The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell

Lawrence: When Trump’s poll numbers find new lows, he retreats

43 min
Feb 13, 20262 months ago
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Summary

Lawrence O'Donnell covers Donald Trump's retreat from National Guard and ICE deployments across U.S. cities following public protests and deaths caused by federal agents, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Preddy in Minneapolis. The episode examines the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files, with Congressional members discovering redacted documents related to Trump that appear to be improperly classified.

Insights
  • Trump's policy reversals are driven primarily by declining poll numbers rather than constitutional or humanitarian concerns, suggesting political calculation supersedes governance principles
  • Federal law enforcement agencies are allegedly fabricating evidence and lying to FBI investigators, with body camera footage contradicting official narratives about civilian encounters
  • The Justice Department appears to be selectively redacting Epstein files to protect political figures rather than victims, contradicting the stated purpose of transparency legislation
  • Congressional oversight is being undermined through surveillance of members' document searches, representing a potential separation of powers violation
  • Civilian casualties from federal immigration enforcement operations are creating generational trauma and economic damage in targeted communities
Trends
Erosion of federal law enforcement accountability and credibility through documented evidence of false reportingWeaponization of federal agencies for political purposes with inadequate congressional oversight mechanismsSelective application of transparency laws to protect political allies while maintaining secrecy around victimsGrowing disconnect between federal agency narratives and documented evidence from body cameras and video recordingsCommunity-led resistance movements successfully forcing policy reversals through sustained nonviolent protestExpansion of federal immigration enforcement operations with minimal due process protections for U.S. citizensInstitutional cover-ups of federal agent misconduct through evidence suppression and narrative manipulationPolitical candidates and officials appearing in confidential files without proper legal justification for redaction
Topics
National Guard Deployment on U.S. StreetsICE Enforcement Operations and Civilian DeathsFederal Law Enforcement AccountabilityEpstein Files Redaction and TransparencyCongressional Oversight of Executive BranchBorder Patrol Use of Force IncidentsImmigration Enforcement PolicyEvidence Fabrication by Federal AgentsSeparation of Powers ViolationsVictim Protection in Federal InvestigationsPolice Misconduct DocumentationPolitical Figure Involvement in Epstein CaseCommunity Trauma from Federal OperationsExecutive Branch Surveillance of CongressProsecutorial Misconduct and Dismissals
Companies
Apple Podcasts
Platform for MSNOW Premium subscription service offering ad-free listening and bonus podcast content
X (formerly Twitter)
Social media platform where Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche responded to Congressional members with memes
People
Donald Trump
President whose National Guard and ICE deployments in U.S. cities are being reversed due to public pressure and poll ...
Tom Homan
Border Czar who announced the conclusion of the Trump surge operation in Minneapolis after civilian deaths
Lawrence O'Donnell
Host of The Last Word conducting investigation into federal law enforcement misconduct and Epstein files redaction
Maxwell Frost
Youngest House member (age 29) reviewing unredacted Epstein files and discovering documents related to Trump
Ro Khanna
Democratic Congressman and author of Epstein Transparency Act who found improperly redacted political candidate email
Mary Moriarty
Hennepin County Attorney investigating homicides of Renee Good and Alex Preddy by federal immigration agents
Charles Exum
Border Patrol agent who shot kindergarten teacher Miramar Martinez five times, bragging about the incident in texts
Miramar Martinez
Montessori school teacher shot five times by Border Patrol agent Exum with no criminal justification
Christopher Perinti
Attorney for Miramar Martinez exposing federal agent lies and fabricated evidence in shooting case
Tim Walz
Minnesota Governor praising residents for standing up against federal invasion forces and forcing retreat
Alex Preddy
ICE shooting victim and VA nurse killed while attempting to help woman assaulted by federal agents in Minneapolis
Renee Good
Minneapolis resident killed by federal immigration agents during Trump surge operation
Rand Paul
Republican Senator and Homeland Security Committee chairman confronting Trump officials over civilian killings
Keith Ellison
Minnesota Attorney General testifying that ICE surge operation harmed fraud investigation efforts
Pam Bondi
Attorney General allegedly spying on Congressional members' document searches during Epstein files review
Todd Blanche
Deputy Attorney General responding to Congressional Epstein files concerns with memes instead of substantive answers
Howard Lutnick
Commerce Secretary whose visit to Epstein island Trump claimed not to know about
Jeffrey Epstein
Sex trafficker and rapist whose files are being reviewed for connections to political figures and Trump
Kristi Noem
Homeland Security Secretary allegedly praising Border Patrol agent Exum for shooting unarmed American citizen
Elon Musk
World's richest man whose guidance led Trump to cut food aid to starving people in Africa
Quotes
"Where human beings have a conscience, Donald Trump has poll numbers. And his poll numbers are telling him, never again."
