The MeidasTouch Podcast

Raskin Excoriates Bondi to Her Face in Opening Statement

26 min
Feb 11, 20262 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Democratic lawmakers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, excoriated Attorney General Pam Bondi during a House Judiciary Committee hearing over alleged DOJ mishandling of Epstein files, politicization of prosecutions, and failure to meet with trafficking survivors. Raskin detailed accusations of a massive cover-up, selective redactions protecting abusers while exposing victims, and weaponization of the DOJ against Trump's political opponents.

Insights
  • Congressional oversight is exposing alleged systematic failures in victim protection and document handling at the DOJ under current leadership
  • Multiple career prosecutors have resigned rather than comply with orders perceived as politically motivated, signaling internal DOJ resistance to alleged corruption
  • Survivors and their advocates are using public testimony and media pressure as leverage to demand accountability when institutional channels appear ineffective
  • The politicization of federal law enforcement is becoming a central issue in congressional oversight, with specific examples of rejected grand jury indictments
  • Document redaction practices are being scrutinized as potential evidence of intentional harm to victims rather than administrative error
Trends
Increased congressional scrutiny of DOJ independence and politicization of federal prosecutionsSurvivor advocacy groups leveraging public hearings and media to demand institutional accountabilityCareer prosecutors resigning on principle rather than executing orders perceived as unlawfulGrand juries rejecting politically motivated indictments as a check on executive powerDocument handling and redaction practices becoming evidence in allegations of institutional malfeasanceBipartisan victim advocacy emerging as counterweight to partisan divisions in oversightFederal judges blocking executive actions at unprecedented rates, creating judicial-executive tensionVictim-centered accountability frameworks challenging traditional prosecutorial discretion
Topics
DOJ Epstein Files Mishandling and Cover-Up AllegationsPoliticization of Federal ProsecutionsVictim Protection and Survivor AdvocacyDOJ Document Redaction PracticesCongressional Oversight of Law EnforcementCareer Prosecutor Resignations on PrincipleGrand Jury Rejection of Political IndictmentsJudicial Activism and Executive AuthorityFederal Law Enforcement IndependenceWeaponization of DOJ Against Political OpponentsSeditious Conspiracy Charges Against Congress MembersICE and Border Patrol AccountabilityAttorney General Confirmation HearingsFirst Amendment Rights and OversightInstitutional Corruption in Federal Agencies
People
Jamie Raskin
Democratic ranking member of House Judiciary Committee who delivered scathing opening statement excoriating AG Bondi'...
Pam Bondi
Trump's Attorney General testifying before House Judiciary Committee on DOJ oversight, facing allegations of Epstein ...
Donald Trump
Referenced as ordering prosecutions of political opponents and directing DOJ actions via social media communications
Danielle Sassoon
Acting US Attorney for Manhattan who resigned rather than follow order to quash indictment against Mayor Eric Adams
Hagan Scotton
Iraqi War veteran and federal prosecutor who resigned from DOJ rather than comply with alleged corrupt orders
Eric Sebert
Career prosecutor forced out after finding no evidence to justify criminal charges against Letitia James and James Comey
Mughlinsi Halligan
Trump's personal lawyer from Mar-a-Lago documents case appointed as US Attorney despite zero prosecutorial experience
Letitia James
New York Attorney General targeted by Trump DOJ prosecutions despite lack of evidence
James Comey
Former FBI Director targeted by Trump DOJ prosecutions as part of alleged vendetta campaign
Lisa Cook
Federal Reserve Board member targeted by Trump DOJ prosecutions
Jerome Powell
Federal Reserve Board Chair targeted by Trump DOJ prosecutions
Adam Schiff
Congress member targeted by Trump DOJ prosecutions
Virginia Roberts Giuffre
Epstein trafficking survivor whose death is referenced by advocates demanding accountability
Christy Noem
Administration official who called Alex Pretty a domestic terrorist despite ongoing DOJ investigation
Stephen Miller
Administration official who called Alex Pretty a would-be assassin
Quotes
"You've turned the people's Department of Justice into Trump's instrument of revenge. Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza and you deliver every time."
Jamie Raskin
"You're running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice. You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over six million documents, but you've turned over only three million."
Jamie Raskin
"I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never gonna be me."
Hagan Scotton (in resignation letter to Pam Bondi)
"We as a nation have an opportunity to send a strong message that we will not protect people who victimize children, that we will stand up for what is right, despite what our politics are."
