WEBVTT - What Is (And Isn’t) in the Latest Epstein Files Release

0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:09.240
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Today we are producing

0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:13.680
<v Speaker 1>more than three million pages, including more than two thousand

0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:17.160
<v Speaker 1>videos and one hundred and eighty thousand images.

0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.079
<v Speaker 2>On Friday, Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General who was

0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:26.279
<v Speaker 2>previously President Trump's personal defense lawyer, announced the Justice Department

0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.840
<v Speaker 2>was making public a massive cache of documents related to

0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.440
<v Speaker 2>the federal investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,

0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:35.239
<v Speaker 2>who died in twenty nineteen.

0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.920
<v Speaker 1>Today's release marks the end of a very comprehensive document

0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.560
<v Speaker 1>identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American

0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.120
<v Speaker 1>people and compliance.

0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.160
<v Speaker 2>With the DOJ has published nearly three and a half

0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.440
<v Speaker 2>million pages from the so called Epstein Files since late

0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.800
<v Speaker 2>last year. Blanche says that the latest batch, coming more

0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.360
<v Speaker 2>than a month after Congress's deadline, fulfills the Justice Department's

0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:02.200
<v Speaker 2>obligation to lawmakers from the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:08.480
<v Speaker 3>My biggest takeaway from these documents is that every powerful

0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:15.600
<v Speaker 3>name or individual that you could think of somehow found

0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:18.240
<v Speaker 3>their way to Jeffrey Epstein.

0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:22.920
<v Speaker 2>That's Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Leopold, with a slight exaggeration.

0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.080
<v Speaker 2>He spent his weekend pouring over the documents.

0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:28.760
<v Speaker 3>Whether it was wanting to do business with him, wanting

0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:33.200
<v Speaker 3>to take a trip to his island. Here, we're seeing

0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:40.160
<v Speaker 3>these emails back and forth between people in business and banking,

0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:46.280
<v Speaker 3>in entertainment, in politics, So it's not a huge surprise.

0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.240
<v Speaker 3>It's just the fact of how long the list of

0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:49.840
<v Speaker 3>names are.

0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.480
<v Speaker 2>Many of these names are familiar, but being in these

0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.400
<v Speaker 2>files doesn't mean an individual or a company engaged in wrongdoing.

0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.520
<v Speaker 2>Jason specializes in requesting federal documents through transparency laws like

0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.560
<v Speaker 2>the Freedom of Information Act, records he can use to

0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.160
<v Speaker 2>piece together how the government works behind the scenes. With

0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.160
<v Speaker 2>the Epstein files, Jason is on a team of reporters

0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.799
<v Speaker 2>here at Bloomberg sifting through a flood of names and allegations.

0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:20.239
<v Speaker 2>Jason points out these documents aren't in any particular order

0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.079
<v Speaker 2>and pretty much everything lacks context, and he says he's

0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:27.000
<v Speaker 2>still looking for some key files that appear not to

0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:27.800
<v Speaker 2>have been released.

0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:32.800
<v Speaker 3>Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General, said that about two

0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:39.000
<v Speaker 3>hundred thousand pages were withheld due to privilege. They were

0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:40.639
<v Speaker 3>privileged materials.

0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.200
<v Speaker 2>These are files that the Justice Department says it has

0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.399
<v Speaker 2>a legal justification for holding back for privacy reasons or

0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:49.760
<v Speaker 2>to keep from interfering with a live investigation.

0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:53.080
<v Speaker 3>That's a lot of material that they withheld, but we

0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:56.680
<v Speaker 3>don't have a real understanding of what was exactly in

0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:58.320
<v Speaker 3>those records.

0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.320
<v Speaker 2>I'm David Gera, and this is the big take from

0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.560
<v Speaker 2>Bloomberg News Today. On the show what's in the latest

0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:10.040
<v Speaker 2>drop of Epstein files and what isn't and will this

0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:12.440
<v Speaker 2>be the last set of files made public by the

0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.040
<v Speaker 2>Justice Department, my colleague Jason Leopold on what's likely to

0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:24.240
<v Speaker 2>happen next? Jason, we now have access to three and

0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:29.160
<v Speaker 2>a half million pages of Epstein related documents. I assume

0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:31.080
<v Speaker 2>you've gone through all of them over the.

0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:32.639
<v Speaker 3>Course of this weekend.

