James Comer Gives Timeline On When Ghislaine Maxwell Will Be Subpoenaed

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Rep. James Comer (R-KY) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill.

Transcript

00:00Yeah, can you can you come to the bottom step? Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

00:04Appreciate it. Okay, so how quickly do you plan to issue the subpoena for

00:07Maxwell? The subpoena should be issued in the next day or two. I'll be here on

00:11Thursday because we have Ron Klain coming in and the process that will play

00:16out is our attorneys will have to contact her attorneys because obviously

00:21she's represented by counsel. She's in prison now doing an appeal process to

00:27her guilty ruling. So, you know, they'll have to be negotiation take place. Is

00:34she requiring any type of terms or anything like that to talk to us? If not,

00:39then we can roll in there and do the deposition fairly quickly. I'll have to

00:44go to that prison to do the deposition. We've done that before. We've gone into

00:50prisons and then transcribed interviews and deposition. So that's where this will

00:54take place and hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later with Department of

01:00Justice having investigation ongoing and you know what was announced today. I

01:05don't know how that complicates things, but we're my committee for the past 10

01:10days has been adamant about talking to Maxwell. I relate that to this leadership

01:18staff and said that, you know, if there's going to be a vote on the floor, I

01:21think the majority of my committee will vote with Ro Khanna because Ro Khanna is

01:25on the oversight committee. So, you know, I think leadership knew that this was was

01:29probably going to happen. I don't mind because, you know, it's something that my

01:33committee wants to do. When we talk regularly, what do you want to look into? Who

01:36do you want to talk to? This has always been at the top of the list for the

01:40House Oversight Committee. So, you know, we knew going into this subcommittee

01:45hearing that Mr. Burchard and there were others on the on the committee, Mr.

01:50Brandon Gill and others wanted to do this. So we, uh, Burchard made the motion and we

01:56approved it and had our subcommittee. So this will be in prison. It sounds like it

02:00can't be. I don't know how I don't know how else you could. We tried to get Jason

02:07Galanis to come in for a testimony. We had Tony Bobulinski there. It's very

02:10difficult, especially her to get to come here. So, uh, and that would probably

02:17take a lot longer. And I think the, you know, most people have a sense of

02:20urgency here. So, uh, I would assume we will end up going to that prison to do

02:25the deposition and release the transcript afterwards. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, the

02:29Democrats will be there too. So, but I want to release the transcript for

02:32something. You know, when Jamie Raskin was on the oversight committee, he wasn't

02:35always truthful with you. So I like to have the transcript and a video too. Would you

02:39give her immunity to testify? I don't, I don't, uh, I don't think that we can do

02:44that since she's in federal. I don't think we can do that. You know, the

02:50immunity thing, a lot of people don't understand. We can grant immunity if the

02:53Democrats, if the Democrats, uh, we have to have two thirds vote in the house

02:58in the oversight committee to grant me. So Democrats would have to vote with

03:01Republicans. But I'll be honest, I don't think there are many Republicans that

03:03want to give immunity to someone that may have been, uh, sex trafficking

03:07children. So the, the, the immunity thing I would assume will be off the table for

03:12the oversight committee because I would be surprised if the Republicans voted for

03:15that. Democrats might, but I don't think Republicans would. So is this the end of

03:18the investigation when you depose Maxwell or is this going to be a full

03:20flow investigation? It could be. I mean, she, she's said publicly she wants to talk to

03:24Congress. We would be the logical committee for her to talk to. But I'm

03:28saying you can do a full-blown investigation. I don't know. I, you know, I don't

03:30know. She, she's, we'll see what she has to say and we'll go from there. President

03:35Trump said he's going to release, you know, the, the, what they have. Uh, Pam

03:39Bondi said they're gonna release what they have. So we just have to see what

03:42what's out there. All I know is what we see on TV. And, you know, she said

03:47publicly she wants to talk to Congress. I think you all know there's

03:50overwhelming support, uh, for Congress to talk to her. So, uh, that first step

03:54was taken today. We'll just have to see how it works out.

03:58Someone, someone who has advocated for transparency, do you support releasing

04:01whatever the Justice Department has, the Epstein files? Of course. Yes.

