CNN's Jake Tapper was stunned to hear New Mexico's attorney general suggest that a Trump official lied under oath.
During an interview with Tapper on Wednesday, New Mexico AG Raul Torrez discussed the Department of Justice's handling of records related to dead sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein's Zorro Ranch. Torrez filed a lawsuit against the DOJ on Wednesday after it ignored a deadline to hand those records over.
"They've never worked with us," Torrez said. "We asked for this information as a law enforcement agency. It's a very common practice for us to reach out to federal prosecutors and investigators and ask for the kinds of investigative files that are at issue here."
Torrez said that the DOJ directed them to the District of New Mexico, "which was odd," and he "knew full well" that that office "didn't have the whole range of files that we were looking for." Torrez complied nonetheless but was still unable to get unredacted files that he needed to investigate Zorro Ranch.
"The bottom line is they're not cooperating," Torrez said. "They're stonewalling this investigation, and that's why we had to take legal action today."
Tapper pointed out that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who currently heads the DOJ, told Congress under oath that the DOJ would cooperate with the New Mexico Department of Justice and help it get the information that it needed. What Torrez was describing suggested that this wasn't true and that Blanche was refusing to cooperate with the New Mexico AG.
"I'm just stunned because you're suggesting that he lied to Congress when he said that under oath," Tapper said. "Lying to Congress is obviously illegal."
Tapper also mentioned that the DOJ told CNN in a statement "that they're not required to share the unredacted files and that victims' privacy outweighs the request." The DOJ also told CNN, "New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures."
"We've given them ample explanations for the status and nature of our ongoing criminal investigation," Torrez responded. "Todd Blanche has the authority to grant this access with the stroke of a pen. He was refusing to do it."