Epstein Files Release Sparks Claims of Redactions, Harm (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: More than 3,000,000 pages, 2000 videos and 180,000 images. CNN teams are carefully sifting through the largest and what the Justice Department says is the last batch of Jeffrey Epstein files. It's an enormous trove of documents and it includes references to some of the richest and most powerful people on the planet that includes the current president, a former president, Cabinet secretaries, a former prime minister, billionaires and the list goes on and on and on the Justice Department says tonight that its job is done.

[00:00:36] Speaker 2: We complied with the statute. We complied with the act and there is no. We did not protect President Trump. We didn't protect or not protect anybody. I mean, I think that that we that there's a hunger or a thirst for information that I do not think will be satisfied by the review of these documents.

[00:00:56] Speaker 1: I should note that just because someone is mentioned in these documents does not mean that they've been accused of wrongdoing or did anything wrong. Many of these claims are unverified or they rely on second hand information, but these are the key findings our team has uncovered so far, and I should note millions of pages have come out we are still digging right now. In this hour, Donald Trump's name appears thousands of times in these new documents and some he's merely mentioned in emails that Jeffrey Epstein sent to other people, but the files also contain a complaint from a woman who accused Trump of raping her in 1994 when she was just 13 years old. According to the FBI document, this accuser who is identified as Jane Doe said that Jeffrey Epstein was quote angry that Trump was the one to take her virginity and that she was also raped by Jeffrey Epstein. This woman had previously launched lawsuits against Trump and dropped them. The last one happened right before the 2016 election. The president has previously denied these allegations. Also included in today's release was a list of sexual assault allegations related to the president compiled by the FBI in August, many of which appear to have come from unverified tips. We don't know why tonight the FBI made this list and there are more than a dozen allegations that are included in it. But recall what the president has previously said about these documents about the Jeffrey Epstein files. He said that they are a hoax and that the release of them could ruin people's reputations.

[00:02:23] Speaker 3: I know it's a hoax. It says started by Democrats. It's been run by the Democrats for four years. You had Christopher Ray and these characters in Comey before.

[00:02:33] Speaker 4: 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 we and we went through years of that with the Russia Russia Russia hoax with all of the different things that we had to go through. We've gone through years of it.

[00:02:53] Speaker 1: Just to be clear, Christopher Ray was the president's pick for FBI director that he put into that job. This also comes as we're learning for the first time about Jeffrey Epstein's contact with Elon Musk. You may remember Elon Musk dropped what he described as a really big bomb last year. Then Trump was in the Epstein files and that was the real reason that they had not been made public. Well, it turns out based on what we saw today, Musk is also Epstein files. Emails show that he tried coordinating multiple visits to Jeffrey Epstein's private island and one from 2013. Elon Musk asked Jeffrey Epstein when should we head to your island the year before he said what day night would be the wildest party on your island. Now this is after Musk claimed in all caps I should note last year that quote Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I refused. Musk's representatives did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment for explanation for those emails and that contact. And speaking of distancing and denials, recall what President Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said just last year about a 2005 encounter that he had with Epstein at his Manhattan townhouse.

[00:04:02] Speaker 5: I say to him. Massage table in the middle of your house. How often you have a massage? And he says. Every day and then he like gets like weirdly close to me and he says and the right kind of massage. And in the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.

[00:04:35] Speaker 1: OK, so that was 2005 files released today showed that Howard Lutnick tried to meet or call with Epstein several times after 2005, much longer. After a 2011 email to Jeffrey Epstein from his assistant reads, Howard Lutnick will come see you at 5 PM. That same year, the heading of an alarm message reads drinks with Howard Lutnick and Lutnick also emailed Jeffrey Epstein's assistant in 2015, inviting Epstein to a Democratic fundraiser for Hillary Clinton that he was hosting. Asked for comment on these emails and the correspondence between the two. A spokesperson for the Commerce Department told CNN Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife. And has never been accused of wrongdoing.

[00:05:19] Speaker 6: Some of the victims of Epstein have expressed frustration with the entire process or to give you the opportunity to speak directly to them.

