Investigative reporters Taya Graham and Stephen Janis go to Capitol Hill to speak with Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored the Epstein Transparency Act. Many of the women who survived Epstein’s abuse and human trafficking ring share their experiences and their determination to receive justice. Now that the bill has passed both Houses, the Department of Justice is obligated to share with the public thousands of previously secret documents, emails, and photos. Although many critics are concerned that redactions will make these documents ineffectual in exposing the predators and predator protectors, there is still hope that these women will finally be able to reveal the corruption that has survived multiple presidential administrations. We discuss four reasons why the Epstein files may be the beginning of the end for the unchecked power of these elites, or “Epstein class.” With Congress compelling the DOJ to reveal Epstein’s secret files, the protective wall around America’s most powerful men is finally beginning to crumble. This moment could be the first genuine challenge to the impunity enjoyed by the country’s wealthiest predators.
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Taya Graham:
Have the wealthy elites who have turned this country into an inequality playground finally met their match with the Epstein scandal. Well, we’re going to break down why the fallout from Epstein is turning the tables on the oligarchy and how the stain of being a predator or a predator protector might not be easy to get rid of just because you’re rich. It’s a show we’re calling the Epstein Reckoning, and we’re going to give you four reasons why President Trump and the wealthy elite or the Epstein class are finally playing defense and finally might not be able to evade accountability. Hello, my name is Taya Graham, and welcome to the Inequality Watch the show that examines the destructive impact of this country’s historic wealth inequality while holding the billionaires who created it accountable. And I’m joined by my reporting partner, Stephen Janis. Say, hi, Stephen.
Stephen Janis:
Hi, Taya. How are you doing?
Taya Graham:
I’m doing great, thank you. Good,
Stephen Janis:
Good, good.
Taya Graham:
Now, today’s topic is ostensibly about the latest developments in the case of a serial predator, Jeffrey Epstein. This week on Capitol Hill, the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly to compel the release of all the investigative records from the FBI pertaining to Epstein’s crimes. And his cronies victims showed up just before the votes and pleaded with Congress to act.
Speaker 3:
This is a human issue. This is about children. There is no place in society for exploitation, sexual crimes, or exploitation of women in society. There’s no room for it, guys.
Taya Graham:
And indeed, they did approving the bill unanimously in the Senate. Only one Republican in the house voted against it. I’m keeping an eye on you. Rep Higgins. All of these dominoes fell when President Donald Trump caved, finally throwing his support behind the measure. Just two days before the vote, Trump has signed it, and now the Department of Justice has 30 days to release the files. I mean, Stephen, this was just pure whiplash.
Stephen Janis:
That’s an understatement. We thought we were going to have a big, big battle over this bill on the house and in the Senate, and then in 24 hours it’s all done and Trump has signed it. It was total whiplash.
Taya Graham:
I know we are standing out there in 32 degree weather. It’s eight o’clock in the morning. We’re trying to get position with our cameras and then to find out, oh, it’s just going to go right through. It was kind of a shock.
Stephen Janis:
Yeah, Trump basically capitulated before the fight even started.
Taya Graham:
But that’s really just the surface of the story. There’s more to it, much more because what we witnessed was in some sense historic. For the first time in recent history, a scandal had President Donald Trump and his billionaire allies back on their heels. And that’s what we’re going to unpack today. Because despite President Trump’s best efforts to stop, distract or otherwise strong arm this crisis out of existence, it has persisted to say the least. And that’s because there’s something else driving the scandal than just Epstein’s heinous crimes, which are of course bad enough. I mean, put simply, Epstein is a symbol of the unequal and unfair economy that surrounds us. Historic wealth concentration. Now, all but granted, Epstein and others unqualified immunity from punishment. Now remember, economic inequality in the US is at historic levels. Wealth is so concentrated that the rich in this country have gobbled up as much extra cash and assets as the elites did during the last gilded age. Nearly a hundred years ago. Money and power has never been in fewer hands. I mean, what other era could our president unironically throw a Great Gatsby party that was a novel that recounted the rapaciousness of the rich during the first gilded age, while people are literally getting kicked off food assistance. I mean, on the one hand, we had a woman on display in massive martini glasses at Mar-a-Lago while there were families lined up outside food banks so their children wouldn’t starve. But I mean, it goes deeper than that, right, Stephen?
