LEILA FADEL, HOST:
We turn now to one of the Democrats who sits on the House Oversight Committee, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. Good morning, Congressman.
RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI: Hey. Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So we just heard Ghislaine Maxwell is likely to make liberal use of the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions. Given that, what is the point of this deposition?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think that she still needs to come before the committee and cooperate and basically, you know, answer questions about some very important outstanding issues such as, you know, who else abused victims as part of this child sex trafficking ring, which financial entities and private institutions knowingly participated, and which prosecutors or government officials, you know, knowingly looked the other way? And, you know, if she decides to invoke her Fifth Amendment right, that is her right, but it also raises the question about what additional facts she does not want to testify that could potentially implicate her in additional crimes.
FADEL: Are those your main questions for Maxwell?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yeah. But also, I think another big question is why is the Trump administration withholding millions of pages of other documents that could shed additional light on what has happened with regard to this child sex trafficking ring? In particular, I've been calling for the release of the financial records because, you know, that ultimately allows us to follow the money.
FADEL: Now, ranking Oversight member Robert Garcia has said that Maxwell has received special treatment from the Justice Department. Do you agree with that, and do you expect to learn anything more today about her relationship with the Department of Justice under this administration?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I do agree with ranking member Garcia's assessment. She's in a low-security prison camp. They call it Club Fed. She's had unsupervised laptop access. She, you know, receives favorable treatment compared to others who might have been similarly convicted. And I'm concerned that it's part of some kind of understanding or deal with Donald Trump. And that's in part why I have also introduced a resolution that would call for denying any form of clemency or a pardon, which she seeks in return for what I fear is, you know, testimony that could be favorable to Trump or falsifying what she knows. She's a monster, and she should not be given any leniency whatsoever.
FADEL: Now, your committee is scheduled to depose former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, later this month. Documents from the Justice Department show that Maxwell played a role in the launch of the Clinton Global Initiative. Will the committee ask Maxwell today about her relationship with the Clintons?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think they will - she'll be asked about her relationship to them, but to numerous others, including Donald Trump, as well as, you know, other individuals that have, you know, featured prominently in the files. Just to kind of level set, you know, the reason why I think there's so much bipartisan support for pursuing this investigation is because there were more than a thousand victims of this child sex trafficking ring. Many of them have come to Capitol Hill. We've met with them for hours. Those then-girls have become middle-aged women now, and they've yet to receive any justice whatsoever. And I think that has kind of stiffened our resolve that we've got to get to the bottom of this, regardless of who it touches.
FADEL: Who else do you want to see come before the committee?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I want to see Donald Trump come before the committee. I want to see him testify just as the Clintons are testifying. He needs to cooperate fully. So far, he has not. As I said, there are millions of pages of documents that he and the Justice Department have withheld from us, but he needs to appear before us as well, and I think that there are going to be increasing calls for him to testify, too.
FADEL: I want to ask about the millions of documents that the Department of Justice has released, and you've called it an F-minus-minus-minus effort. NPR and others have reported that the DOJ left names of victims unredacted while hiding the names of some Epstein associates. How are you following up on that as a member of the Oversight Committee?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, you know, the Oversight Committee, especially in the minority, were kind of identifying holes in the documents. Interestingly enough, one of the ways that we're able to identify holes is that other entities, such as the Epstein estate, have been even more forthcoming in producing documents. So to the extent that they're producing documents to us, and those same documents, which we know should be in the possession of the government, are not produced to us by the government. That's a way of indicating that there's a lot more documents that need to be produced.
FADEL: That's Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. Thank you for your time, Congressman.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you, Leila.
FADEL: And we'll note that we've invited congressional Republicans and the Trump administration onto this program to talk about all this. The offer still stands. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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