AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And I’m Nermeen Shaikh. Welcome to our viewers across the country and around the world.

“I am the one able to take him down.” Those are the words of Jeffrey Epstein talking about Donald Trump in a private email written in 2018. The email is part of a trove of over 20,000 pages of documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee, raising new questions about President Trump’s ties to the deceased convicted sex offender. Earlier on Wednesday morning, Democrats on the committee preemptively released three emails from the files. 

In one email from 2019, Epstein wrote that Trump, quote, “Knew about the girls.” In another email from 2011, Epstein described Trump as the, quote, “Dog that hasn’t barked,” noting that Trump had, quote, “Spent hours at my house with Virginia,” a reference to the late Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of grooming and sexually trafficking her, beginning when she was 16 years old. The Democrats released a version of the email with Virginia’s name redacted, but an unredacted version of the email was later released.

AMY GOODMAN: In a recently published memoir, Virginia Giuffre writes she feared she would, quote, “Die a sex slave,” at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein. But in the book, Giuffre does not allege wrongdoing by Trump. She worked at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago before being recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell.

In another email from 2015, Epstein asked a reporter at the New York Times, quote, “Would you like photos of Donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen?” We’re joined now by Spencer Kuvin, who represents several survivors of abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. We have a lot to ask you about in a very small amount of time. Start off by responding to these emails that have been released.

Now, the latest news that the House is going to vote on releasing the whole trove of Epstein-Maxwell documents by next week, not in December, as was previously thought. Do you think Johnson get one of the Republican congressmembers who are calling for the release to flip?

SPENCER KUVIN: Well, first of all, thank you for having me on. And I’m not sure exactly what they’re going to actually do, but remember, this is just one procedural hurdle, right? The House has to pass this discharge petition, and then once the discharge petition has now gone through, they’ve got to vote on the floor.

Then, once that vote occurs, it’s got to flip over to the Senate, then the president will have to sign off on releasing this information. So, there are times where – periods in this process where it can get hung up, and we never end up seeing this information.

Also, remember that the most important thing that we want to see and that the general public should be shown isn’t necessarily the documents, it’s the videotapes and photographs that were taken into custody by the FBI at the various different homes of Jeffrey Epstein. We’re talking about his homes down in the Virgin Islands, here in Palm Beach, where I’m at, as well as his home in Manhattan. That’s the information that’s going to speak a thousand words. That’s what the general public needs to see.

AMY GOODMAN: Where are those videotapes? And does the Epstein estate have what many feel the government should’ve taken?

SPENCER KUVIN: Well, I believe the videotapes are in the custody of the FBI because remember, he was arrested at Teterboro Airport, and he never had an opportunity to get back to his mansion post-arrest. And the FBI then executed a search warrant on his home in Manhattan. That is where we believe that a wealth of video evidence was maintained.

In addition to that, they then executed a warrant in the Virgin Islands. We know that after his arrest here in Palm Beach, or actually, I should say, just before his arrest, he had a team of people that took hard drives away from the home here in Palm Beach and secreted them away.

We always understood as attorneys back then in 2007, 2008 when I was representing these young victims that they had likely taken that evidence off to the Virgin Islands to secure it. So, they’ve got 500 gigabytes of information that needs to be released.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Spencer, you had already seen the emails that were released yesterday, including the one that disclosed that Trump spent hours with Virginia. They were under a protective order by a federal judge, which is why you couldn’t disclose them. Now, if you could talk about when you first saw them, what most surprised you and whether other lawyers or yourself have seen any of the photographic or video evidence that you say is so crucial.

SPENCER KUVIN: Well, I can’t talk about things that might be still protected by protective order. What I can tell you generally is that the emails were part of a litigation that occurred down in the southern district of Florida, and when that disclosure occurred, remember that our advocacy as attorneys was on behalf of victims to try to upend or turn over the sweetheart deal that the U.S. government had executed with Jeffrey Epstein because they failed to keep the victims informed of that deal.

I only learned of it on behalf of my clients because an informant told me that I needed to rush to court because this secret deal was about to be entered. So, a lot of that information was turned over in that litigation. We weren’t really focused on Trump at the time, so it wasn’t the focus of our investigation or our litigation back then. We were just tangentially aware that they existed. Now that the focus is on this material, I can say that there is a lot more to come, and I can say that the FBI does have more information that needs to be released.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, the FBI has also interviewed, as you’ve said, over 40 girls, some just 14 years old. So, where are those interviews, and is there any likelihood that the content of those interviews would be released?

SPENCER KUVIN: Well, first and foremost, I would wish that the identities of those individual victims continue to be protected. Some of them, like a lot of my clients, nearly all of my clients, have remained anonymous even to this day. Almost 20 years later, no one has the identities or the names of my clients that I have kept confidential. So, I would hope that that remains to be the case.

But the contents of those interviews, in other words, what they said, and who they were with and who they told police they had been with and been traded to at Epstein’s mansion, we believe that that information should be made public along with the videotapes and photographs that we believe the FBI has in their custody.

AMY GOODMAN: And Spencer, your response to the latest revelation, that Ghislaine Maxwell, aside from getting very special treatment at the minimum-security jail that she was sent to in Texas that has shocked many because sex abusers are not supposed to be in these minimum–security facilities, is applying for a commutation of her 20-year sentence?

SPENCER KUVIN: Well, of course she is. I’m not shocked or surprised at any action that Ghislaine Maxwell takes. She’s a convicted liar and sex predator, so I don’t believe anything she does, and nothing she does shocks me after 20 years. She will do anything she can to trade on information that she believes she has.

We’ve seen that now in some of the emails that this duo of Epstein and Maxwell were all about leverage. They were trying to use leverage when discussing President Trump, they continued to use leverage when they were discussing Andrew in England and other notorious individuals. And I believe that that deal was struck to transfer her to this prison before she ever spoke to the Department of Justice.

Because why would a criminal – and why would an attorney advising a criminal, tell them, “Speak to the Department of Justice when you have a pending appeal”? It’s asinine. It makes no sense whatsoever, unless there was a deal that was struck beforehand that said, “Listen, if you talk and keep Trump’s name out of this, we’ll transfer you to a nicer prison.”

AMY GOODMAN: Spencer Kuvin, I want to thank you so much for being with us, lawyer for a number of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s abuse.

Up next, we go to Washington, D.C. where we’ll be joined by the newest member of Congress, Adelita Grijalva. It’s her first full day in Congress. She has become the final vote, cast yesterday, for the discharge petition that calls for the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: “I Will Spite Survive” by Deerhoof, performing in our Democracy Now! studio.