Rachel Maddow blasted Donald Trump and several of his allies for being part of the list of names mentioned in files related to disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“President Trump is mentioned thousands of times in the files,” Maddow said Monday during an episode of her MS NOW series “The Rachel Maddow Show,” reiterating Congressman Jamie Raskin’s remarks about the latest Epstein files revelations. She went on to name more of Trump’s colleagues that have been spotted in documents, including Trump’s former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) lead and major Trump donor Elon Musk.
“Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, is also all over the files, including in the files, apparently trying to negotiate a trip to Epstein’s island,” Maddow said. “The top Republican Party donor in the country by far, Elon Musk. He’s all over the files, including trying to get Epstein to invite him to what Musk called his wildest parties.”
She continued, noting that despite their apparent affiliations, they remain legally and politically untouched.
“The Navy secretary, John Phelan is there as well, flying on Epstein’s plane with who knows who,” Maddow said. But one of the people on board the plane was the French modeling scout guy who killed himself in jail when he was charged with Epstein-related trafficking crimes. There’s no criminal allegations against any of these men from the Trump administration that I just mentioned, but they’re all still in place in the administration and in Republican politics, at least at this hour.”
After the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed in November, the justice department has released a slew of documents related to Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme and the individuals who were allegedly apart of it or connected to it. On Monday, Raskin, a House Democrat, accused the justice department of making “mysterious redactions” to the documents.
“I went over there, and I was able to determine, at least I believe, that there were tons of completely unnecessary redactions, in addition to the failure to redact the names of victims, and so that was troubling to us,” Raskin told media, adding that he believes the department is in “cover-up mode.”
“They violated that precept by releasing the names of a lot of victims, which is either spectacular incompetence and sloppiness on their part, or, as a lot of the survivors believe, a deliberate threat to other survivors who are thinking about coming forward, that they need to be careful because they can be exposed and have their personal information dragged through the mud as well,” he said.
Watch the clip above.