Epstein Survivor
"That does not feel like an accident or a clerical error. It feels like betrayal."
Epstein Survivor (regarding redaction failures)
Full Transcript
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Gofundme helps you make a real difference. Start your gofundme today at gofundme.com. That's gofundme.com, g-o-f-u-n-d-m-e.com. This is a commercial message brought to you by Gofundme. The Democratic ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jamie Raskin, excoriated Donald Trump's Attorney General, Pam Bondi, during his opening statement, Attorney General, Pam Bondi, is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee as part of its oversight functions, Democrats are primarily focusing their questions on Donald Trump and Trump's DOJ, cover up of Epstein's child sex trafficking ring and their complicity in it. Meanwhile, the Maga Republicans are refusing to pretty much ask her any questions about Epstein because they've been ordered by Donald Trump and Maga Mike to not ask any questions at all about Epstein. Democrats, of course, are asking Attorney General, Pam Bondi, questions about a number of other subject matters the DOJ attacking Donald Trump's political enemies, the DOJ taking orders from Donald Trump to engage in all of this unlawful behavior, we'll be covering that as well. But I wanna focus right now on Jamie Raskin's opening statement. It was powerful, Attorney General, Pam Bondi, very passive-aggressive. She refused to even look at Jamie Raskin when he was just excoriating her point by point. So let me show you what went down here. First, let me show you as Attorney General, Pam Bondi arrived at the hearing. This is how she was greeted. Might as touch cameras were there. Let me show you what went down and played this clip. Why do you are disgrace to the American people? You protect pedophiles who systematically rage. Now let me show you Jamie Raskin's opening statement. Here is how he started. Let's play this clip. Welcome Attorney General Bondi. You've got the best lawyers job in America because your mission is justice and your clients are the American people. But to promote justice for the people, you've gotta listen to the victims like the women seated behind you today. Those are just some of the hundreds of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's global sex trafficking ring who are demanding that the truth be told and are demanding accountability for the abusers who trafficked and raped them. You still haven't met with these survivors. So with their permission, let me introduce to you the survivors and late survivors family members who are present today. There's Theresa Helm, there's Jess Michaels, Laura Bloom McGee, Danny Bensky, Liz Stein, Marina Lissera, Sky and Amanda Roberts who are the family of the late Virginia Dufre, Charlene Rushard and Lisa Phillips. Now you're not showing a lot of interest in the victims, Madam Attorney General, whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring or the homicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis as Attorney General, you're siding with the perpetrators and you're ignoring the victims. That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course. You're running them. And Congress member Raskin talks about how Pambondi is running a massive Epstein cover-up. Let's play it. That will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course. You're running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice. You've been ordered by Sapina and by Congress to turn over six million documents, photographs and videos in Epstein files, but you've turned over only three million. You say you're not turning over the other three million because they're somehow duplicative, but we know that there are actual memos of victim statements in there. And you also took down the Department of Justice's prosecution memo from 2019. So it's clearly not all duplicative, but even if it were, why not release it? Just release all the duplicative stuff. In the half you did produce, you redacted the names of abusers, denablers, accomplices and co-conspirators, apparently to spare them, embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do. Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victim's names, which is what you were ordered to do by Congress. Some of the victims had come forward publicly, but many had not, many had kept their torment private, even from family and friends, but you published their names, their identities, their images on thousands of pages for the world to see. So you ignored the law, and even with over 100,000 employees at your disposal, you acted with some mixture of staggering incompetence, cold indifference and jaded cruelty towards more than 1,000 victims raped, abused and trafficked. This performance screams cover up. More from Congress member Raskin right here, talking about how Pambondi and Trump have abandoned victims. They're going after individuals, not just when it comes to the Epstein files, but look what they're doing with, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretty, calling them domestic terrorists, here play this clip. But abandoning victims and coddling perpetrators is what you do best. When the FBI opened a criminal investigation into the brutal killing in Minneapolis of Renee Good, a poet and 37-year-old mother of three by Trump's masked paramilitary ICE agents, you shut it down. You claim you're investigating the cold-blooded murder of Alex Pretty and ICU nurse at the VA, but how can we trust the administration when the president and Christy Knome call Pretty a domestic terrorist? And Steven Miller called him a would-be assassin. Not only do you refuse to share evidence with the state and local investigators and prosecutors in Minnesota, you have blocked their access to the crime scene and the evidence. How are you