Lawrence O'DonnellMid-episode
"I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys. Oh, well, it is what it is. S*** happens."
Border Patrol Agent Charles Exum (via text message)During body camera evidence discussion
"There was no reason he should have died that day."
Susan Preddy (mother of Alex Preddy)New York Times interview reference
"The government has said the purpose of the surge is to fight fraud in government programs. Well, of course, I hate fraud and my office and I are already fighting it. We've convicted 300 people of Medicaid fraudsters in the last seven years."
Keith Ellison, Minnesota Attorney GeneralCongressional hearing testimony
"Why would they redact these documents when it didn't have the names of any of the survivors or victims in it? And it's obviously because they're looking to protect Donald Trump."
Maxwell Frost, Democratic CongressmanInterview segment
Full Transcript
Subscribe to MSNOW Premium on Apple Podcasts for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content to all of MSNOW's original podcasts, including the chart-topping series The Best People with Nicole Wallace, Why Is This Happening, Main Justice, and more. Plus, new episodes of all your favorite MSNOW shows ad-free, and ad-free listening to all of Rachel Maddow's original series, including Rachel Maddow Presents Burn Order. Subscribe to MSNOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. The last word with Lawrence O'Donnell starts right now. Hey, Lawrence. Hey, Jen. We have Congressman Maxwell Frost joining us tonight, the youngest member of the House of Representatives. He got his first look at the unredacted Epstein files, and he wants to go back and see more. And also at the end of the hour, Congressman Ro Khanna is going to be able to join us at that time. He has found a new email in the Epstein files that appears to be from a politician. It's signed, love you. This is an email to Jeffrey Epstein. Congressman Conn is going to join us with that discovery at the end of the hour. I'm going to have to stay up for that to watch that. It's great that they're all going back. It shows such a commitment. There's so much more to find. So look forward to watching. There is. Thanks, Jen. Thanks, Lawrence. Thank you. Well, Donald Trump retreated again today. Donald Trump never announced his full retreat of National Guard troops from the streets of American cities. But as we reported last night, Donald Trump no longer has a single member of the National Guard patrolling a single street in America. That full and humiliating retreat came before Donald Trump sent his so-called border czar, Tom Homan, to Minneapolis to manage the Trump retreat from Minneapolis, which Tom Homan announced on his first full week in that city three weeks ago. And today, Tom Homan made the announcement that everyone in Minneapolis and most people in the country have been waiting for. I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred, that this surge operation conclude. Donald Trump is not the first president to launch an unwinnable war. Presidents have been doing that with disturbing regularity since Vietnam. Donald Trump is the first president to launch an unwinnable war in the United States against the people of the United States, people who then used the rights granted to them in the Constitution to rise up and protest against Donald Trump's war. And the protesters won. The protesters faced a unique challenge in getting through to Donald Trump and forcing him to retreat. They had to change the mind of a man who has no connection to reality, no comprehension of the Constitution, and no basic human decency. a man who is surrounded by the most incompetent, ignorant, and amoral cabinet and advisors in the history of the American presidency, a group that on any given day is capable of saying things that no one who ever emerged from the Senate confirmation process in our history could have possibly said before the weakest Republican Senate in history decided to confirm Donald Trump's cabinet. Today's winner of the daily competition for most perverse thing said by a Trump cabinet member said, and these are the exact words, quote, I'm not scared of a germ, you know. I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats. Unfortunately, guessing who said that about germs and cocaine and toilet seats is easier than it should be. I'm not scared of a germ. You know, I used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats. Yes, that is Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services telling us why we shouldn't be afraid of communicable diseases, at least the ones he didn't get from toilet seats. It would be nice if we could regard something like that as funny. But he is the sociopath who deliberately steered people to their deaths with his opposition to vaccines, the single greatest advance in the history of medicine. Donald Trump has found more ways to kill more people during peacetime than any president in history. He appoints a madman to be the Secretary of Health. And then with Elon Musk's guidance, Donald Trump takes food away from people in the middle of famine in Africa. He took HIV medicine away from people who needed to survive medicine that was being delivered in Africa, thanks to the initiative of Republican President George W. Bush. Donald Trump said, no, we don't want to save those lives. The food was already in transit to those starving people. and Donald Trump became the first president in history to deny food to starving people. The United States of America has been helping people for 200 years in famine until Donald Trump said, let them die. Let them starve to death. Because Elon Musk wanted them to. The world's richest man