NEW Epstein Files Expose Trump & Musk Ties

There's a lot happening. The other breaking news, really rippling across Washington and the country today, is that there's new Epstein files out. The DOJ, after blatantly breaking the law that Trump signed, has now released, 40 days after the deadline, 3 million new pages and over 100,000 pictures. These release marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process. After submitting the final report to Congress as required under the Act and publishing the written justifications for redactions in the federal register, the department's obligations under the Act will be completed. This has been a saga and story where both things are true. There has been rampant delay and violations of the plain letter of the law. On the other hand, for the cynics who said, well, maybe they'll just run out the clock forever and nothing else will ever be released, against the precedent of secret grand jury materials and DOJ's general's prasqus of secrecy, and that runs back through both parties, a lot of material, the millions of documents, were released today. The deputy attorney general also spoke about whether he's covering up for his boss. I can assure that we complied with the statute, we complied with the Act, and there is no, we did not protect President Trump. My team has certain communications with the White House. Let me just be clear, they had nothing to do with this review. They had no oversight over this review. That's the claim by a DOJ there. There were tips that involve accusations. That doesn't mean proof regarding whether Epstein and Trump participated in sexual abuse or crimes together. There's not clarity on whether that lead was followed. Other tips include things where news articles are simply forwarded by Epstein. I'm going to show you more of that. Emails where Epstein discusses Trump, something we knew about. There is an important chart I want to show you from inside the federal government. This is new. We hadn't seen it before, partially redacted. And as you see, this is the DOJ looking at what they call the agents, accountants, authorized individuals, associates, redacted employees. Take it for what you will, but some of these people might have been charged, only Maxwell was. Elon Musk also outed for the first time in detail in these files because he writes to Epstein about trying to come visit the island and specifically says, what will be the wildest party on your island? What does wild mean when you're talking to this pedophile? Well, that's open, I suppose, to interpretation. A year later, there was an effort to coordinate an island visit with Epstein telling Musk he'd send a helicopter. Again, these are the emails we have. We cannot say whether that visit transpired or certainly whether any crimes occurred. You might recall that Trump's Commerce Secretary said Epstein was a blackmailer and talked openly about him last year. Turns out there are more hidden contacts between the two. An individual reference there, I should say, as Mr. Lutnik, refers to an email about them getting together. This is after Lutnik claimed he severed ties. We should note that Lutnik publicly distanced himself and in that planning, it appeared that Lutnik was on a trip with his wife. The DOJ says this is the last of the files they'll release. We should note, $3 million is a lot less than the $6 million that prosecutors at the DOJ had initially said they had. Is this a full release or not? That question looms large over what is a ton of new documents. We are joined by Tara Palmieri, a veteran journalist, author of the Red Letter and host of the Tara Palmieri Show podcast where she's covered exactly this story for a long time. Let's start with what's new. We can't get through all the documents today, but what jumps out to you today in the new files? I think the fact that President Trump's inner circle is just so deeply entangled with Jeffrey Epstein, more so than they were ever willing to admit. The fact that Elon Musk would tweet, you know, President Trump is going to get blown up in the Epstein files, and yet here he is arranging to go on the island on a night that would be a party island. Howard Lutnick going out of his way to say he went into Epstein's house once with his wife and was horrified by it, yet he was arranging to go to his island. So it's just like these people, they had such hubris. They had no problem lying about their extensive relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. And obviously there's a lot of really concerning tips about Donald Trump in these documents that we don't know if the FBI actually followed up on or did any investigating. They have maintained their position since June that there were no other men involved in the sexual assault of a thousand women. And those young girls, now women, many of them have filed lawsuits, civil lawsuits because they couldn't do it criminally because of the statute of limitations or they have, you know, various settlements. And Maxwell said there were 25 men that signed settlements with one plaintiff alone. And so we're supposed to believe that the Department of Justice actually did a real investigation on this. It's just, and we're just seeing a bunch of tips, some very disturbing about the president, but we don't know if they ever even took them seriously. Yeah, I mean, Donald Trump's the current president and he has known ties to Epstein. So a big part of these new files today, number one, is the heat that puts on him. And as you say, his allies. I mean, Elon Musk was a recent Trump special employee, a kind of a super cabinet official. So those are big questions. Number two, the questions that the DOJ implicate the Trump administration, which was in charge when Epstein died, but also prior and later DOJs under Democratic administrations. We'll pull up the chart again from the lead. I mean, I have it. It's one of the things I immediately printed to really study because without disfavoring or biasing people, because there's much we don't know, the fact that this many individuals were tied to Epstein in ways that the DOJ at the time viewed as authorized agent, associate people with potential knowledge, people as you know, redacted. And the only one charges Maxwell. Tara, how do you view that in terms of a report card for DOJs in both parties appearing to go softer on these now known associates than many other targets for crimes that were frankly lesser crimes in America? It seems like they've just given up on it altogether. They have, I mean, before June, they said they were active leads when you spoke to the Justice Department. Pam Bondi said she's got the Epstein lead list on her desk. Then afterwards, there's no one else involved. It's really disheartening for the victims because they were hoping that with the Epstein files coming out, they would have a sort of immunity in a sense where it would be public, the names of the people that abused them and the information that they submitted. They wanted to feel like it wasn't their burden. They wouldn't have to deal with defamation suits. Virginia Jufre obviously had to deal with a ton of defamation suits in front of the calendar suits for speaking out. I'm only jumping in with the minute we have left. If we say that the evidence suggests maybe first term Trump DOJ fell down on the job, then isn't it the job of the next DOJ of the American Garland to pick up the leads? And the one before that, I mean, 1996, the first call went in about Jeffrey Epstein from Maria Farmer about her and her sister being sexually molested. And every single time he uses high ranking officials, his contacts, the Obama's former White House counsel, Kathy Remler, was giving him advice on how to deal with an accusation against Donald Trump. I mean, that is how high up Jeffrey Epstein was connected to all of these administrations. And that is why he got away with one of the most perverse crimes for three decades. Yeah. I'm over on time. Do you think these are most of the docs or there are some held back or too early to tell because you've followed this closely? I just think three million documents had to be held back. That's a pretty high number. And we don't know why. And I think there needs to be a deeper exploration into that. Yeah. A lot going on today. As you know, Tara, we're glad we got you on this story. Thank you. We'll be right back. That was another episode of the Tara Palmieri Show. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you like the show, please subscribe. Like, rate, follow, share it with your friends. Go to TaraPalmeri.com. That's T-A-R-A-P-A-L-M-E-R-I.com. Sign up for my newsletter, the red letter. You'll get my exclusive reporting straight to your inbox by becoming a paid subscriber. Get the exclusives and you can support my independent journalism. I want to thank my producer, Eric Abinate. I want to thank Abby Baker on the socials and research. Adam Stewart shows my graphics and Dan Rosen, my manager. See you again soon. Hi. I'm Tamsen Fidel. I'm the director and author of How to Menopause and host of the Tamsen show, a weekly podcast with your roadmap to midlife and beyond. We cover it all, from dating to divorce, aging to ADHD, sleep to sex, brain health to body fat, and even how perimenopause can affect your relationships. And trust me, it can. Each week I sit down with doctors, experts and leaders in longevity for unfiltered conversations, and I hack with advice on everything, from hormones to happiness. And of course, how to stay sane during what can be, well, let's face it, a pretty chaotic chapter of life. Think of us as your midlife survival guide. New episodes released every Wednesday. Listen now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.