04:05Absolutely. Do you think the White House has been collaborative on this? I think

04:09that, uh, they said they're going to release everything and I think they

04:11will. But so far what they've done, is that sufficient? So far as what the

04:16Justice Department has done, is that sufficient in your eyes? Uh, well, I think

04:20they, they, Congress wants them to release what they have. There, there's no

04:26question. That's no secret. You all have been reporting that. The overwhelming

04:28majority of Republicans in Congress want to see the administration release

04:35the Epstein files. That's what we hear back home from our constituents. And I

04:38think that message has been relayed. There may be reasons because of, uh,

04:42protecting, you know, people in further investigations. I understand why it would

04:47be difficult to release it, but I think that the message has been sent and

04:50received that Congress expects, uh, the, the federal government to release

04:54everything within reason, uh, with respect to the Epstein.

04:57Will you go for the Massey resolution? Uh, with respect to the Epstein. Will you go for

05:01the Massey resolution? Well, uh, you know, if it comes to the floor,

05:05but I feel like we're doing what the president by September will surely have

05:13turned over everything. So, you know, if, if, if things haven't been turned over by

05:17then, I think the Massey resolution will pass on the floor. So hopefully, you know,

05:21we were going to be gone for, for a few weeks. Hopefully by the time we come back,

05:25uh, everybody will know what the government has. Will you be satisfied with just the grand jury

05:29court documents? Well, I think that's a good start. Let's look at everything to you though.

05:34Uh, yeah, I think if we talked to Maxwell, she wants to tell us who I was going to Epstein

05:38Island. I think that would be interesting. And you can go from there. We don't know all the,

05:43all the facts, but everything that we know from what we've seen in the media reports is,

05:49it's really bad. So I don't think she should be granted a pardon or immunity or anything like

05:54that. If she wants to talk to members of Congress, then, then we'll give her that opportunity.

05:59The Justice Department also said that they were going to interview Ms. Maxwell. What

06:02do you make of that? Interview who? Ms. Maxwell. Well, when we decided to do this,

06:06we weren't aware they were going to do that. But, you know, I, I think that that's fine if they

06:11interview her. Uh, I just hope they release the transcript. Ms. Cremont,

06:15a separate matter. You were put a big role in getting RFK that deal with RFK stadium here.

06:21Now the president says he may try to take some steps to block that in order to change the name

06:25back to the Redskins. Are you supporting what the president is saying? I like, I like the old

06:29name better. I, I, I grew up, uh, a football fan like everybody else. So I'm used to the Redskins,

06:34but I'm pretty confident this, uh, this stadium is going to happen. And, uh, regardless of what the

06:40name of the football team is, and I'm glad we've kind of pushed the Metro Council here.

06:45To finally have a vote on it, the mayor has been wanting this to be sped up a little bit.

06:51I think the council's been dragging their feet. So I, I think everything's moving to the right.

06:54But do you think the president can block this? I don't think he can, no.

06:58Why not? I just, we passed the bill that, you know, it was the last bill, it was my bill. And

07:03Joe Biden, it was the last bill the poor old auto pin signed before the, before the administration

07:09ended. So I think we're in good shape on the stadium. And you don't think they should change

07:12their name back to the Redskins. Well, I didn't say that. I kind of agree. I agree

07:15with President Trump. I would rather it be the Washington Redskins. I agree with him on that.

07:19But it should be their decision. Well, it's, it's, you know, it's a private business. It's,

07:23it's their decision. But yeah, I, I agreed with what he said about cleaning the Indian suit.

07:27What do you make of Democrats in suit now? Well, I literally, you know,

07:35well, why didn't they release them before? You know, where were they over the last four years?

07:39It's funny that MSNBC asked J.B. Raskin that, and he started stuttering around and stuttering

07:44around. And we were busy on other stuff. Give me a break. Raskin, my God, good grief. But look,

07:51this is a transparent administration. And I think that, I think that they're going to be transparent with all

07:55this. So hopefully by the time September rolls around, everybody knows everything that's in those

08:00files. But in the meantime, we're going to try to talk to Maxwell and we have a lot of questions

08:04and hopefully we'll get some answers. Are you going to the White House tonight? I am. That's where I'm

08:07going. My wife is in the hotel and I'm going to get her and we're going to the White House. It sounds

08:11like the reception's pretty informed or free. Like, you know, you can talk to a lot of people. Do you

08:16want to bring this up to the people of the White House? I've seen issue of it all and releasing everything?

08:20I mean, they, if they, if it's brought up, I'll talk about it. I don't know that that'll be the

08:27topic of conversation tonight. But look, we, we, you know, the president said he's going to release

08:31everything and I take him at his word. Is this still dividing Republicans this issue? No, the Republicans

08:39want to release the Epstein file. Republicans are curious, just like Democrats and every average American.

08:46We want to know.

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