They Killed the Messenger: Epstein, Massie, and MAGA's Transparency Lie, Jun 2

Rachel: Hmm Jordyn: Welcome to Red Flag. I'm Rachel. I'm Jordyn, and oh man, this week did not disappoint. That's one way to put it. We've got Epstein files, Speaker 3: a congressman who just lost the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, and a DOJ that showed up to a hearing with a lawmaker's search history printed in a binder. Wait for it, Bondi literally walked in holding it, Jordyn: like flipped to it mid-hearing. A burn book for Congress. Speaker 3: That's exactly what it was. Jordyn: And Al Jazeera confirmed the Massie-Gallrein race topped $34 million, which is the most expensive House primary ever over Epstein files and a transparency law Massie co-wrote. Right, and here's the thing. That law passed 427 to 1, signed into law, signed into law, and then the guy who wrote it just got pounced. Plot twist. A very expensive plot twist. So today, we're running the full receipt on what Trump. Trump promised about Epstein transparency versus what actually got released. Speaker 3: Hmm. Jordyn: 3.5 million pages, redactions everywhere, a document that vanished off the DOJ website, and some of Trump's most loyal House allies, Boebert, Mace, MTG, publicly broke with him over it. We get into that civil war. Oh, you're going to love this part. Massie, after losing, went on Meet the Press and invoked Melania, said she knows. Who knows Epstein didn't act alone? Yeah. And then vowed to read redacted names into the congressional record using speech and debate immunity before he leaves. The man is not going quietly. Okay, let's get into it, starting with the Cold Open. Just cannot believe this. I will release everything, every single file-full transparency. The American people deserve the truth. Speaker 3: Their new scam is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Jordyn: Same guy. Speaker 3: Same guy. Jordyn: Welcome to Red Flag. I'm Rachel, she's Jordyn, and today we are holding the receipts on the Epstein Files because that flip- Yep, just happened in public, on camera. Speaker 3: During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised full transparency on Epstein. NPR covered how that promise was basically the backbone of his whole they're hiding the truth from you message. The crowd loved it. Jordyn: And then the DOJ and FBI dropped a memo in July 2025 saying they found no evidence of a client list, no charges warranted. And Trump's response? Speaker 3: He called the entire thing a "Democratic hoax" on social media, called his own supporters who still cared about it his "past supporters." Jordyn: So the people asking for the thing he promised are now the problem. Speaker 3: That's the move. According to ABC News, by July sixteenth he was posting that the fixation was a scam, the same files he ran on. Jordyn: Okay, so here's what I keep circling back to: he didn't just Speaker 4: - Jordyn: Must break the promise; he built a law around it, signed it, and then the co-sponsors said the first document drop grossly fails to comply. So what exactly did that law require? Speaker 5: Hmm! Jordyn: So here's the actual paper trail. Massie and Ro Khanna used a discharge petition, which is a procedural move that lets lawmakers bypass leadership entirely. They needed two hundred eighteen signatures. And they got them, November twelfth: only four Republicans signed. The other two hundred fourteen were Democrats. Right, right, right. So the discharge petition forces a House vote, the bill passes. This four hundred twenty seven to one, Senate passes it by unanimous consent, and Trump signs it November nineteenth. Four hundred twenty seven to one-some one voted no-Clay Higgins, Louisiana, lone dissenter. But here's where it gets good: the law's actual text is pretty unambiguous: every unclassified DOJ record searchable and downloadable within thirty days. So December nineteenth—December nineteenth—and the law says in writing no record can be withheld on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm or political sensitivity for any government official, public figure or foreign dignitary. They literally wrote out every excuse the DOJ would later try to use and said, nope! They named the trick before the trick happened. And then on December nineteenth, Deputy AG Todd Todd Blanche went on Fox & Friends and said, yeah, we're releasing some today and then more over the next couple weeks. Some—he said some!" Massie immediately posted a photo of the actual law text on X, highlighted the thirty day requirement, right there, and—oh, there's a penalty clause for non-compliance, Speaker 6: Mm-hmm. Jordyn: right? There is not. The law has no enforcement mechanism. So they wrote the quiet part out loud, the DOJ ignored it anyway, and there's nothing anyone can technically do about it, and that's where the numbers get even uglier. because what actually dropped on December 19th is a lot less than you'd hope. So that partial December release? NBC News reported the January 30th dump was 3.5 million pages, but that was only about half of the more than 6 million documents the DOJ collected. Half. They released half. Half! and then said, sarcastically, "We're done here-obligation met! Speaker 3: Okay, but here's where it gets good. Or awful, depending on your perspective. NBC News flagged that one of those documents was an 82-page psychological review. 