killing the world's poorest children. And so, how does a protester on the streets of Minneapolis get through the heartless depravity that defines Donald Trump and surrounds Donald Trump. Video recordings proved Rene Good and Alex Preddy were murdered in Minneapolis by Donald Trump's invasion forces. And that made Donald Trump's invasion of Minneapolis ultimately politically untenable for him, as his poll numbers found new lows every week. And so after two murders, Donald Trump orders his invasion forces into retreat. A significant drawdown has already been underway this week and will continue to the next week. A small footprint of personnel will remain for a period of time to close out and transition full command and control back to the field office. After Donald Trump's full retreat announced today, Minnesota's Governor Tim Walz said this. Minnesotans never wavered. And for that, I will be forever grateful. I think it's probably safe to say the rest of the country will be forever grateful because they showed what it means to stand up for what's right, to stand up for the true principles of this country, to stand with the Constitution and to stand with human decency. And so I want to note that the announcement today by Mr. Holman, we are cautiously optimistic, as we've said, and that this surge of untrained, aggressive federal agents are going to leave Minnesota. and I guess they'll go wherever they're going to go. But the fact of the matter is they left us with deep damage, generational trauma. They left us with economic ruin in some cases. They left us with many unanswered questions. Where are our children? Where and what is the process of the investigations into those that were responsible for the deaths of Rene and Alex. This evening, the mayor of Minneapolis told Chris Hayes that the credit for driving Donald Trump out of Minneapolis belongs to the people of Minneapolis. It is a great relief. And the people that deserve the credit are the residents of Minneapolis. It's the 435,000 people. It's the tens of thousands of people that have been protesting peacefully in the streets, that have been standing up for their neighbors, getting groceries to people that are terrified to go outside. And I'm sure there is going to be relief. I think what you saw is you saw a federal government and an administration that thought that they were going to break the people of Minneapolis down. They thought that we were going to back down and sort of kowtow to whatever it is that they were looking to get done, not just locally in Minneapolis, but nationwide. They were looking to implement a national agenda based on coercing us to change local policy. And here's the thing. We didn't. The people of Minneapolis stood up. They stood up for their neighbors. They loved on each other. And I think that's the kind of patriotism that is ultimately going to get us through this. Our first guest tonight, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, who is in charge of the homicide investigations of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Preddy, said this. This is a very good question. If the federal government is really ending this occupation, the reason is that Minnesotans resisted in countless nonviolent ways. This community continues to show inspirational energy and strength in caring for neighbors. Our immigrant community has demonstrated incredible courage. To the people of Hennepin County, you are owed a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid for showing the federal government and the nation just how much you care for your neighbors and for democracy. Donald Trump is in retreat again. Donald Trump has retreated from his National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C. Donald Trump retreated from his ICE invasion force in Chicago. Donald Trump retreated from his deployment of National Guard and ICE invasion forces in Los Angeles, and now Donald Trump has retreated from Minneapolis. And maybe this time, Donald Trump has learned a lesson. Not a lesson in humanity, not a lesson in the Constitution, not a lesson in the First Amendment right to protest, but a lesson in what happens to his polls. As his invasion forces continue, their obviously and now provably deliberate homicidal cruelty. Where human beings have a conscience, Donald Trump has poll numbers. And his poll numbers are telling him, never again. His poll numbers are telling him, do not pick another American city to attack. Do not send your murderous forces on another invasion of another American city. That's what Donald Trump's poll numbers are telling him tonight. Rand Paul is the only Republican member of the Senate with real libertarian leanings. Others claim to be libertarians but they are lying because they have no problem with Americans being murdered in the streets by federal agents for absolutely no reason Rand Paul is the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee which makes him the only Republican in a position of power in the Congress who is willing to confront the current head of ICE and other Trump officials in a hearing today, as he did over the killing of Alex pretty. I mean, he's standing up, he's trying to protect his eyes, but he's still back filming and on the back of his heels. At no time in the encounter, we've gone forward a couple seconds, do you see him try to strike an officer, nor does he brandish a weapon, which was alleged as well. And so we're going through this and it's like, you know, they will say, oh, he's, you know, resisting at some point. I don't see any resistance, but it's kind of hard to tell when you have six people on you and you're moving, are you resisting? I mean, anybody is, the natural instinct