MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Today was the deadline, and this afternoon, the Justice Department did release thousands of pages of the Epstein files. Here and in newsrooms far and wide, we are busy combing through them. So are the members of Congress who forced their release, including Congressman Ro Khanna, Democrat of California. He cosponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, bipartisan legislation requiring the DOJ to release what they've got, at least the unclassified records, what they've got on Jeffrey Epstein's sex crimes. We have got Congressman Khanna on the line from the Capitol. Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
RO KHANNA: Thank you for having me.
KELLY: So this is a giant document dump, thousands and thousands of pages. How far have you managed to read yet?
KHANNA: I've skimmed through it. Let me say this. In the morning, I was hopeful and giving Blanche the benefit of the doubt. He complied...
KELLY: This is Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general.
KHANNA: Todd Blanche - he was complying with the date. He said they were going to release hundreds of thousands of documents. But so far, based on what we've seen, there are just excessive redactions. I mean, there's one document from the New York grand jury, which a federal judge ordered released, totally redacted, 119 pages all redacted. And there are not the types of documents so far that we were looking for. Now, we haven't done the whole review, but the draft indictment, which could have implicated other rich and powerful men, the witness memorandum - so it seems at very best incomplete.
KELLY: We had also noted those 119 pages of grand jury, New York, that were blacked out. Also, our reporters coming through are noting that a lot of this information is stuff that had already been released by the Justice Department, was already publicly available. Tell me, as you keep going through, what exactly you're looking for, because I will add, even before today, there had been many, many documents already released from Epstein. So what are you still looking for?
KHANNA: There's a draft indictment of the first Jeffrey Epstein case that really implicates other rich and powerful men who knew about the abuse or participated in it. That indictment should be released. There are witness interviews between the FBI and other people who were accused of being at Jeffrey Epstein's rape island or going to parties where there were 16 and 17-year-old girls being paraded around. Those witness memorandum need to be released. And then the grand jury testimony and documents should be released without redactions, other than just to protect the victims.
KELLY: Congressman, your legislation did not include a mechanism to compel the Justice Department to produce these documents. They have now released a partial batch, it is what - it seems like we're picking up on. What's your next move to get the rest?
KHANNA: Well, they would be guilty of obstruction of justice if they do not comply with the law. The lawyers who helped craft the legislation said that the failure to comply would subject people at the DOJ, including career officials or appointees, to criminal prosecution for obstruction of justice. And so I'm not saying that...
KELLY: Does that seem likely, I mean, that - they are the Justice Department - that they would prosecute themselves?
KHANNA: Well, the statute of limitation doesn't end with Donald Trump. I mean, a new Democratic president or a new president, even if it's a Republican, could enforce that law. And so people are taking a big risk by not enforcing the law. We also, of course, could have impeachment hearings against either Pam Bondi or the deputy attorney general. We could hold them in inherent contempt of Congress. But I don't want to go there just on one day.
KELLY: Right.
KHANNA: I mean, what I would prefer is that we get an explanation for where the other documents are and what their timeline is. I mean, Deputy Attorney General Blanche himself has said he's planning to release more documents.
KELLY: I have lots more to ask you, but just to be clear, is there anything that you have seen yet in these documents, Congressman, that advances our understanding of Jeffrey Epstein, what he did?
KHANNA: Not that I've seen. I've been told by some other lawyers who are seeing this that there are some new photographs that have not been released before, and I have not had time to look at those photographs. So it's possible there's some new information, but so far, overall, I've been pretty disappointed with the release.
KELLY: In terms of the significance, you have spoken on our air in previous interviews and said, people should be held accountable for what happened. Jeffrey Epstein, of course, is dead. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison. What does accountability look like at this point?
KHANNA: Well, for people who actually engaged in the abuse of young girls, there should be criminal prosecution. But there's a other area to this. There are powerful men, bankers, politicians who we know from survivors - they've told us this - who were at these parties where there were many young women, and a few were under age, and these powerful men knew about it, and they didn't say anything. They need to be at least publicly held accountable. They shouldn't have buildings named after them. They shouldn't be in high positions. They should face a public accountability. And that is what a lot of the survivors want and why Massie and I took this up.
KELLY: This was your cosponsor, Republican Congressman Massie.
KHANNA: Yes.
KELLY: Yeah. Stay with the victims, who are surely the most important people at the center of this. Part of the effort of going through all these documents is trying to figure out what might represent closure to them, what might represent justice to them. What is your message to them today?
KHANNA: Well, I know many of them are disappointed. I know from talking to some of them and then from the anticipation they had. I mean, they finally felt seen, they finally felt heard when the Congress passed the Epstein Transparency Act. And they were hoping today they would start to get some accountability and some justice. But my message to them is, look, you have moved an entire nation. You moved a Congress to pass a law at a polarized time. Thomas Massie and I and others are not giving up. We are going to force the compliance of this law, and we're going to fight until we get these files out.
KELLY: The victims, many of them have also talked about how they do not want their sexual abuse, what happened to them, to shape a political battle. And I do want to ask you about the politics in the minute we have less (ph) because you've talked about this release as a way to possibly bring the country together. It's also politically radioactive. Is it not also a cudgel that Democrats might use to continue to attack President Trump right up to next year's midterms?
KHANNA: I have not done that in the press conferences I've had. In fact, I've had two Republicans and we have not had Democrats there. And this morning, my comments about Deputy Attorney General Blanche were fairly gracious. I was actually hoping that he was going to be true to his word in releasing these documents. To me, this is about holding the Epstein class accountable, taking a cudgel to rich and powerful men who abused underage girls or covered it up. And that really is my focus. And if I didn't have that focus, I would lose a lot of the Republican cosponsors that we've had on this legislation.
KELLY: That's California Representative Ro Khanna speaking with us from the Capitol as we sort through this latest release of documents from the Justice Department. Congressman, thanks for your time today.
KHANNA: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