Stephen Janis:
Yeah. I think it goes to the core of the, let’s say, the culture of unfairness that emerges from a political economy of concentrated wealth. In other words, the entire economy is extractive and it’s become extractive to serve the wealthiest among us. And so that has also birthed the culture where people are resentful, but they don’t know where to put their resentment
Taya Graham:
To show how the Epstein scandal is bigger than just one man’s crimes. We’re going to break down how it is defined by our country’s vast and widening wealth imbalance. We will show how that fact has made it nearly impossible for the elites to shake it. And to make this point, we’re going to explain how the scandal has put elites in the uncomfortable position of being subjected to the same scrutiny they’ve been subjecting us to for decades. So here are the four ways the Jeffrey Epstein scandal is turning the tables on the oligarchy and why they can’t along with President Trump, make it go away. Number one, the guilt by association playbook has been flipped, so to speak. Now for years, the American criminal Justice system has constrained the working class by using a very simple technique of making almost everyone a criminal. It’s a concept known as guilt by association, which technically is unconstitutional, but that hasn’t stopped law enforcement from using it as a tool of oppression.
For example, think about the war on drugs. Residents of working class neighborhoods were subject to illegal searches, stops, arrests, you name it. Police often justified it by saying the neighborhood was high crime or drug infested, and they did not care about the individual’s guilt or innocence. I mean, I couldn’t leave my house without ID because in my hometown, Baltimore, I could be arrested for being in a neighborhood where I didn’t live. I could not leave my house without my ID to prove that I lived in the neighborhood where I lived or I risked being arrested. But Stephen, how is the Epstein scandal turning the tables on this kind of immunity?
Stephen Janis:
Well, it’s really interesting because as you point out, working class people have been subjected to this kind of technique by police, we call it in the police accountability court blanket criminality. Yes. So the idea is like you are not guilty of anything, but you are guilty of being associated by people in a neighborhood or some other of nefarious depiction of a working class neighborhood. And now you see, when these emails came out, now, the big point where we saw this work when the emails came out, there were people in there like Lawrence Summers, who didn’t necessarily commit a crime but have been ostracized because of their connection to Epstein. Just the connection, just the fact that you email him, the fact that you sat at dinner with him, the fact that you have a picture with him is enough to turbo your career is enough to make you an outsider. And this never happened to the oligarchs. They’re not used to this. They’re not used to saying, like you were saying with your id, you’re walking down the street, do you live in this neighborhood? And you’re like, no, I don’t. And so you’re somehow guilty of a crime because you’re in a neighborhood where there are a lot of drugs. Didn’t matter what you were doing at that moment. Absolutely. Now the elites are feeling this, right? I sent an email to Epstein, oh my God, right?
Taya Graham:
Yes.
Stephen Janis:
You are literally associated with his crimes. Everything bad that he has done, you suddenly become tarnished by it. It is totally a new idea, and I think they’re really, really, really unhappy with it.
Taya Graham:
Absolutely. And now, the second reason Epstein scandal is turning the table on the oligarchy and why they can’t get rid of it, namely Epstein has revealed you can become filthy rich by apparently doing nothing. Now for the record, nothing is more ideological than wealth Americans who work their entire lives just to go bankrupt when they get sick. They’re often told it’s their fault. That’s because we celebrate wealth no matter how it’s obtained as a sign of both moral and intellectual superiority. And this is not new. Just read economist Thomas Piketty’s, groundbreaking work capital and ideology. In it, he counts how the wealthy have always made an ideological argument that their wealth, no matter how it was acquired, was deserved even if it wasn’t necessarily earned. But the Epstein scandal has revealed a twist in the narrative of the entitled wealthy, namely, Epstein got rich without having a job. He didn’t create anything, and yet his net worth when he died was nearly 560 million. I mean, Stephen, how does this turn the tables on the ideological idea of wealth being earned?
Stephen Janis:
Yeah, I mean, it’s one of the great mysteries is Epstein, how Epstein got wealthy, but he’s part of what I think we call the mediocre majority when it comes to the wealthy in this country. A lot of people get wealthy just by being around wealthy people
Taya Graham:
And
Stephen Janis:
Get wealthy by extension. Not because they created something. I mean, Epstein never created a company, a product. That’s right. Anything that we can tie to him. He never wrote a great book or produced an interesting movie or a documentary, even worked as a journalist. He never did any of that. And yet, he’s one of the wealthiest men in this country. And you have to ask yourself why. And what does it say about wealth in this country? Does it say it’s earned? No. In other words, it can accrue to you. And I think one of the things that the rich like to trot out is like, you’re lazy. You’re not working hard enough. You just worked harder.
Taya Graham:
You
Stephen Janis:
Would have more. You wouldn’t die because you can’t have healthcare if you just worked harder. And yet Epstein proved you don’t have to work at all.
Taya Graham:
Not
Stephen Janis:
At all.