is when six people are on top of you, you're going to be trying to move. You're not going to be placid, particularly after they've sprayed him several times. But I see nothing here, I mean, not even a hint of something that was aggressive on his part. Everything was retreat. He's over in the street. He retreats. He retreats. The woman is pushed to the ground. He tries to assist the woman to get up. He's violently sprayed, and it just continues. And so I don't think this should take months and months and years and years. There needs to be a conclusion. You want to calm things down. I think Tom Homan being there and now saying we're going to reduce his presence in the street is a good sign and a good step forward, and I'm glad that's happening. I think that is de-escalation, true de-escalation in a diplomatic way, but we need to have answers here, and there needs to be an announcement. These are the new policies. This is how we're going to interact with the public because the public needs to know too, you know, if I go to a protest and I shout something at people, could I be killed? Minnesota's Attorney General Keith Ellison was also a witness at that hearing. The government has said the purpose of the surge is to fight fraud in government programs. Well, of course, I hate fraud and my office and I are already fighting it. We've convicted 300 people of Medicaid fraudsters in the last seven years. The government did not surge, however, forensic accountants to Minnesota. They didn't surge computer experts. Instead, they sent 3,000 masked armed men who are now kicking in doors, demanding papers, killing Minnesotans, not fighting fraud. The surge has hurt the fight against fraud. Because of it, a wave of experienced prosecutors have left the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, and the remaining staff are now drowning in a flood of habeas corpus petitions. The government has also said that the purpose of the surge was to fight violent crime and rid our streets of the worst of the worst. And yet violent crime rates in Minneapolis were falling before the surge. Furthermore, ICE's own data shows that 77% of those it has detained in Minnesota have no criminal record at all. Notoriously, some of those detained have been children. Is five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos the worst of the worst or 10-year-old Elizabeth Zunia Casaguano? The surge is contributing to violent crime, members. It's contributing to violent crime. two of the three homicides committed in Minneapolis in 2026 have come at the hands of federal immigration nations. In a House hearing last week, Border Patrol agent Charles Exum was in effect unmasked for his shooting of Montessori school teacher Miramar Martinez after he attempted to kill her by firing five shots at her. He was delighted to discover that his five shots had created seven bullet wounds in her body because of the exit wounds. It's disgusting, shameful, and it gets worse. Ms. Martinez, these are images of texts sent by the agent who shot you. And they're actually disturbing to read, but I think it's important for the public to see this. The agent linked an article about your shooting and texted, read it. Five shots, seven holes. I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys. Oh, well, it is what it is. S*** happens. This is someone that works for the United States government. I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Now, he was talking about you. And it's our understanding that he was actually bragging about his aim shooting an unarmed American citizen. Is that right? Correct. Miramar Martinez's attorney will join us tonight with newly released body cam video that proves Charles Exum was deliberately slamming his car into her car. Video that proves that Miramar Martinez did absolutely nothing to threaten an out-of-control carload of Donald Trump's invasion forces with their fingers on the triggers as they were riding through the streets of Chicago before one of them opened fire on Miramar Martinez. Chicago sometimes reports on text messages that Charles Exum wrote after he tried to kill Miramar Martinez for no reason, saying that he was praised big time by all of his commanders, including the now disgraced and demoted Gregory Bovino, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and as Exum put it in a text, El Jefe himself. It doesn't get more perverse than the bigoted man who issued an executive order last year making English the official language of the United States, a man who professes a hatred of everything south of our southern border, would be referred to by one of his gleefully homicidal agents who tried to murder an American citizen for no other reason than what appeared to him to be her Latina heritage. It simply could not be more perverse that that shooter would refer to that president as El Jefe. A text that Charles XM received said, quote, you are a legend among agents. You better effing know that. And tragically tonight, we have no reason to believe he is not a legend among agents. He should be a pariah among agents. He should be condemned by other agents. But if he is a legend among agents, then all of our worst suspicions about the murderous nature of Donald Trump's invasion forces would be sadly proven true. Alex Preddy's parents have given an interview to the New York Times, which reports, quote, Alex Preddy's parents keep a box crammed with 200 letters and cards that have poured into their suburban Denver home since their 37-year-old son was shot and killed by immigration agents last month in Minneapolis. Some are from health care workers and veterans praising Mr. Preddy's work as an intensive care nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Others