A tense exchange unfolded Thursday on CNN when Brianna Keilar pressed Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) on the political risks associated with efforts to compel the Justice Department to release files on Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
House Democrats succeeded Wednesday in adopting a measure to subpoena the DOJ for files on Epstein in the House Oversight Subcommittee, and to compel Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to testify, with the support of a few House Republicans. On Thursday, Garcia sent a letter to Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee, urging him to support the measure further.
“The Department of Justice has to release these files to the committee, so the sooner that Chairman Comer signs and gets that subpoena out the door, the faster that we can actually get these files and review them on behalf of the American public,” Garcia said, ranking member on the Oversight Committee.
“We want the truth: what is Donald Trump hiding? What is Pam Bondi hiding, why this enormous reversal from being so committed to releasing these files to where we are today?”
Some Republicans, however, have sought to include other individuals beyond Maxwell in any subpoenas compelling testimonies, including former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey and Robert Mueller, special counsel during the Russian election interference probe.
And on that note, Keilar asked Garcia in a heated exchange whether or not the broadening scope of subpoena efforts could end up backfiring for Democrats.
“Could the inclusion of former officials, many of whom were involved in the Russia investigation, open this up to becoming as much about relitigating the Russia involvement in the 2016 election as it is about Epstein?” Keilar asked. “Because certainly Republicans would like to pursue this line on the Russia stuff that the president is pushing.”
Garcia deflected criticism of the probe expanding to relitigate the Russian interference probe by stating that the effort “was made by those committee Republicans,” before being cut off by Keilar.
“Is it going to backfire on you? That's my question, because you voted on the full motion, so it's included in there,” she said.
“No, it was not, there were two actually separate motions,” Garcia fired back.
“I'm sorry for getting that wrong,” Keilar said, “but this is what is going to be included in this effort, so now you are dealing with that, with the Clintons, with Comey, with former AGs, and you're going to have to deal with that. What is that going to look like for you guys?”
“We were already dealing with that,” Garcia said bluntly.
