MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A Florida judge declined Wednesday to release grand jury documents from the criminal probe into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. This, as the Trump administration faces ongoing pressure to release more related documents.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Meanwhile, several Republicans on the House Oversight Committee joined Democrats and voted to subpoena the Justice Department for the release of the Epstein files. The subcommittee also issued a subpoena for Epstein's longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, for a deposition in August. It's a move House Speaker Mike Johnson questioned ahead of the vote.
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MIKE JOHNSON: Could she be counted on to tell the truth? Is she a credible witness? I mean, this is a person who's been sentenced to many, many years in prison for terrible, unspeakable conspiratorial acts and acts against innocent young people. I mean, can we trust what she's going to say?
MARTIN: Last week, a reporter asked President Trump if Attorney General Pam Bondi had briefed him on whether his name appeared in the government's Epstein files.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, no, she's given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen. And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama. They were made up by the Biden - you know, and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.
PFEIFFER: The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Bondi briefed President Trump on the appearance of his name in the files in May. Here to explain is NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Right, a real eye opener. And we should say that NPR has not confirmed that reporting, and it's important to note that the appearance of Trump's name is not an indication of wrongdoing. He and Epstein were friends for years, seen on video partying together, even was on flight logs for Epstein's plane before falling out over a property dispute. For Trump's part, a White House spokesperson said in a statement that Trump kicked Epstein, quote, "out of his club for being a creep" and pivoted to talking about Russia's involvement in the 2016 election.
PFEIFFER: Russia is quite a pivot from the Epstein topic.
MONTANARO: It is, and the White House has been talking about Russia and a lot of other things, a lot, other than Epstein, when asked about it. Trump has brought up - Russia up multiple times to try and point fingers at Democrats. Yesterday, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, from the White House briefing room podium claimed to have new information about the 2016 election, when really the assessments largely affirm what's already known about Russian interference. But I want to go back to that Wall Street Journal story because something in there really jumped out at me. The story says that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, who told the president his name was in the files multiple times, said they felt that those files contained, quote, "unverified hearsay." That might help explain how Trump has talked about this for more than a year. Here he was last week in the Oval Office when asked about whether he wants Bondi to release all of the files.
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TRUMP: Whatever's credible, she can release. If a document is credible, if a document's there that is credible, she can release. I think it's good.
MONTANARO: Whatever's credible, he said. And take a listen to him from last year during the presidential campaign in an interview on Fox News. Again, he's asked if he would release the files.
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TRUMP: Yeah. Yeah, I would.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: All right.
TRUMP: I guess I would. I think that less so because, you know, you don't know. You don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there 'cause there's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.
MONTANARO: Yeah, notice the hesitation there. And it's a recognition of the kind of political bombshell this really can become, especially since this is a story that his base has been all over.
PFEIFFER: And his base is famously loyal, but even some of them are calling for the release of the files. Is anything the White House doing satisfying his base?
MONTANARO: Well, take a listen to Congressman Ryan Mackenzie, who's from a swing district in Pennsylvania. Here he's speaking during a tele-town hall last night that he called into. This audio is from public radio reporter Carmen Russell-Sluchansky with WHYY.
RYAN MACKENZIE: They have not released as much as I would like to see to date, but hopefully, they're going to be doing that. And if not, then Congress should potentially step in and compel them to do that because, again, the American people deserve to have full transparency.
MONTANARO: Really, here, this is a reminder that Trump is not the only one who has to navigate this. And these are exactly the types of members of Congress who will be in races that will likely determine control of the House next year.
PFEIFFER: That's NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, thank you.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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