are from strangers who hailed Mr. Pretty as a hero for his final actions when he tried to help a woman shoved to the ground by a Customs and Border Protection agent, only to be tackled and shot multiple times. There's probably 10 more in the mailbox today, Mr. Pretty's father, Michael, said, as he and his wife Susan held hands and talked about memories of their son and the nightmare of anger, grief, and unanswered questions they have faced since his killing on January 24th. He's my firstborn, Susan Preddy said. He's the one that made me a mother. There was no reason he should have died that day. Rand Paul is right. Alex Preddy retreated when those agents came after him, And tonight, Alex Preddy has forced Donald Trump to retreat. Leading off our discussion tonight is Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. If this retreat proceeds as promised today, will that be in some way helpful to your investigation of the homicides of Renee Good and Alex Preddy? Probably only in the sense that it seems that every day we were seeing video of aggressive behavior by ICE agents, and we are also actually investigating other behaviors. And so to not have that kind of activity happening every day might give us a break here so that we can spend more time on these cases. But we are actually already spending a great deal of time. In fact, I spent an hour and a half today looking at a compilation of the videos of Alex Prady's shooting. So we had been working really, really hard. We said, you know, the FBI had claimed that it would give us access or the BCA access to the Alex Petty evidence. That hasn't happened so far. But if we don't get it, that's not going to deter us from gathering what we have and making a decision. Are there other possible crimes by federal agents that you are investigating? I think. Against other people, yes. And those are some of the videos that people across the country have seen. We haven't talked about that as much because we're trying to figure out how to collect information about those. When we opened the public portals on the good and petty cases, we received over a thousand submissions. So we're trying to figure out an effective way of having people give us information about these other cases that probably everybody's seen in the media in a way that we can follow up and make sure that we can contact the person who's submitting that video or evidence. What will happen to life in Minneapolis if the Trump retreat is complete? I think it's going to take a long, long time for people, and I won't even say to recover from this, I don't know how you recover from this. I don't know how five-year-old children recover from being afraid to go to school. Businesses have closed. People who were here with no records, who were just working and got forcibly removed from their community and their children left behind. We know that. People have been deported and their children are still here So I know Minnesota is resilient and people are resilient but there has been a lot of trauma caused by this occupation of our city Mary Moriarty, thank you very much for starting off our coverage tonight. Of course. Thank you. Thank you. Coming up, newly released body cam video proves that Border Patrol agents lied about Miramar Martinez to justify trying to kill her with the five shots fired at her for absolutely no reason. We'll have that video next. The U.S. military deployed on the streets of America. Whole communities targeted for removal. There was tremendous anxiety as they saw neighbors and friends being taken. And when accountability finally came knocking, the burn order to cover it all up. I never believed that America would be doing this. A stain on this country, one that we said we would never repeat. Rachel Maddow presents Burn Order. All episodes available now. Miramar Martinez is a miracle because she lived. She survived five bullets to testify against the man who fired those bullets. She told the House committee last week, as a 30-year-old USA citizen with no criminal history, I believed that I had nothing to worry about. And then she was shot five times by Border Patrol agent Charles Exum in an attempt to kill her. Charles Exum then celebrated what is clearly, according to the evidence, an attempted murder. In text messages with his teammates, one of whom told him he was a legend because he shot and almost killed an unarmed American citizen born in this country who committed no crime. Donald Trump's federal prosecutors were forced to drop any charges against Miramar Martinez when the evidence they collected proved that she committed no crime. The Border Patrol vehicle stopped just one to two car lengths ahead of me. it seemed like time stopped I knew from watching the news coverage of other border patrol encounters in Chicago that I was in danger I watched the vehicle of agent border patrol agent killing Silverio Villegas Gonzalez just three weeks prior I knew I had to get to safety before I was dragged from my car and likely beaten or killed. I drove forward and went around the Border Patrol agents who jumped out of his car and pointed his gun at me. I moved to the far left lane, striking the curb on the far left side of Ketzee. The next thing I knew, I felt a burning sensation in my arms, legs, and that I had been shot by pepper balls, which I also seen these agents fire at people in our community. As I continued to drive past the Border Patrol agents, I could hear my back passenger window shatter, and I felt bullets continue to pierce my body. As I attempted to drive to a safe location, I began to feel lightheaded. I looked down, and I noticed blood gushing out of my arms and legs, and I realized