0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:36.280
<v Speaker 2>But seriously, though, this is just an incredible quantity, and

0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.760
<v Speaker 2>I'm very curious sort of what your strategy has been

0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:40.640
<v Speaker 2>trying to make your way through them.

0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:45.200
<v Speaker 3>There's instances where I'm typing names of certain individuals into

0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.440
<v Speaker 3>a search box on the Justice Department's website, or trying

0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.119
<v Speaker 3>to download, you know, a bunch of files and see

0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:58.400
<v Speaker 3>if I can thematically review a set. But you know,

0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.880
<v Speaker 3>my interest has been in following the money to really

0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.800
<v Speaker 3>get an understanding of how Epstein made his money, looking

0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.880
<v Speaker 3>at anything that may revolve around you know, money laundering

0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.840
<v Speaker 3>or you know, financial crime. So I've been focusing on

0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:20.320
<v Speaker 3>that and trying to separate records because it's not just emails,

0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.719
<v Speaker 3>you know, we're also talking about business documents as well,

0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:30.840
<v Speaker 3>and really separating those records, reading through them. And that's

0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:32.200
<v Speaker 3>essentially where I'm starting.

0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.520
<v Speaker 2>You mentioned you've been searching for names. I'm genuinely curious

0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.560
<v Speaker 2>how good the search functionality is.

0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:45.040
<v Speaker 3>I'm going into it immediately using the Justice Department's own

0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:49.479
<v Speaker 3>search engine, and it's not bad. It's just a lot

0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.120
<v Speaker 3>to plow through. But what I've been noticing over the

0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:58.880
<v Speaker 3>weekend is that there have been documents disappearing. Essentially, they've

0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.239
<v Speaker 3>been taking it down. Document I may have been looking

0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:05.440
<v Speaker 3>out on Friday on Deutsche Bank, for example, would disappear,

0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.960
<v Speaker 3>and then other documents would reappear. I'm still unsure of

0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.800
<v Speaker 3>why that is the case, if there's anything that maybe

0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:16.000
<v Speaker 3>needed to be redacted and they're pulling it down and

0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:17.520
<v Speaker 3>maybe adding later on.

0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:20.960
<v Speaker 2>You and our colleagues have reported on what this redaction

0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.840
<v Speaker 2>process was supposed to be like, and maybe you can

0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.359
<v Speaker 2>remind us sort of what's been happening behind the scenes

0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.000
<v Speaker 2>in the federal government over the last few months that

0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.240
<v Speaker 2>they've been preparing these documents for public release.

0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:36.440
<v Speaker 3>The Justice Department, because the agency had to respond to

0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:42.080
<v Speaker 3>the Epstein Files Transparency Act, had been working over time

0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:47.360
<v Speaker 3>going through these records and having their lawyers review and

0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:54.920
<v Speaker 3>redact certain material. The law itself dictated how the redaction

0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.600
<v Speaker 3>it in some way should work, or at least what

0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:02.080
<v Speaker 3>needed to be disclosed. First, let me just note they

0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.600
<v Speaker 3>had more than four hundred Justice Department attorneys working on

0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:11.159
<v Speaker 3>this pretty much exclusively for the past month and a half.

0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:17.080
<v Speaker 3>And there are names of victims that are redacted. But

0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.640
<v Speaker 3>then there is there's a ton of victims' names, victims

0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:25.120
<v Speaker 3>who never came forward revealed over the weekend. Then there

0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:27.920
<v Speaker 3>is I looked at a document and it kind of

0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:32.760
<v Speaker 3>blew me away. They redacted the JP in JP Morgan,

0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.159
<v Speaker 3>just the JP. I don't know why they did that, David,

0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.719
<v Speaker 3>but they just redacted the JP. So easy to figure

0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:45.839
<v Speaker 3>out they're talking about JP Morgan. But there's no real,

0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:50.320
<v Speaker 3>you know, understanding, like why is this being redacted? There's

0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:52.839
<v Speaker 3>no index to go along with it to see this

0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.880
<v Speaker 3>was redacted for national security, this was redacted for privacy,

0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.320
<v Speaker 3>this was redacted for you know, the deliberative process. So

0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:02.080
<v Speaker 3>it's been chaotic.