[00:05:28] Speaker 2: Well, I don't. I don't know what you're what you're speaking to. I mean, if there's frustration with quote the entire process, same here. I mean, you have a situation where for many, many years nobody even breathed the word about Jeffrey Epstein and then all of a sudden it was all anybody would talk about. Victims of Mr. Epstein have gone through unspeakable pain and and there's nobody that that that should say anything differently. I hope that the work that the men and women within this department have done over the past two months. Um, hopefully is able to bring closure.

[00:06:06] Speaker 1: And tonight we are hearing directly from Jeffrey Epstein's survivors who were angry. Some of them frustrated that their names showed up unredacted in the files that came out today, despite what we heard from the Justice Department about a pledge to prioritize their privacy more than a dozen of the survivors issued a new joint statement. It reads in part this latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files is being sold as transparency, but what it actually does is expose survivors. Once again, survivors are having their names and identifying information exposed, while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected. That is outrageous. As survivors, we should never be the ones named, scrutinized and retraumatized, while Epstein's enablers continue to benefit from secrecy. This is a betrayal of the very people this process is supposed to serve. One of the Epstein survivors who signed that statement is just Michaels, who says she was sexually assaulted by Jeffrey Epstein when she was 22 years old and just joins me now. And thank you for being here. On a day like today, we've spoken with many of the survivors on this show before, and I know it's not. It's not an easy conversation to have, so I really do appreciate you joining us. When you heard the Deputy Attorney General today talking about closure, is that what you feel after this release?

[00:07:25] Speaker 7: Firstly, thank you so much Caitlin, not only for having me on, but for continually having Epstein survivors on so that our voices are heard. There is there is not a single bit of closure today. I actually brought a little show and tell for you, Caitlin. You know how I heard you speaking with the attorney before this about the 302s, and this is what? The only 302 that could be found so far in the files by someone that was combing the files for hours. It was seven pages and four of them looked like this. So we know that the victim's name is here, right? And that's appropriately redacted. So what is all of this? So there's no way for me to say to you that there's closure here. This is the exact opposite of transparency.

[00:08:21] Speaker 1: I mean, it must be so frustrating for you to look at that and to see just completely blacked out in the entire page.

[00:08:30] Speaker 7: And then we've seen pages where they're blacked out and the only thing blacked out was a survivor's name. It's it's it is such incompetence. It is it is. Sloppy, I mean, if any one of us did our jobs the way the DOJ did this job, we wouldn't be working humans. We would. We would lose our job. We would lose our place in a company because this this particular job has been so egregiously done horrifically done.

[00:09:05] Speaker 1: If you had been at that press conference today at the Justice Department, what do you think you would have asked?

[00:09:14] Speaker 7: I I would have asked then what's this? What what what is missing from this page? Because one of the things that he said was about the fact that there are no. There's no list of men. There's no treasure trove of men. Then what is this? What is missing here? This is not a survivor's name. There's no survivor's name that is this long. So what I'd like to ask any of them in the Department of Justice is what is this? This is a victim statement. The only thing that was supposed to be redacted was her name. So this is clearly, clearly. Protecting someone, something.

[00:09:58] Speaker 1: Because what would be in there would be theoretically and what we've seen with other 302s is that's when they interview someone who has filed a complaint and that's their account of what happened to them.

[00:10:10] Speaker 7: Exactly, and so to say to stand on that podium and say, well, you know, there's no names here and to hear for months now, there's nothing in this. There's no reason. But then there should be no reason to to have a black page. If there's nothing there, then what are you redacting? That's what I would have said to him.

[00:10:31] Speaker 1: Jess Michaels, I'm sorry. I really am, because I'm sure it's frustrating, incredibly frustrating. I don't even know if that puts it even sums up the feeling. But I am grateful that you're willing to come on and share that and let people know how you feel about what came out today.

[00:10:50] Speaker 7: Thank you for having me.

[00:10:52] Speaker 1: Jess Michaels, thank you for your time.