seeking justice for Marty Marmottines, the Montessori school teacher in Chicago who was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent who bragged about it on text, where the family of Keith Porter, a father of two, shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent in LA, where the family of Soverea V.A.S. Gonzalez, shot and killed in Illinois, minutes after he dropped his kids off at school, there's no sign of any movement at the Department of Justice. You even launched a criminal investigation into Renee Good's grieving widow. How sick is that? But it's even worse. Congress member Raskin says, Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza and he sends you text messages on his true social media platform and then you take orders directly from him. Do you realize how unethical and how unlawful that is, Bondi? You're playing this clip. That, but it's even worse. You've turned the people's Department of Justice into Trump's instrument of revenge. Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza and you deliver every time. He tells you to go after James Comey, Latisha James, Lisa Cook, and Jerome Powell, the head of the Federal Reserve Board, and members of Congress like Adam Schiff, Mark Kelly, Alyssa Slotkin, Chrissy Hula-Han, Jason Crow, Chris Delusio, and Maggie Goodlander, to name a few and you snap to it. You replace real prosecutors with counterfeit stuages who robotically do the president's bidding. Nothing in American history comes close to this complete corruption of the justice function and contamination of federal law enforcement. The good news is many serious lawyers at DOJ, including some of your own original appointees have refused your lawless orders. Danielle Sassoon, your original pick for acting US Attorney Manhattan resigned rather than follow your corrupt order to quash an indictment against Mayor Eric Adams is a political favor from Donald Trump. A Federalist Society member who clerked for Justice Scalia, US Attorney Sassoon refused to participate in this blatantly corrupt scheme. Her top assistant, Hagan Scotton, and Iraqi War vet and two-time bronze star recipient who clerked for Chief Justice Roberts, and then Judge Kavanaugh promptly resigned to, writing to your office, quote, I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never gonna be me. You and the president nominated Eric Sebert, a 15-year career prosecutor, to be your US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. But after five months of investigating the Tisha James and James Comey, he found no evidence to justify criminal charges. So you forced him out. You were placed in Mughlinsi Halligan, Trump's personal lawyer from the Mar-a-Lago documents case who had zero prosecutorial experience and no qualifications. And then you were humiliated when a federal judge found that this corrupt appointment was blatantly unlawful and throughout Halligan's indictments entirely. And grandjuries of American citizens have repeatedly rejected your vendettas. And baseless indictments brought by the hacks left at DOJ now with two different grandjuries in Virginia voting down indictments against Tisha James in a single week. And just yesterday, another grand jury shut down your vendetta factory by rejecting indictments against the six members of Congress who had spoken out to remind all service members that they have a duty to refuse illegal orders. 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But the Trump DOJ tried to prosecute them for seditious conspiracy, watch Jamie Raskin, just lay into Pam Bondy right here and play this clip. Bruce, you tried to get a Grand Jury to indict six members of Congress who are veterans of our armed forces on charges of seditious conspiracy, simply for exercising their first amendment rights. I hope you will keep the wisdom and the constitutional patriotism of those grand jurors and not try it again by doubling down on that humiliation as your best lawyers. And then Jamie Raskin says to Pam Bondy, we ask you politely but firmly answer our damn questions. When we ask you questions, don't go through that little burn book of yours and start complaining and whining and attacking just answer the damn questions. Do you understand, Bondy, here play this clip? Now I was ranking member, I asked the chairman to add a few extra rounds of questions today because we each have five hours of questions, not five minutes, but we're stuck with five minutes. That's clearly insufficient to give voice to America's victims and survivors and demand answers about all the corruption and coverups that we see at DOJ right now. We've got just one round, so we ask you politely but firmly, Madam Attorney General, please do not waste one second of our precious time by evading questions, by changing the subject, or engaging in personal attacks against members of Congress. We saw your performance in the Senate and we're not gonna accept that. This isn't a game. In the Senate you brought something with you called a burn book, a binder of smears to attack members personally for doing the people's work of oversight. Please set the burn book aside and answer our questions. And when you hear us, we claim our time. That means it's time for you to stop speaking. We only have five minutes, so when we reclaim our time, that means you stop. And if you don't, we will ask the chair to stop the clock and let you go on his time. The quality of justice in America depends on the character of our government. Please do your job and bring the Department of Justice back from the brink. The survivors seated behind you and the American people watching everywhere deserve a Department of Justice worthy of its name. I yield back Mr. Chair. I object all. Eight particularly powerful moment at the outset of this hearing. It's when Congresswoman Jayapal, you've seen her on the Midas Touch Network