MASSIEFLIX

Face the Nation: I Won't Be Satisfied Until the Survivors Are Satisfied

Dec 21, 2025 · 12:56 epsteinface-the-nationsurvivorstransparency

CBS Face the Nation after the Epstein Files deadline: Massie says he will not be satisfied until the survivors say the dump is complete.

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  1. Plus a bipartisan conversation [music] with the two members of Congress who pushed to pass the law calling for the Epstein files to be made public.
  2. Has the Trump administration obeyed that law? We'll talk with Kentucky Republican Thomas [music] Massie and California Democrat Ro Khanna. Good morning and welcome to Face the
  3. Nation. So far there have been few surprises in the tens of thousands of documents related to the case against convicted sex offender and accused sex
  4. trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his partner convicted child sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell. The Justice Department says that 1,200 names
  5. identified as victims or their relatives were redacted along with materials that could result in their identification. Will the release of the documents
  6. satisfy Congress and the political forces who lobbied for their disclosure? And much more importantly, will it satisfy the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein
  7. and their families? The two House members who pushed their colleagues into passing the bill to release these documents, Republican
  8. Thomas Massie who's in Garrison, Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna who joins us this morning from Palo Alto, California. It's good to have both of
  9. you here. I want to start with you, Congressman Massie because in these past 48 hours we have seen the Justice Department acknowledge it's an incomplete release, but they have put
  10. out more than 13,000 files. They say more will come. This isn't everything you asked for just yet, but would you acknowledge that they
  11. are complying with the spirit if not the intent of your law? No, they're flouting the spirit and the
  12. letter of the law. It's very troubling the posture that they've taken and I won't be satisfied until the survivors are satisfied. You know, I said in the
  13. hours leading up to this release that we will know if they are complying if they implicate any of the other criminals that are involved and the suspects that
  14. are involved that the witnesses that the victims themselves have given to the FBI and they've never been mentioned.
  15. Well, there are some disclosures in here that seem new, Congressman Khanna. The documents confirm that the FBI received a complaint about Jeffrey Epstein back
  16. in 1996, but the woman whose name is Maria Farmer who made that complaint said federal officials failed to follow up. She said the disclosure
  17. makes her feel redeemed and that this was one of the best days of her life to see these documents made public. What action do you want taken around a
  18. case like this? That was the single most important disclosure of what we got. I know Maria's sister, she sounded the alarm in
  19. 1996. She complained to the FBI. The problem is that Epstein was so connected with law enforcement and powerful politicians, the FBI did nothing for a
  20. decade. Frankly, she deserves compensation. She deserves an explanation, but the broader point is Blanche was on this morning saying that Massie and I have a problem that it's
  21. taking too long. That's not the problem. The problem is this was a slap in the face of survivors. What do they want? They want to know who are the rich and powerful men who visited Epstein's rape
  22. island and covered up the abuse. And the key documents that our law basically said needed to be released, the 60-count indictment that actually implicates a
  23. lot of these people and the prosecution memo were not released. It's not about the timeline, it's about the selective concealment. Well, yet, right? The
  24. Deputy Attorney General said there are more disclosures that will be made. You believe that they will not release that particular part? I mean, you did
  25. give them some leeway for redactions. Well, first of all, the redactions were excessive and even Harvard law
  26. professors who have looked at that have said you can't redact internal communications, you can't redact workforce product and the courts are going to find that these were excessive.
  27. But my point and I'm sure Congressman Massie can elaborate is that we want the files out. So, if if our sounding the
  28. alarm on what is missing is going to help them get those files out, fine. But this shouldn't be a big document dump. There's a pretty simple point. Who raped
  29. these young girls? Who covered it up? And why are they getting away with it? So, you are saying specific things regarding the indictment, Congressman Massie. I saw in a video that you
  30. posted, you had a very specific benchmark of success here. You said you know there are at least 20 men accused of sex crimes known to the FBI. How do
  31. you know that number? And and do you know those names? Yeah, the survivors' lawyers have told me those numbers and they've described
  32. their professions in in general, but they've only given me one of those names and I mentioned that in a congressional hearing, Jess Staley. So, I searched
  33. these documents. I didn't see Jess Staley's name, nor did I see 19 other names. And here's why we shouldn't be optimistic that Blanche or Bondi are
  34. going to release these things. They sent a six-page memo to Congress and said they cited pre-existing laws as reasons
  35. that they weren't going to follow our law. For instance, our law requires them to release information regardless of embarrassment, but they are trying to say that a previous law prevails when it
  36. doesn't. Common sense says it doesn't. The Privacy Act doesn't protect them from that. And then also as Ro said, internal communications, those they're
  37. using the FOIA standard that doesn't apply because our law already says they have to give us internal communications. In terms of the the gentleman there you
  38. referenced as accused, I mean, being in the document doesn't necessarily prove criminal behavior, right? And and in terms of
  39. the redactions, what the Deputy Attorney General said is that they were abiding by your law and also a judge in New York
  40. had ordered them to listen to victims. So, they're claiming that information that they had initially even published Friday they had to pull down because
  41. they were trying to protect victims. You you don't sound convinced that they are abiding by you know, this intent.
  42. No, they are not abiding and all three judges who released the grand jury material said that our law trumps the prior law. That's just common sense, law