I'd been shot multiple times. As I became lightheaded, I became worried I would pass out and endanger others. drivers on the road. I managed to drive a mile from where the incident happened and I pulled into a parking lot of a mechanic shop and I called 911. I told the 911 operator that border patrol agents had just shot me and I needed help. I recall some of the workers from the shop sitting me down in the chair as I was waiting for help but I was losing this battle. I saw my life flash before me and slowly began to think this was the end for me. And before losing consciousness, the next thing I remember is the EMT putting me on a stretcher, taking me to the hospital. At the hospital, I remember seeing multiple agents standing around, watching me be treated for my wounds. My arms, legs, and chest were all wrapped in bandages. I had seven bullet holes in my body. I remember the agents rushing the nurses to finish up so they could take me with them. I still felt dizzy. I was not able to fully process what had happened to me. After being at the hospital for less than three hours, I was discharged from the hospital and took custody of the FBI. Bye. Here's the newly released body cam video from inside the vehicle Charles Exum was driving that shows how crazed and trigger happy and dangerous all of the gun toting agents in that car were every minute they were loose on the streets of Chicago. As you watch this video, the key point of evidence is Charles Exum turning the steering wheel to the left, which meant he was turning his car to swerve into Miramar Martinez's car, which was on his left. All right, it's time to get aggressive and get the out because they're trying to box us in. We're going to make contact and we're boxed in. We are boxed in. Be advised, we've been struck, we've been struck. Don't you f***ing move! Don't you f***ing move! We got shots fired, shots fired. We need back shots fired. All right. I'm here. I'm here. Thank you, mother----. Journey to us now is Christopher Perinti, attorney for Miramar Martinez. Attorney Perinti, those shots are fired pretty much the second he jumps out of that car. Yeah. By our stopwatch is a little less than two seconds, but he fires five times immediately. And this is someone whose whose whose story was she tried to swerve her car into into us and interfere with us. Correct. And look, the government fought the release of this discovery for months because they knew once it was out there, the American people would see that the government was clearly lying to them. And, you know, the first lie was the swerving, right? I mean, DHS has consistently said that she rammed that vehicle. You can see in the video that was released that he turns the wheel to the left right before impact, which would be consistent with him hitting her who was on his left. But the agent also in the discovery that was released, he was interviewed by the FBI immediately thereafter. And he admitted that he veered to the left in order to, quote, create space. So the narrative never made sense, even according to their own evidence. and it wasn't just the fact of who hit whom. They had also claimed that they were boxed in, right? But we found a video from right where that incident happened that clearly showed there was nobody in front of them. And so these agents literally drew a picture for the FBI and they put three cars in front of them to show that they were, quote, blocked in and therefore they had to get out and shoot. But this video that we released as well as part of this shows that there was no cars in front of them, that they completely made up these three vehicles that they drew in a report and turned over to the FBI. And so we would actually like to see them all prosecuted for lying to FBI agents. So what are the legal remedies now? So, you know, the U.S. Attorney's Office, to their credit, after, you know, looking at everything and realizing that they've been lied to by the Border Patrol agents, they dismissed the indictment, which is, you know, as a criminal defense attorney, that's always my goal. And that's what we did for Merimar. So now the next step is, you know, they won't stop defaming her. They continue to call her a domestic terrorist. They continue to say, despite what you just saw and all the other evidence, that she rammed them and that she drove at them. So we are now suing them, suing the agency, the Federal Torts Claim Act. And we'll keep fighting because Merrimar, to your point earlier, she is a miracle. She is Renee Good. She is Mr. Preddy. She is Silverio Gonzalez. She just happened to survive the bullets that ICE fired at her. What was it like for you as a criminal defense attorney who I know criminal defense lawyers like to believe their clients? It's not always easy. But with a client like this, it would feel easy right away. This kindergarten teacher telling you this story. But what was it like for you as the evidence piled up and piled up, proving that everything she said was true and everything they were saying was a lie? Yeah, I mean, Lawrence, I was a federal prosecutor for 14 years. I did 10 years in the Chicago office, four in Miami. So I knew how a case is supposed to be built. And you don't charge these cases without doing the due diligence up front. And so I met Mara Mara within seconds. I mean, she's a Montessori school teacher with no criminal history. U.S. citizen, never been in trouble for even a parking ticket. I knew right away that there was something wrong here. And I've never had a case where literally every time I got new discovery from the government, it was completely in our favor. I mean, just showing that these agents were lying. And, you know, I know these prosecutors. I