Amy Klobuchar Demands Release Of Epstein Files During Interview With CNN's Jake Tapper

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On Sunday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper.

Transcript

00:00So right now, we're in the middle of a procedure.

00:03The president, frustrated with this issue, has asked his attorney general, Pam Bondi,

00:08to release what he calls the pertinent grand jury testimony from cases involving Epstein

00:13and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who's in prison.

00:16That information, however, even if it's released, will only be about crimes committed by Epstein

00:20and Maxwell, and experts say it will almost certainly not mention the other wealthy and

00:25powerful individuals who may have gotten away with crimes that they were not charged with.

00:29You're a former prosecutor.

00:31What do you think is responsible to be released?

00:34Well, Jake, this has gotten to the point because of promises made by the president.

00:41By the way, another host of promises not kept, whether he promised he was bringing prices down.

00:46He has not promised he would keep people on Medicaid.

00:50They're getting kicked off.

00:51And now promises that they're going to release these Epstein files made while they were in

00:56office, while the attorney general was in office, promises made by the man who is now the FBI

01:02director.

01:03So you get to a point, and this is how I view it as a former prosecutor, you have to protect

01:08the victims if you release documents.

01:10That's fairly easy to do.

01:11You just redact the names of victims.

01:14And you've seen documents like that before.

01:17But this has gotten to the point where they have just sown distrust in the justice system.

01:22They promised that these documents would be out there.

01:26They literally gave people binders that said part one.

01:29And now suddenly, with a whistleblower reporting that 100,000 documents were reviewed by the

01:35FBI to look for the president's name, they've suddenly pulled back and said, no, we're not

01:40releasing them.

01:41So, to me, as a former prosecutor, there are times when you release things for the good

01:46of the country.

01:47This is one of those times.

01:48And you don't go and say, oh, we just got to see if a judge will let us do part of the

01:52evidence, part of the files that are over here in this grand jury proceeding after dissing

01:57judges forever.

01:58Give me a break.

01:59I want to play something your Senate colleague Ron Wyden of Oregon said on the Senate floor

02:03earlier this week.

02:06Here in the Treasury Department, Mr. President, locked away in a cabinet drawer is a big Epstein

02:12file that's full of actionable information.

02:18Follow the money details about his financing and operations that await investigation.

02:24Julie Brown, the investigative reporter whose Miami Herald story in 2018 really brought this

02:29Epstein case back into the forefront.

02:32She says that file of financial records would be a trove of information in terms of finding

02:37other guilty parties.

02:39Do you think the Treasury Department should release what they have on Epstein, too?

02:44Like I said, things should be released.

02:46We should know what happened here.

02:48And it is a claim that this president has made time and time again.

02:53And the American people have the right to know what happened.

02:56So President Trump posted on Truth Social Friday, quote, if there was a smoking gun

03:01on Epstein, why didn't the Democrats who controlled the files for four years and had Garland and

03:05Comey in charge use it because they had nothing, unquote.

03:09After the Miami Herald story broke in 2018, you said there was something not right in the

03:13Epstein case.

03:14But it's true that the president says there, Democrats didn't really seem to do anything

03:19about the Epstein files throughout the four years of the Biden administration.

03:23I mean, should you have, you sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Marsha Blackburn

03:27for years has been trying to get flight records and other information about Epstein released.

03:32And she seems to have been the only one on that committee trying to do so.

03:37So the president blaming Democrats for this disaster, Jake, is like that CEO that got caught

03:43on camera blaming Coldplay.

03:45OK, like this is his making.

03:49He was president when Epstein got indicted for these charges and went to prison.

03:55He was president when Epstein committed suicide.

03:59And then there was another case, as you know, that continued during the Biden administration.

04:03But he was president back then.

04:05So all of us would believe they know what's in these documents.

04:09They know it's there.

04:10They've been claiming forever that they should be released.

04:12And it is the Trump administration that gave a bunch of binders that said volume one to

04:17reporters just in the last month.

04:20It is the Trump administration that has made this promise that they're going to release it.

04:24So I am blaming Democrats for this to me.

04:27I'm sorry.

04:28This is the people that have been fomenting this are right-wing influencers, members of Congress,

04:34people who have a reason that they want to know what's in there.

04:36They believe the president when he said there's stuff in there that people should see.

04:41Wall Street Journal, these are not bastions of liberalism or wild progressives that have

04:47come out and said the public have a right to know what is in these documents.

04:53You visited New Hampshire last weekend to campaign for Congressman Chris Pappas in his

04:57Senate race.

04:58New Hampshire, of course, an early primary state.

05:01Now that Joe Biden is no longer in office, New Hampshire goes back to the front of the line.

05:06Are you considering at all a presidential run in 2028?

05:09And what do Democrats need to do to get their to get your dismal approval ratings up?

05:16I think every Democrat, national Democrat, including myself, is focused on this upcoming

05:21election, which is the midterms.

05:23OK, that's why I was there to help Chris Pappas, who's a tremendous candidate.

05:27And what you've seen is we've got now incredible candidates that are running all over the country.

05:35We are going to be focusing on a forward-looking agenda to counteract all the crap that's been

05:40going on with this administration.

05:42And when you look at the enthusiasm of our voters that are showing up, the people in the middle,

05:48modern Republicans, independents that hate the chaos and the corruption and the costs going up,

05:53I am feeling better and better about how Democrats are doing every single day.

05:58And the polls show that the president, some of them, including one Fox News poll,

06:04similar to some of the things that you've been showing, the president's approval ratings are

06:08way underwater when it comes to his handling of the economy.

06:13And that's what people are talking about in New Hampshire and Minnesota, any state across the

06:17country.

06:18They go in the grocery store, and the president can tell them inflation isn't a factor,

06:22but they just see the prices going up, a doubling of the price of coffee.

06:27That's what they're seeing out there right now.

06:29And he can say what he wants.

06:31He can do what he wants on true social and blame Fox News when they put a post on and say,

06:38hey, we don't like them, except maybe some of their anchors are great and bully on the media.

06:43But the facts are there for the American people the minute they walk into a grocery store.

06:48So, 2028, you're not ruling it out, fair to say?

06:52No.

06:52I am focused on my job in the Senate, and I'm really focused on our great candidates that

06:57are up all across the country.

06:59And anyone else that's not doing that right now, I think that they better look at what

07:04Donald Trump is doing to our economy and doing to our democracy and our Constitution.

07:09Senator Amy Klobuchar of the great state of Minnesota, thanks so much.

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