  43. school 101. Yet, Todd Blanche is using a different theory that wouldn't survive first contact with any court, which is he's trying to say that prior laws
  44. override our law. That's not the way this works. Okay, what are you going to do about it to to force them to comply? I mean, can
  45. you do anything? Oh, absolutely. Look, people have talked about and by the way, Todd Blanche is the face of this, but it's really the
  46. Attorney General's office, Pam Bondi who is responsible and there are several ways to get at this. Some take longer, some are shorter. The quickest way and I
  47. think most expeditious way to get justice for these victims is to bring inherent contempt against Pam Bondi and that
  48. doesn't require going through the courts and give her and and basically Ro Khanna and I are talking about and drafting that right now.
  49. Okay, well, I mean, on another network this morning Democratic Senator Tim Kaine said impeachment or contempt, it is premature,
  50. Congressman Khanna. And the Deputy Attorney General said bring it on. They don't seem to be taking this very seriously and if you just don't have the
  51. math in the Senate including at least now this Democratic Senator not being convinced, doesn't that sort of show that you're at the limit of pressure?
  52. No, we only need the House for inherent contempt and we're building a bipartisan coalition and it would fine Pam Bondi for every day that she's not releasing
  53. these documents. I'll tell you why I've talked to the survivors, why this is such a slap in the face. One of the survivors said they released her name accidentally, but they still have not
  54. released the FBI file about the people who abused her at her request. And the problem here is that there are rich and
  55. powerful people. We all know this. There are 1,200 victims. There are rich and powerful people who either engaged in this abuse, covered it up or were on this island. And what the American
  56. people want to know is who are these people? And instead of holding them accountable, Pam Bondi is breaking the law and this is the corrupt system the Epstein class of people are sick of. So,
  57. I believe we're going to get bipartisan support in holding her accountable and a committee of Congress should determine whether these redactions are justified
  58. or not. Sometime in January when you all come back, I assume that that'll happen. I want to ask you though, Congressman Khanna, there have been images released
  59. in the past 48 hours. Some of them include former President Bill Clinton. There's at least one image of Donald Trump. I should say neither man has been
  60. accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein though they clearly knew him. But since Friday's publication, we're showing the image here now.
  61. One of the pictures was pulled down. There were 15 images total that were then redacted from the DOJ website. And
  62. it's it's kind of hard to see, but it's an open drawer with a photo of President Trump. Um
  63. Why do you think that was pulled down? Because the Deputy Attorney General says this was victims saying that their privacy or somehow their integrity was
  64. being compromised by having that image published. Well, I'm less concerned about that photo. I don't know the facts. My
  65. concern is the major documents that we know are out there that haven't been released. The 60-count indictment that shows massive financial fraud and
  66. foreign interference, the prosecution memo. And look, they put out these Bill Clinton pictures. [ __ ] But well, there there there allegations
  67. that there foreign governments that potentially were involved. And that all needs to come out. And it needs to come out in the indictments, it needs to come out in the prosecution memos. But the
  68. reality is they put out these pictures for Bill Clinton. [ __ ] it, put it all out. But don't distract from the fundamental issue, which is who are these powerful people who would visited
  69. rape the rape island. I mean, there 1,200 victims and it defies common sense that it was just Epstein and and Maxwell. And they're hiding something. And you know why the American people are
  70. so upset? My X account had MAGA supporters supporting me for the first time, saying, "You know, Pam Bondi whiffed according to Susan Walsh. She is
  71. uh breaking the law. She needs to be held accountable." You're referring to the Vanity Fair quote that the chief of staff gave saying the whiffed. And she said that
  72. uh Pam Bondi gave them binders full of nothingness. And then when it came to the client list, she said it was on her desk. There is no client list, quote,
  73. and it sure as hell wasn't on her desk. Do you see that as an acknowledgement here though that that the politics have overtaken the substance?
  74. No, for us it's about the survivors. And if you look at Thomas Massie and my comments the morning of the release, we were giving uh Blanche the benefit of
  75. the doubt. We said if it's not all there, fine. Just get the information out. It's when the survivors said that this is an insult, this is a slap in
  76. their face that we aren't getting the truth about who these men were on the on rape island, that we started sounding the alarm. And this is more
  77. documents of nothingness. And I guess the question the American people are have even to me is is the system so corrupt? Is the system so corrupt that
  78. Thomas Massie and you defy the odds, pass a bill through a discharge petition, get the Senate, get the president to sign it, and still these
  79. rich and powerful people are being protected? Who has this kind of hold on our government? What are they hiding? Why are they not releasing this?
  80. Well, you want what? People involved in those initial investigations down in Florida re-examined and possibly prosecuted?
  81. I want the information out which was in that prosecution memo that Acosta disregarded, that were in those indictments, that there were 60 counts
  82. against Epstein. Only two counts were prosecuted. I want to know who were these other people who were on the Epstein's rape island, who were the people who saw young girls being paraded
  83. around at parties, 13, 14, 15-year-old and didn't say anything. And why why is it so hard when there's a law requiring these names to come out? What we're
  84. seeing is survivors' names come out, but not the men who abused them. And instead of instead of holding elites accountable, Pam Bondi is breaking the law.
  85. Well, uh we will see when you gentlemen come back to work sometime in January what your next measures are. It sounds like you've made clear you're moving um
  86. action against the attorney general. Thank you both for your reaction today.

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