A Republican congressman was challenged on CNN about missing pages pertaining to President Donald Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein files, and he faulted Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of the matter.
House Democrats confirmed new reporting that found documents have been withdrawn by the Department of Justice related to an FBI investigation into a survivor's claims that Trump sexually abused her when she was 13 years old, and CNN's Audie Cornish asked Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) to explain the significance.
"Well, millions and millionsand millions and millions ofpages have been released," said Zinke, who was Trump's secretary of the interior during his first term. "Ithink for a lot of people, theywere hoping something in it wasthat would implicate Trump – there wasn't."
Another panelist, digital journalist V. Spehar, pointed out that the FBI reportedly tasked agents with redacting Trump's name from the files, and Cornish asked about new reporting about missing documentation of an interview with a woman who claimed the president had sexually assaulted her decades ago.
"I dowant to at least flag somereporting, NPR, CNN finding thatthere were documents that theydefinitely, the FBI record saysthat they have, right, of anaccuser who was puttingallegations against Trumpspecifically and that theinterview notes from that aremissing from what they've madepublicly available, and I'masking this because each timethere's a report like that,somebody says, are we reallygetting the whole deal fromthese people?" Cornish said.
Zinke insisted the public had gotten all the Epstein files in compliance with the law passed in November by Congress, following months of pressure on the administration to release them.
"Look, ifthere was anything on Trump atall, it would have been releasedunder Merrick [Garland] and President Biden," Zinke said. "I mean, for a moment, fora moment, anyone who would thinkthat would be different, Idon't understand that logic."
CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere reminded the congressman of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that he'd voted for himself.
"There was the law thatyou voted for in December,though, right along with almostall of your colleagues," Dovere said. "Thatsaid, a full release of thedocuments so we actually don'tknow what happened because thatlaw is still, we're in violationof that law still."
Zinke insisted that Trump's DOJ was in compliance with the law.
"Well, all right, full release, should there should there bethings redacted because it'slawful, not only lawful, itwould violate the law if theyweren't, you know, some of thesevictims were 13 years old at thetime," Zinke said, "and so some of thevictims do have rights, and so I think that that hasto be looked at carefully, too, because I think we should hideanybody that was that was aperpetrator. No, absolutely, andI think we need to be absolutelytransparent about who this evilguy hung around with."
Cornish asked whether he ever wished that Trump's FBI Director Kash Patel and former co-director Dan Bongino hadn't hyped the Epstein files as podcasters, and Zinke faulted both of them and the attorney general for their handling of the issue.
"Of course, I wish this topic was, youknow, was resolved long ago, butyou had, you know, Pam Bondi,who botched the release of it," Zinke said. "You had Bongino and all theseguys talk about it for years.We're sort of now stuck dealingwith the consequences of thosethings, and it's a distraction.Does it move voters? It's to bedetermined, but it's certainly adistraction that just keeps onpopping up and never ends.It's a never-ending ice creamcone."