0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.160
<v Speaker 2>Jason, you mentioned the victims, who, of course are front

0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.720
<v Speaker 2>and center here, and I saw a story in the

0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.000
<v Speaker 2>New York Times over the weekend that reporters there found

0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:16.080
<v Speaker 2>in all of these documents photographs of victims. Those reporters

0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:18.400
<v Speaker 2>flagged that to the Department of Justice, and ultimately the

0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.960
<v Speaker 2>DJ took many of those photos down. We have heard

0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:24.160
<v Speaker 2>a lot of talk from the DJ about how important

0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.520
<v Speaker 2>it would be to protect victims in this process, to

0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.680
<v Speaker 2>hide their identities, to not retraumatize those victims. What have

0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.840
<v Speaker 2>you taken away from the care with which they've approached

0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:36.040
<v Speaker 2>it in that regard.

0:07:36.120 --> 0:07:41.880
<v Speaker 3>I think that the way in which they have approached

0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:45.560
<v Speaker 3>redacting victims' names or trying to protect victims has been

0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:52.679
<v Speaker 3>really messy. There are names that have been revealed while

0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:57.880
<v Speaker 3>other names, say on the same page, were of victims

0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:04.360
<v Speaker 3>that were redacted. So it begs for a deeper understanding

0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:10.080
<v Speaker 3>as to why did they leave this name unredacted? How

0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.680
<v Speaker 3>did that happen? The fact that you have Justice Department

0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:19.920
<v Speaker 3>attorneys handling the reactions is problematic because that's not usually

0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:24.560
<v Speaker 3>how it works when government documents are being released. You

0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:29.520
<v Speaker 3>have document experts, people who are experts on the Privacy

0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:34.200
<v Speaker 3>Act and going through records and handling the reactions here.

0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.160
<v Speaker 3>You have attorneys you know, who are working on cases

0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.080
<v Speaker 3>that have been kind of shifted over to this process.

0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:43.600
<v Speaker 3>In some ways, you have to understand that they were

0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.439
<v Speaker 3>going through millions and millions and millions of pages and

0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:52.680
<v Speaker 3>trying to meet a deadline that has since passed. You're

0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.760
<v Speaker 3>bound to have some details that are just going to

0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:59.880
<v Speaker 3>be left unredacted. It's just it's not a surprise for me.

0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.959
<v Speaker 3>I think it's really really unfortunate.

0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:07.319
<v Speaker 2>Though, coming up the most surprising details in the Epstein

0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:20.920
<v Speaker 2>files Jason has identified so far and what comes next? Jason,

0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.240
<v Speaker 2>you and I last spoke in December, so when the

0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.480
<v Speaker 2>run up to this big release, and something you mentioned

0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.839
<v Speaker 2>then is that you'd obtained what's basically an index of

0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:32.959
<v Speaker 2>the Epstein files. How good a guide has that been

0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.240
<v Speaker 2>for you as you've begun to go through this latest

0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:36.240
<v Speaker 2>tranch of documents.

0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:40.840
<v Speaker 3>I don't think that has been a very good guide

0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:44.280
<v Speaker 3>in terms of what's been in here. I believe what

0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.400
<v Speaker 3>is missing based on what the index says is communications

0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:55.400
<v Speaker 3>with foreign governments, additional banking records, financial records. This was

0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:59.120
<v Speaker 3>an index that we when we discussed, came from the FBI.

0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:05.160
<v Speaker 3>R The FBI was documenting all of the records that

0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:11.400
<v Speaker 3>they had collected during the course of their investigation between

0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:16.400
<v Speaker 3>two thousand and seven and two thousand and eight and

0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.680
<v Speaker 3>a few years beyond. I have not seen much of

0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:28.160
<v Speaker 3>the material that they documented. There are some FBI interview summaries.

0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.720
<v Speaker 3>That's something that I had been waiting for, but there's

0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:32.520
<v Speaker 3>a lot missing.

0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.280
<v Speaker 2>Jason, I want to talk about the sweep of federal

0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.960
<v Speaker 2>investigations into Jeffrey Epstein. So the first was in Florida.

0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.040
<v Speaker 2>Federal investigators started looking into allegations back in two thousand

0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.280
<v Speaker 2>and six, but Epstein signed a plea bargain, pleading guilty

0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.960
<v Speaker 2>to one state charge before federal charges could be filed.

0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.439
<v Speaker 2>That deal became notorious for its leniency. Victims later said

0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.160
<v Speaker 2>they weren't told about it. Then almost a decade later,

0:10:56.200 --> 0:11:00.200
<v Speaker 2>federal prosecutors in Manhattan investigated and then indicted Epstein, and

0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:02.839
<v Speaker 2>he died. The ruling was by suicide while he was

0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.480
<v Speaker 2>in jail. In twenty nineteen, what have we learned about

0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.239
<v Speaker 2>that federal investigation and potential offshoots.

