'It's not true': Jake Tapper lectures combative GOP senator on Epstein 'sweetheart deal'

The Republican senator who admitted that he killed a Senate effort to release the Jeffrey Epstein files in full because he wants to give Donald Trump "cover," was repeatedly corrected on the details about the convicted pedophile's case on CNN on Sunday morning.

Appearing with "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper, a combative Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) insisted over and over again that nothing from the Epstein grand jury presentation can be released by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

That led host Tapper to continually explain that a judge is only blocking the DOJ from releasing testimony and that the Trump-appointed Bondi is free to release federal evidence, which led the GOP lawmaker from Oklahoma to argue with him repeatedly.

In one exchange, Tapper explained, "I understand you're talking about a resolution you offered calling for the grand jury to release transcripts from the grand jury investigation into Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and a judge said no. But there's troves of information that the administration could release tomorrow if they wanted to and they've been promising to and they haven't. "

"Well, Jake, that's not that's not true, you know," Mullin shot back. "You know better than that, too, because you know, every piece of file that they have, every video, every every document, every flight log has all been heard by a grand jury. They've all been seen by a grand jury and we want the judges to release it. Pam Bondi has called on the judge to release it. Trump has called on the on them to release it and and the Congress has called on them to release it. But we can't because there is a true co-equal branches of government. So we can't force a judicial branch to do anything."

"Just because something has been shown before a grand jury, that doesn't mean it is only going to be –– it can only be released to the public by a judge. If the FBI has it, they can release it," Tapper explained.

Mullin later stated, "Remember, there was a plea deal that was struck in 2009, way before I was in office, way before Trump was even considering to be in office, way before Pam Bondi was in his office, way before Kash Patel was director. 2009, there was a sweetheart plea deal that was made underneath the Obama administration with Epstein and that sweetheart has not been exposed.”

Tapper countered, “It was 2008. The U.S. attorney at the time was a guy named Alex Acosta. He was a Bush appointee. He went on to become President Trump’s secretary of labor. It all took place in 2008.”

“Who was in office at the time?” Mullin asked to which the CNN host answered, "George W. Bush."

"No, 2009 is when the case came out. And Obama was in office at the time," the GOP lawmaker argued.

“It’s not true,” Tapper stated before later adding, "The point is that the sweetheart deal, which was completed in 2008, was under the Bush administration — US Attorney Alex Acosta."

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