Taya Graham:
Well, wait a second. Why did Epstein have a private jet? Why do he have access to some of the wealthiest, most important people in the world, whether they’re Harvard professors or celebrities? Why did he have
Stephen Janis:
Access to that? I’ll tell you exactly why. Because the greatest conspiracy in American politics is wealth concentration. They are all in on it. And if they think you’re part of it, they’ll just throw a little to you, what? $150 million from the guy that ran BlackRock? I don’t know the exact numbers, but it clearly shows that this is an extractive economy where there’s plenty of wealth to go around amongst small group of people. It’s just they don’t want to share it. And so Epstein is the proof that you don’t have to work hard to be rich, you just have to be around rich people.
Taya Graham:
Oh my gosh, that’s such a great point. It’s not what you do. It’s who you know. Yep. Oh my
Stephen Janis:
Gosh, absolutely.
Taya Graham:
And now the third reason the oligarchy can’t shake Epstein. It’s being decided in the people’s court rather than the justice system they own. Now, how Epstein’s Prosecution Unfolded taught us that the rich own the criminal justice system and can thus immunize himself from it. I mean, there are too many things to recount in how Epstein’s first prosecution let him off with little or no punishment, even though he had dozens of witnesses against him, he pleaded guilty to just two state counts of soliciting prostitution from a minor, which please, lemme just add. You cannot do because a minor 14-year-old girl in this case cannot consent to sex. So even the conviction is problematic. He then served time only at night for 18 months and was allowed to work from his private office during the day during which he more than likely committed more crimes. But Stephen, this scandal is actually not being vetted by our criminal justice system. What’s happening here?
Stephen Janis:
Well, what’s happened is that the demands of the people have actually overwhelmed the ability to manipulate this case through a corrupt criminal justice system. As we saw, as we watched this whole thing unfold, remember we were, when the victims first came out and testified, not testified, but talked to the public about their experience with Jeffrey Epstein, that was in September, there was going to be this big battle, right? They weren’t going to have enough signatures for the discharge petition. Speaker Mike Johnson was going to delay the swearing end of Ali to Alva because no way she could sign the discharge petition. She ended up being the 218th. But at that point, when we were covering the victims and covering their stories, it was going to be this massive big thing that
Taya Graham:
It was going to be a fight.
Stephen Janis:
It was going to be a fight through that process, that judicial process. And what happened? Well, all of a sudden it all melted away
Taya Graham:
Because
Stephen Janis:
The People’s Court said, no way you’re going to do this. I don’t know if you agree with me, but I think, oh, Stephen,
Taya Graham:
I completely agree.
Stephen Janis:
Yeah, go ahead.
Taya Graham:
I completely agree. I mean, I think the public support, the outpouring of support for these victims,
Stephen Janis:
For the victims
Taya Graham:
Absolutely has made all the difference in the world.
Stephen Janis:
And because it’s sort of 48 hour meltdown, we’ll call it with Donald Trump, is set at such contrast to the 16, 17, 20 years that the victim testified, where nothing happened, where Epstein was never charged, where people where they
Taya Graham:
Were ignored, they were the fbi. I didn’t return people’s phone calls. It was just always put on the back burner. No justice was served for. So
Stephen Janis:
Clearly the justice system doesn’t work. And of course, I think we’ll see in 30 days whether or not the Justice Department follows the law at all. We know, we know the greatest privilege, as I just said before in this country is being able to evade the law, is being above the law. They always say, oh, no one’s above the law. That is not true because the Epstein victims prove that is provably false. But this time it doesn’t matter because the court of public opinion is louder and stronger than the justice system, as you said they own.
Taya Graham:
Now, I just want to note one sort of addendum to this discussion. Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her, pardon, Epstein’s Crimes, has been transferred to a minimum security prison and received preferential treatment according to her fellow inmates. This includes meals served in her cell and the whole campus being put on lockdown so she could have a secret meeting for which the participants have still not been disclosed. I think it demonstrates that at this point, the criminal justice system has been so warped, it cannot be counted on to hold anyone involved in Epstein’s crimes accountable. And now, the fourth reason, the elites can’t shake the Epstein scandal, the power of the victims. Now, sometimes a massive crime needs a specific victim to resonate and to be fully understood. And as we’ve noted, America’s rampant wealth inequality along with Epstein on trial in the court of public opinion is only due, in my estimation, to the courage of the victims who spoke out and stood up for justice.
I mean, remember when President Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose support? Well, these forceful, determined, courageous, and undaunted victims of Epstein’s crimes prove that thesis wrong because as Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene noted at the most recent Epstein Conference, this scandal is tearing MAGA apart, which is thanks to the victims who were brave enough to speak out, and they’re the first to take President Trump down a notch. Not prosecutors, not politicians, not pundits. They did it. And so put simply this incredible, brilliant and beautiful array of women that I personally witnessed testifying for the Epstein Transparency Act beat President Trump Fair and Square, and are determined that the rest of his cronies are next in line for accountability. I have personally stood outside the Capitol and witnessed the victim share some for the very first time, horrific abuse at the hand of Epstein and others. And let me be clear, the only reason we’re talking about this now is because of them. Trump finally met his match, and it was roughly a dozen women who have thus far refused to back down. Let’s just take a moment to listen to some of them.
