess and everything else, but do these people really want to have rapists? Do they really want to
[1:23:37]have uh drug dealers and people from prisons and murderers? Do they really want to have them in the community? Uh you know, it's a it's really insurrectionists and agitators and
[1:23:47]they're paid and you can tell a lot of reasons. Number one, they're professionals, you know, with their mouth, but they're also, you look at the signs. The signs are all professionally made. They have signs that are gorgeous.
[1:23:58]In fact, I want to get the sign cuz I'm a big I need a lot of signs for different things. And I want to find out whoever does their signs. They do a beautiful job. You know, everybody has this beautiful sign with brand new wood.
[1:24:09]It's like leather panels. They have a leather handle on the B. These are not people that these are people that are handed signs and and we know pretty much we're getting very close to it, but we
[1:24:21]know pretty much who's funding this stuff. These are paid insurrectionist, paid paid troublemakers. But I was elected by a landslide. I won every swing state. I won the popular
[1:24:31]vote by a lot. I won everything. I won everything. And I was elected by a landslide on law and order and on strong borders. We had a border that was so
[1:24:41]bad, so open where 25 million people came in over a period of four years and now nobody comes in. Nobody even tries to come in. And I can only say I think
[1:24:53]uh we'll say it very plainly, elections have consequences. The people want law and order. And we have a silent majority. You know, we have a silent majority of people. They don't go and
[1:25:04]riot and everything else, but they like what we're doing. They like having a safe city. I get calls every single day. Every person I see working in the White House, people I don't know, many people
[1:25:14]work here, and they say, "I'd like to thank you, sir, why uh you've made Washington so great. We walk to work." They walk to work. You you people know it very well. You walk to work now. You
[1:25:24]used to take an Uber or a taxi or something. And you even felt like in danger there. Uh, every person in this building, I mean, virtually every time I
[1:25:34]see somebody, they thank me because a year and a half ago they lived in hell and now they can walk to work and they're totally safe. Nothing's going to happen. And if anything did happen, the person that did it would be living in
[1:25:45]hell for a long period of time. Thank you very much. You guys keep moving. >> Thank you very >> All right. We've been listening to
[1:25:56]President Trump taking questions from reporters at the White House, including about Kevin Worsh at the top of those comments. His nominee to be the next Federal Reserve chair, saying that he's
[1:26:06]not worried about Worsh's confirmation. The president also saying that he thinks Russia and Ukraine are getting closer to an agreement. And he made some comments about growing tensions between the US
[1:26:16]and Iran. Let's bring back our senior White House correspondent, Garrett Hake, who's been watching this closely as well. Uh Garrett, what did you hear there? Anything of note? Well, Kate, the
[1:26:26]president clearly keen to show off Kevin Worsh, someone who he's described as out of central casting and who he hopes will become the new chairman of the Federal Reserve. The president was careful not
[1:26:36]to say that Wars is committed to following the president's uh desire to see rates cut uh when he takes that position if he takes that position sometime later this year, but made it clear that it's something that they've
[1:26:47]discussed and that he believes wars has all the necessary credentials both academic and in the business world uh to be easily confirmed. He dismissed uh the
[1:26:57]qualms of Republican Senator Tom Tillis who said he'd hold up that uh confirmation process until this matter of investigating Jerome Powell has been closed. Asked about that investigation
[1:27:09]of Powell. the current chairman. The president uh continued to say that his focus is on this Federal Reserve building uh renovation that's going on and that he believes the cost overruns
[1:27:19]there, if they exist, have gone on to be such a great figure that that Powell himself must either be incompetent or a criminal. In the president's words, we know that Powell is under some form of
[1:27:30]an investigation, but not for what or you know exactly what direction this goes. the the investigation there are very much a sticking point in the eventual confirmation of a successor on
[1:27:41]these two uh big foreign issues that have dogged the president for some time. Kate, I heard much of the same that we've typically heard from the president. On Iran, he was very reticent to get pinned down on what course of
[1:27:53]action, if any, he might take with the American military presence that has now been building up in that region. And on Ukraine and Russia, the president continues to be the most optimistic man
[1:28:02]in any room, suggesting that he thinks uh Russia and Ukraine could still come to a peace deal. He pointed to the animosity between presidents Zalinski and Putin as being a a factor uh that
[1:28:13]has bedeled his um efforts to strike peace in the first year that he's been back in office. That was of course a day one promise that has yet to come true. And Kate, I'm struck by the dog that didn't bark. The president was asked no
[1:28:25]questions about the release of Epstein files today and made no effort to address the issue himself. >> Yeah. All right, Garrett, thank you so much. Let me bring in NBC News justice
[1:28:35]reporter Ryan Riley on that point. Ryan, just before the president started speaking, we had heard from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch. He had a news conference that was quite lengthy
[1:28:46]about the release of these Epstein files. We're talking about some 3.5 million new documents being released that I know our team is painstakingly trying to go through, but that's a lot
[1:28:56]of documents. Um, again, Garrett just mentioned the president did not speak about it. I think a reporter tried to ask, but he didn't take the question. What do we know at this hour about the Epstein files? Let's start there.
[1:29:07]>> Yeah, we're still trying to, you know, obviously sort through them. And just to sort of, you know, set set expectations, the Justice Department, they had 500 lawyers who were reviewing this for a very long time. And you know, they blew
[1:29:18]that statutory deadline by more than a month, but that's because of just the pure scale of this. And obviously, it's a little bit different when you're looking through and redacting those documents than just journalists or the public going through it. But that's just
[1:29:30]a lot of documents and putting that in the proper context uh is going to take a bit. We've got a we've got a team working on it, but um we don't know that there's any major emerging headlines from it thus far, but just given the scale of documents, you know, you can
[1:29:41]expect that there's going to be some new revelations um in those documents uh going forward. But Blanch really said that it was wouldn't have been possible for them to have really met that
[1:29:52]statutory deadline just given the sheer scale uh Kate when you're talking about millions of documents to review. >> All right, Ryan Riley watching that for us. Ryan, thank you so much. We're going
[1:30:03]to have many more headlines ahead here on this busy news day on NBC News Now and online. You can check in anytime at NBC.com. I'm Kate Snow. Right now, we return you
[1:30:14]to NBC News Daily in [music] progress. spring manion out of jail. They asked for his federal ID. He presented his own ID and he threw a bunch of papers at the at the guard at the MDC. Of course, it
[1:30:25]became quite clear that he was not actually a federal agent and that there wasn't a world where a federal agent's going to come scoop up Luigi Manion. In any case, he's now facing charges for
[1:30:35]impersonating a federal officer where they have to show that he did intentionally impersonate an officer and took an overt act under the color of that authority. So those charges will be
[1:30:46]moving through the courthouse. >> Wow. >> Just bizarre twist there. >> Bizarre. It's so much to unpack at the same time. Misty Maris for us. Missy, as always, thank you so much. >> Thank you.
[1:30:56]>> Not even a week since a massive winter storm blanketed much of the country in snow and ice. Another weather system is now developing. Experts say a new round of arctic air is currently moving east
[1:31:08]across the country. It is