pushed back on them and I said, guys, you need to look at this because you have it wrong. And to their credit, they eventually realized that and dismissed the indictment. Attorney Christopher Parenti, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thanks, Lawrence. Thanks. Coming up, Donald Trump was asked about Commerce Secretary Howard Blutnik lying about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. And Congressman Maxwell Frost got his first look at the unredacted Epstein files. Congressman Frost will join us next. We'll be right back. Sign up at MS.now. Today, Donald Trump claimed that he didn't know that the most incompetent lying Secretary of Commerce in history, Howard Lutnick, visited sex trafficker and rapist Jeffrey Epstein island Mr President were you aware that Secretary of Commerce visited Epstein island And do you continue to have to? No, I wasn't aware of it. No, I didn't. I actually haven't spoken about it. I wasn't. But from what I hear, he was there with his wife and children. And I guess in some cases, some people were. I wasn't. I was never there. Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost of Florida, of the youngest member of Congress at age 29 went to the Justice Department to view the unredacted Epstein files yesterday. While I was able to spend two hours today looking through these documents, I definitely just scratched the tip of the iceberg. So I'm going to be heading back to the DOJ to continue going through my list of documents that I need to look through. Once I've completed my review, I'm going to head to the House floor so that way my speech is protected under the law. Many of the unredacted documents I saw left me very confused as to why they were redacted to the public in the first place, not including the names of any victims or survivors, but just information that might be good to know. A lot of these did relate to Donald Trump. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost of Florida. He's a member of the House Oversight Committee. And Congressman Frost, that is a that is a fascinating description as far as it goes of what you saw and what you came out of there thinking about. But let's begin with what we now know to be the fact that all of your searches there are being tracked by the FBI. Yeah. And, you know, when I first walked in, I mean, you come into this room with four computers, you have, you know, two, three members of the Department of Justice kind of there watching her every move. I always assumed that the room was bugged, but it was pretty insane to see those photos of Pam Bondi at a congressional hearing where we're supposed to be conducting oversight with what is essentially the burn book, a binder on each member of Congress so she can try to bully them and deflect having printouts of all of our search records. The attorney general spied on members of Congress as we were conducting oversight and then use what she got from that spying to try to get back at them on a committee, which I think completely violates the separation of powers. And the whole point of Congress and part of our work is supposed to be conducting oversight on this administration without being spied on. And so, you know, we're looking at many different avenues. I spoke with Reggie member Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia about this. Obviously, Pramila Jayapal, it was her information that we saw there, but it's completely despicable and shows straight up that they are in the middle of a cover up. Why would they need to spy on us and see what our search records are if they weren't worried about what we were looking at? So what you were looking at were things that kept leading you to Donald Trump. What what what are you finding? yeah and i want to i want to be careful because i am going to go to the house floor soon to speak a lot about this but but but what i will say is there are just there are large amounts of documents that when i would click the button to unredact them did not have the names of any victims or survivors which was really the only redaction we required in the law that we passed by the way voted on voted yes by almost 100 of congress but it was just emails and traffic people talking about Donald Trump's involvement or Donald Trump and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. And so, you know, the thing I was confused about, but not so confused, is why would they redact these documents when it didn't have the names of any of the survivors or victims in it? And it's obviously because they're looking to protect Donald Trump, because Donald Trump straight up lied to the entire country when he told us that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago. And he completely lied to us when he said he didn't really have a close relationship with him when everything that's already public shows up that they were really good friends. And a lot of what I saw unredacted continues to prove that they were very close and that Donald Trump was completely lying about throwing him at a Mar-a-Lago. And just the point about the House floor and speaking about this in the House floor is that your speech on the House floor is protected, is legally protected in ways that speech off the House floor is not. And what you have to say might require that protection. Exactly. I mean, look, we're talking about a cover up of massive proportions, of course, as it relates to Donald Trump, but also many other very elite people in this nation and billionaires that I think would go through the ends of this earth to shut someone like myself up, including litigation. And so I just want to make sure I protect myself. This is one of the reasons why one of our members, Ro