Speaker 3:
This isn’t an incredible thing that I’m watching as a Republican, and this is nonpolitical. But for you to go against your own party and to be ostracized, there’s no place for political violence. There’s no place for intimidation. And I can say firsthand stepping out against Epstein and his crimes against children, we have all experienced that ourselves. So for you to knowingly put yourselves at risk and put your career at risk is unbelievable to watch. And we are so grateful. It’s an honor to stand
Speaker 4:
Here again for something. America’s finally united on the immediate release of the entire Epstein files in a divided nation. This is one demand we all share. And I realize that we are a representation of women across America. We come from different backgrounds. We have different religions. We are different races, different creeds, different ethnicities. We have different political affiliations. Some of us don’t want to be political at all. And yet we stand here together for this cause the world should see the
Speaker 3:
Files to know who Jeffrey Epstein was and how the system catered to him and failed us.
Taya Graham:
So Steven, their testimony is incredibly powerful. And I have to say, just on a personal note, being able to be in front of these women, talk to them
Speaker 3:
Directly,
Taya Graham:
Hear their voices, see their eyes fill up with tears, hear their throats close up, because they’re getting emotional, so they’re having trouble speaking. I mean, being just like two feet away from some of these women, it’s impossible not to believe them. It’s impossible not to see their trauma. And I’m just so glad that they’re now finally being heard. I mean something. One of the Epstein survivors, Annie Farmer, said she was 16 when she was first approached by Epstein, and her sister Maria Farmer, her older sister, was also sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein. And she said in 1996, her sister called, when Bill Clinton was president, she went to the FBI. When George W. Bush was president, no one got back to her in 2009, just again and again, presidential administration after presidential administration ignored them. And now for them to finally be close to justice. I mean, Stephen, how do you react when you see
Stephen Janis:
This? Well, I think after the first set of press conferences in September, I think we wrote quite specifically that the women were going to be the ones to take down Trump. It was not going to be any other politician or political party or prosecutor or even some sort of political idea. It was going to be very, the victims who I think anyone who sat and watched them, I’m so glad I was there as a reporter to actually witness this. But yeah, their power of their stories and the courage that it took to speak out,
Taya Graham:
Absolutely.
Stephen Janis:
Which I think people can’t underestimate that. I can only imagine the online pushback they have to deal with.
Taya Graham:
Oh my gosh. And
Stephen Janis:
We know as reporters, we,
Taya Graham:
Oh, we’ve seen it.
Stephen Janis:
Yeah, we’ve seen
Taya Graham:
It. We’ve seen it. We’ve actually seen it with other reporters as well.
Stephen Janis:
They are victims put simply of inequality, not just of sexual predators. And I think the anger and the anxiety and people understanding the system is rigged, but they don’t know how to really express it or what to focus on. These victims gave people something to focus on, which was their horrible stories of being abused by an unequal justice.
Taya Graham:
And I think this was the most important test that our democracy has seen publicly for a while, which is that essentially the public is saying, Republican, democrat, independent, green, whatever the public is saying, if our democracy can’t keep children safe from sexual predators, then what do we even have? And what is it even worth?
Stephen Janis:
And
Taya Graham:
That’s the big test that’s going on here. It’s a test of our democracy, not just transparency, not just justice, not just wealth inequality, but does a democracy protect people?
Taya Graham:
We’re finally getting to see that yes, the people are being heard. Because if we can’t agree that children shouldn’t be predated on by sexual predators, what can we possibly agree on in this country?
Stephen Janis:
Which is why 30 days from now, we will be there watching
Taya Graham:
Absolutely.
Stephen Janis:
When they supposedly deliver these files, because that is going to be critical. To your point, will democracy prevail? Will these files actually be released or will they find some substitute to deny us or deny the victims? Excuse me. So we will be watching for that very reason. Absolutely. Because you’re right, 30 days is like a deadline on democracy.
Taya Graham:
Absolutely. And we will be back on Capitol Hill covering this every step of the way, because as Rep Massie, Rep Khanna noted, this bill actually has legal consequences built in. If the Department of Justice, if there’s anyone in there that’s actually blocking transparency, that’s working against how this bill is outlined, there are trouble and there are criminal liabilities for blocking this transparency. So there you have it. The four reasons why President Donald Trump can’t shake the Epstein scandal and why the oligarchs are shaking in their boots. My name is Taya Graham. This is my reporting partner, Stephen Janis, we are your Inequality Watchdogs. Thanks for joining us. As always, we’re reporting for you.