The acting deputy chief of a Justice Department unit said on hidden camera that the government will "redact every Republican" from an Epstein client list. He later admitted he was basing his comments on media reports.
Why it matters: The O'Keefe Media Group, a far-right media organization, secretly recorded Joseph Schnitt's comments and published them on Thursday.
In a statement addressed to the DOJ's acting director, Schnitt said he had no idea he was being recorded on video and that he met the O'Keefe reporter — who he said was pretending to be an au pair — on the dating app Hinge.
Jeffrey Epstein accuser Liz Stein said she does not support a push to publicly release the names of Epstein’s associates.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Epstein accuser Lisa Phillips said she and other accusers had begun compiling a confidential list. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who’s leading the effort to push the Department of Justice to release all the information it has on Epstein, said he supports the idea of reading the list on the House floor.
Steps away from the Capitol, victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender, on Wednesday demanded that all people who received sexual favors through Epstein be identified.
They also demanded that Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Epstein who is serving 20 years for sex trafficking, serve her full sentence without special treatment. Maxwell was moved to a minimum security prison in Texas after President Donald Trump’s lawyers and a senior Justice Department official interviewed her in July.
During the interview, Maxwell, who is seeking a presidential pardon or reduction of her sentence, downplayed Trump’s long friendship with Epstein and praised the president.