Khanna, when he read a few names out loud that he saw in those documents, he took to the House floor to do that. And I'll be doing the same. Actually, interestingly enough, Lawrence, I went on Reddit and asked people what documents they thought I should look at. We received literally thousands of responses. And so I'll be going back to the DOJ to look through those specifically. And we'll also clarify some of what I saw on the House floor for the people of Reddit and the people on the internet who've done a lot of research on this as well. Congressman Maxwell Frost, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thanks for having me. Thank you. And coming up, Congressman Ro Khanna has found a new email in the Epstein files to Jeffrey Epstein signed, love ya. It appears to be from a political person of some kind, but that name is redacted in the Epstein files. Congressman Khanna joins us next. Congressman Ro Khanna found this email in the Epstein files dated February 3rd, 2016, two days after the Iowa caucuses. The email says, Hi, Jeffrey, I got more votes than Jeb Bush in Iowa, and I only had one congressional district. He had four. It's so funny to me, totally embarrassing to him. Still like Trump and might be delegate to the Republican convention. Was in St. Thomas for a couple of days. Did call this island, but never heard back. Went scuba diving off St. Jeff and it was beautiful. Would be totally funny to me, at least, if you put a big fake shark or statue under the water where the divers go. Love ya. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California is a member of the Oversight Committee and author of the Epstein Transparency Act. Congressman Khanna, why is why is the name on this email redacted? There's no reason. I mean, this person is a political candidate. We explicitly in the Epstein Transparency Act said politicians and candidates are not protected. So I wrote an email to the Justice Department saying you made a mistake. Unredact this. And I tweeted that out. The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, tonight actually tweets back at me with a clown meme. I never thought we would see people in these high level positions that are that deeply unserious. And he says, oh, this is actually a victim. Now, you're saying a political candidate is a victim. It was such an outlandish claim that on X, which is Elon Musk's platform, which is filled with MAGA supporters, there's now a community note saying that the deputy attorney general used a clown meme is mischaracterizing the email. And what is sad to me is they're playing these games and ignoring justice for the survivors. And with all the work that needs to be done to if if honest mistakes were made in the redaction of the Epstein files, there are thousands upon thousands of these mistakes. There's so much work for that department to be doing tonight. But the deputy attorney general is looking for your tweets to play wise guy with your tweets. I mean, it's mind boggling. He's tweeting in Massey and he's tweeting in me, as opposed to trying to correct the mistakes. And he's refused to meet with Massey or me. And the reality is that Massey and me, we aren't trying to even score political points. We first emailed them saying, hey, just unredact these things. And by the way, as you know, Lawrence, because you've talked about this on your show, there are all these files the FBI scrubbed in March. So we're not even talking about the scrubbed files. We're talking about the mistakes they made in the new redactions, and they're unwilling to fix them. Well, at this point in your investigation of the the unredacted, the now unredacted files that were previously redacted, much of which is still redacted. How how how much of an understanding of the size of this mountain of material do we have? What percent of this mountain do we understand at this point? Maybe 10 percent. And the idea—I mean, I saw Maxwell Frost is doing a great job, but the idea that Jamie Raskin or Maxwell Frost or I can go in to the Justice Department for one hour in a cubicle with four laptops a few times a week and discover everything we need to do with three million files is ludicrous. I mean, that's why you have a Justice Department. That's why you have to have hearings. And the reason we don't have any clarity is that the Justice Department is more interested in protecting the people who committed these crimes than actually investigating them. There's no investigation. All these emails are coming out. Oh, I may have gone to the island. I went to to something on the ranch and there's no investigation. No one's picked up the phone and call these people and say, what do you know? And then I'm getting texts from survivors to this day saying, here's the person in the file. That person raped me. Why is the Justice Department not doing anything. I forward it to the Justice Department. And in some ways, I feel helpless because, yes, we exposed this, but ultimately it's the Justice Department that has to make the decision to investigate and prosecute. Congressman Ro Khanna, thank you very much for joining us tonight. Thank you. We'll be right back. karsford roe kanna the author of the epstein transparency act gets tonight's last word subscribe to ms now premium on apple podcasts for early access ad free listening and bonus content to all of ms now's original podcasts including the chart topping series the best people with nicole wallace why is this happening main justice and more plus new episodes of all your favorite MS Now shows ad-free, an ad-free listening to all of Rachel Maddow's original series, including Rachel Maddow Presents Burn Order. 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