0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.880
<v Speaker 3>So in the you know, two thousand and six to

0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:17.080
<v Speaker 3>two thousand and eight investigation, what the files that we

0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:21.080
<v Speaker 3>do have show the emails, right, particularly the ones that

0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.920
<v Speaker 3>have been released over the weekend, It really shows how

0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:31.439
<v Speaker 3>this investigation evolved, how the US Attorney's Office in Florida

0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:36.959
<v Speaker 3>approached it, notably, you know, one particular prosecutor there pretty aggressively,

0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:42.880
<v Speaker 3>and how this prosecutor was in many instances kind of

0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:47.000
<v Speaker 3>blocked from higher ups in terms of going further, really

0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.800
<v Speaker 3>really going to the mat in terms of wanting to

0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:56.400
<v Speaker 3>indict Epstein and being forced into negotiations in order to

0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.600
<v Speaker 3>get him to you know, sign a non prosecution agreement

0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.280
<v Speaker 3>and plae to a stage charge. And you could see

0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.520
<v Speaker 3>the evidence she was collecting and it was pretty extraordinary.

0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:10.360
<v Speaker 3>You know. You fast forward to the investigation that took

0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:14.760
<v Speaker 3>place more than a decade later, and that was quite

0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:18.839
<v Speaker 3>aggressive as well. What stood out from that investigation is

0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:22.679
<v Speaker 3>that there were co conspirators, right that the government had

0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.199
<v Speaker 3>alleged that there were a number of co conspirators that

0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:31.120
<v Speaker 3>they were interested in indicting as well. They were scooping

0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.800
<v Speaker 3>up evidence in the form of records from banks. They

0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.559
<v Speaker 3>interviewed a number of people in Epstein's orbit. It looked

0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:45.079
<v Speaker 3>like they had the goods already, but that first investigation

0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:50.559
<v Speaker 3>you could see it moving aggressively and aggressively, and it

0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.280
<v Speaker 3>was you know, the evidence was damning, and then you

0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:55.600
<v Speaker 3>know they were blocked.

0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.720
<v Speaker 2>You mentioned Jason. These FBI documents indicated that there had

0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:03.319
<v Speaker 2>been about a number of individuals, including Jeffrey Epstein. How

0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.000
<v Speaker 2>should we look at those particular documents. What do they

0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.600
<v Speaker 2>tell us, what don't they tell us? And do these

0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.040
<v Speaker 2>files indicate what the FBI did with those tips that

0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:11.640
<v Speaker 2>they received.

0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:17.360
<v Speaker 3>The FBI documents there are interview summaries, so there's interviews

0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.720
<v Speaker 3>that the FBI conducted with people who may have been

0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:27.080
<v Speaker 3>witnesses who provided information to the FBI, confidential human sources,

0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:31.199
<v Speaker 3>essentially informant. And then there are folks that just called

0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:34.920
<v Speaker 3>up the FBI offering up tips, and the FBI memorializes

0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.560
<v Speaker 3>this and you know in a document that's what we're

0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.600
<v Speaker 3>looking at. None of those records are something that you

0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:46.960
<v Speaker 3>can rely upon in terms of verification, because it doesn't

0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.640
<v Speaker 3>appear that the FBI followed up on it, and if

0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:54.080
<v Speaker 3>they did, we're not seeing the records in here that states,

0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:58.040
<v Speaker 3>you know, that they did follow up on the tips

0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.439
<v Speaker 3>or that they investigated any of the allegations that were

0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.800
<v Speaker 3>being made. And that's one of the problems with these records, right,

0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:06.960
<v Speaker 3>is that we have three and a half million pages

0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.800
<v Speaker 3>of records, you know, millions of pages of emails, but

0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.280
<v Speaker 3>they're completely out of context. So when we're reporting it,

0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:18.040
<v Speaker 3>we're actually going out and doing additional reporting right to

0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.880
<v Speaker 3>understand what it means what happened in this particular timeframe.

0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:29.120
<v Speaker 3>So there's lots of FBI documents that contain allegations against

0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.160
<v Speaker 3>President Donald Trump, but we don't know if it's true.

0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.400
<v Speaker 2>You mentioned your interest in following the money, Jeffrey Epstein's money,

0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.560
<v Speaker 2>how he made it, how he used it, any more

0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:42.840
<v Speaker 2>specifics on what you have learned from this cash of

0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.560
<v Speaker 2>documents or what you are learning about them.