before, she calls for the victims who are in attendance at the hearing today, the survivors who are at the hearing today to stand up. And she says to the survivors in the room, stand up right now and raise your hand if you've never met Pam Bondi or if you've never had the opportunity to even meet with the DOJ. And the DOJ's first and foremost priority is supposed to be to protect survivors, to protect victims. It's what the DOJ has a whole department, that's what they're doing. They're supposed to prosecute the bad guys and they're supposed to help victims and survivors. Watch what went down here play this clip. To the survivors in the room, if you are willing, please stand. And if you are willing, please raise your hands if you have still not been able to meet with this Department of Justice. Please know for the record that every single survivor has raised their hand. And then I'll just share with you what Pam Bondi had to say, more whining right away in her opening statement, where she's like, we had to fight all of this judicial activism. It was a coordinated effort by all of these judges and all of the judges. They don't like Donald Trump, more whining exactly what we expect from Pam Bondi play this clip. This administration has been sued 627 times. We fought through a nonstop flood of bad faith temporary restraining orders from liberal activist judges across this country. America has never seen this level of coordinated judicial opposition towards a presidential administration. It is not only an unlawful attack on the executive branch's authority, but a serious attack on the democratic process. In spite of this unprecedented judicial activism, we've attained 24 favorable rulings at the US Supreme Court. Their emergency docket and even more to come. We've done so while ending the weaponization of the prior administration by dropping face-acquerscutions, exposing the Arctic frost scandal, via congressional disclosure, thank you, Chairman, and restoring one tier of justice in this country. And then she has the audacity to say she wants to acknowledge the Epstein survivors. When you just saw them stand up and you refuse to acknowledge them ever, do you realize how obviously phony you are, what a fraud you are, what a crook you are? Here, play this clip. All members of Congress, as you know, are invited to visit DOJ to see for yourselves. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the Epstein survivors who are here today. I'm a career prosecutor and despite what the ranking member said, I have spent my entire career fighting for victims, and I will continue to do so. I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim has been through, especially as a result of that monster. If you have any information to share with law enforcement, about anyone who has hurt you or abused you, the FBI is waiting to hear from you. I want you to know that any accusations of criminal wrongdoing will be taken seriously and investigated. The Department of Justice is committed to holding criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law. And then right before that hearing we heard from some of those survivors right here, an Epstein survivor over here saying, have deeply disappointed she is in Bondi, play this clip. To Ms. Bondi, we are deeply disappointed, by the way, you and your leadership in this department have treated survivors. And today while you're being questioned, we ask you to look in the eyes of every single one of us. And remember Virginia Roberts, she pray, who paved the ultimate sacrifice for the trauma that she had endured. We ask you to remember the lives that we have lost during this process. Accountability means real answers, not evasion. It means transparency, not more hiding. Another survivor saying that all we hear is from the Trump regime saying they want to move on. Let's just move on. And the survivors can't move on here, play this clip. We as a nation have an opportunity to send a strong message that we will not protect people who victimize children, that we will stand up for what is right, despite what our politics are, that we will cross the aisle, and that we will stand behind survivors for justice. We keep hearing our press secretary and our Department of Justice and other government officials saying, they're moving on from this. I wish that we could. I met Epstein Maxwell when I was 21 years old, I'm nearly 53 now. We cannot move on as survivors of this crime and as citizens of this nation, without changing this narrative. So I ask you all to stand behind us and demand accountability for our government because we certainly are going to. And then here's another Epstein survivor talking about how the Trump regime botched the redactions of survivors named so badly, they could only infer that it's malicious, that it was an attempt to intimidate and harm the survivors here, play this clip. Last year I stood here as a survivor demanding the release of the Epstein files. Today, I stand here again as a citizen demanding accountability. Now that Congress is questioning Pam Bondi of the Department of Justice about the handling of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Let me be clear, survivors are furious. We watched the Justice Department botched redactions so badly that victims' images were exposed while predators, identities were kept hidden and protected. That does not feel like an accident or a clerical error. It feels like betrayal. We're going to keep you updated throughout the day on this hearing. That's what we got you for now. We'll bring you more soon. Thanks for watching. Hit subscribe. Let's get to six million subscribers. Hit subscribe. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber for our subsdack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Phil Kowski, add three episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.