0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:50.160
<v Speaker 3>What I'm kind of blown away by from reviewing the

0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:58.359
<v Speaker 3>documents thus far is the inclusion of suspicious activity reports

0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:05.760
<v Speaker 3>from various financial institutions, and the suspicious activity reports comes

0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:12.560
<v Speaker 3>directly from FINSEN. FINSEN is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:18.040
<v Speaker 3>It's part of the US Treasury Department and their job

0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:23.120
<v Speaker 3>is to combat money laundering and other financial crimes, and

0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:28.000
<v Speaker 3>so financial institutions whenever they see signs of money laundering

0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:31.880
<v Speaker 3>or financial crime, they send over to Finsen a suspicious

0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.120
<v Speaker 3>activity report. Finsen then puts it into a database. Here.

0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.040
<v Speaker 3>Those are impossible to get. First of all, you can't

0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:44.160
<v Speaker 3>foia them. They're never usually introduced in court cases. But

0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:47.240
<v Speaker 3>there are a whole bunch of them here in these files.

0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:52.520
<v Speaker 3>They come in around twenty nineteen, and they show how

0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:58.120
<v Speaker 3>some of the financial institutions flagged Epstein's movement of money.

0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.280
<v Speaker 3>And there's a lot of it there. And to me,

0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.840
<v Speaker 3>that really stands out as a noteworthy document because it

0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:13.400
<v Speaker 3>provides a bit of a roadmap to understand one how

0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:17.080
<v Speaker 3>he was moving the money, why it may have been suspicious,

0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:20.360
<v Speaker 3>and potentially following it up in a much deeper way.

0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.840
<v Speaker 2>There was a moment when Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General,

0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.360
<v Speaker 2>took the stage at Main Justice around the release of

0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.960
<v Speaker 2>these documents and said, effectively, this is it. Here you go,

0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.440
<v Speaker 2>these are the last documents that we're going to make public.

0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:35.000
<v Speaker 3>Can he do that?

0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.120
<v Speaker 2>Can the DOJ do that? How do you see that

0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:39.720
<v Speaker 2>part of this story evolving from here, if at all.

0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:42.680
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I was actually surprised that he said that that's it.

0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.600
<v Speaker 3>We're done here. We're not going to release anything else.

0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.640
<v Speaker 3>I mean, he as I noted, he said that they're

0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.160
<v Speaker 3>going to withhold two hundred thousand pages. One thing that

0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:56.240
<v Speaker 3>they're supposed to provide Congress with is a document that

0:16:56.400 --> 0:17:01.840
<v Speaker 3>explains what names were redacted, what information was redacted, justifying

0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:05.080
<v Speaker 3>the redactions, what records were withheld, why they were withheld.

0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.600
<v Speaker 3>So we do need to see that, but this fight

0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:11.840
<v Speaker 3>will play out between Congress and EOJ. However, when we

0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.640
<v Speaker 3>spoke late last year, I mentioned the freedom of information

0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:19.600
<v Speaker 3>at case right that had been winding its way through

0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.000
<v Speaker 3>the courts to try and gain access to this. Well,

0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:24.520
<v Speaker 3>there was a hearing in the Second Circuit Court of

0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:29.639
<v Speaker 3>Appeals in New York last week, and in fact, that

0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.600
<v Speaker 3>case is still alive. There may be, in fact, you know,

0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.520
<v Speaker 3>additional records that come out as a result of that

0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.479
<v Speaker 3>freedom of information at case. So I don't think this

0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:42.960
<v Speaker 3>is a last you're going to see of the Epstein files,

0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.000
<v Speaker 3>but we do already have three and a half million pages.

0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:50.800
<v Speaker 3>It's a lot, and I believe Over the next six

0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.679
<v Speaker 3>seven months, you know you'll see some deeper reporting about

0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:56.880
<v Speaker 3>what this reveals, including from us here.

0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.280
<v Speaker 2>This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gura.

0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.800
<v Speaker 2>To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access

0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:10.840
<v Speaker 2>to all of Bloomberg dot com, subscribe today at Bloomberg

0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:14.360
<v Speaker 2>dot com slash podcast offer. If you liked this episode,

0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:16.520
<v Speaker 2>make sure to follow and review The Big Take wherever

0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:18.920
<v Speaker 2>you listen to podcasts. It helps people find the show.

0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:21.200
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.