81 of those pages blacked out. Jordyn: Wait, wait, wait—81 out of 82? One page. You get one page. That's not transparency. That's a cover with a blank book behind it. Oh, and a seven-page document was fully redacted, then it disappeared off the DOJ website entirely. Sarcastically, nothing suspicious there. Zero. Totally normal government behavior. And then, okay, Bondi. Before any of this, she goes on Fox News in February 2025 and says a client list is literally sitting on her desk. Right. Then the DOJ hands binders to Matt. Rachel: I get influencers at the White House labeled Epstein Files Phase 1 declassified. PBS reported the contents were mostly already public information. Chuckling, a photo call with binders full of nothing. And by July, the DOJ walked it back entirely. No client list exists, according to their own memo. The White House spun it as Bondi just meant the files generally. It's the same playbook as the Tara receipts. Use volume to fake transparency while hiding the substance. Six million pages collected. Half released. One page of an 82-page document visible. That math is the receipt. And the people who were most furious about it, not Democrats. We'll get to that next. So the redacted non-release angered exactly who you'd expect, right? Except no, these are Boebert, Mace, and MTG. Right, not AOC, not Raskin, the MAGA firebrands. Per Newsweek, those three publicly threatened to tank a procedural vote GOP leadership needed to move the farm bill over Epstein transparency. These are people who voted with Trump on almost everything. So get this: Boebert visited the DOJ reading room and posted that the language in the unredacted files was, quote, terrifying, referenced torture, asked whether the official narrative... even covers what's in there. Terrifying. Her word. According to PBS News Weekend, Mace went further. She said she's building a subpoena list after her visit, and called out the DOJ for logging lawmakers' individual document searches in that room said it felt like intimidation. Hold on. The DOJ tracked which specific documents each lawmaker looked at? Jordyn: That's where this goes next, but stay here a second. Rachel: Right, right. Because the accountability point matters. You've been saying it for two episodes. Criticism only lands when it comes from inside. Jordyn: And now it has. MTG per Newsweek said the file release was, quote, not MAGA, said people are raging and walking away. She has been Trump's closest House ally for years. Rachel: When MTG is your accountability problem, you have an accountability problem. Jordyn: That's where we are. And here's what makes the DOJ tracking story so much worse. Though here's the thing about the reading room setup. The DOJ technically opened access. They said, come look at the files, bipartisan, totally above board. Speaker 3: Right. Jordyn: Super transparent. And then Bondi walks into a House Judiciary hearing holding a binder with a lawmaker's search history printed inside it, like labeled Pramila Jayapal search history. A burn book, Rachel. with receipts about the people demanding receipts. Speaker 5: Okay, wait, they were watching who searched for what in a room designed to prove they weren't hiding anything? Jordyn: Yeah, the DOJ said they log all searches to, quote, protect victim information. But per NBC News, they didn't tell lawmakers that search histories would be compiled and handed to the attorney general before a hearing. Speaker 5: So the compliance was the trap. Jordyn: The compliance was the trap. You either don't go and you can't complain. plane or you go and they know exactly what you're building a case around. Speaker 5: Mace called it a form of intimidation, potentially. Johnson called it inappropriate, and then basically shrugged and said it was an oversight. Jordyn: An oversight about the Epstein oversight. The man has a gift. Speaker 5: Raskin asked the DOJ Inspector General to investigate, calling it an outrageous abuse of power. Bipartisan outrage, by the way. This wasn't just Democrats. Jordyn: Which tracks because at this point you've got four computers. No staff allowed in the building, and now a burn book. That's not a reading room, that's a fishbowl. Speaker 5: And the person who saw this coming the clearest already lost his primary, but he's not done yet. Jordyn: And the lawmaker who made all that possible just lost his primary, and he went out swinging. On Meet the Press, right after the loss, Massie said, according to IBTimes UK, even Melania doesn't believe that. The First Lady knows that Jeffrey Epstein didn't act alone. He pulled Melania's own April transparency statement back into the fight. She called for public hearings for survivors and said the names need Speaker 4: to be released. Jordyn: need to come out; and he basically said: "Yeah, she agrees with me." And he didn't stop there; he vowed to read redacted names directly into the congressional record on the House floor before January. Using speech-and-debate immunity, untouchable. Right, his logic: prosecutions are impossible while Blanche and Patel are in charge, because, per Massie, they've both effectively perjured themselves by claiming there's nobody else in the files. But the concession speech-that's where it landed for me. Rachel: If no one in the chamber can safely vote against the President on Jordyn: How! Rachel: anything-judges, spending, war-that's a structural problem, not a political one. Jordyn: And he said it in a concession speech, after losing-that's what makes it stick. Rachel: He still had seven months and a House floor, which means this story is not over. Someone spent a lot of money making sure it would be. And we're about to get into exactly how much. Jordyn: So thirty four million dollars, most expensive House primary in U.S. history, according to AdImpact, for a safe R-plus-18 district in Kentucky. Speaker 5: R-plus-18. Jordyn: Right? A seat nobody realistically loses in November, and they dropped over thirty four million dollars per American Prospect to remove one guy in the primary? Speaker 5: And then the Defense Secretary shows up the night before the vote. Jordyn: Oh! Speaker 5: CNBC confirmed Pete Hegseth flew to Kentucky to campaign for Gallrein while a federal law prohibits cabinet officials from using their official capacity to influence elections. Jordyn: But he was there in his "personal capacity"--the lawyers cleared it; the lawyers, sure. Speaker 5: The guy introduced as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was there as a private citizen. Jordyn: And then the night before the vote, Trump posts on Truth Speaker 5: Social. Jordyn: calling Massie the worst congressman in the long and storied Speaker 4: history of Congress. Jordyn: Storied history of the Republican Party Speaker 5: And after the race gets called, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung posts, "This is a direct quote: 'DO NOT EVER DOUBT President Trump and his political power.'" Jordyn: That's not a Speaker 4: direct quote! Rachel: Not a victory statement. That's a warning. Jordyn: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And here's what gets me. This is someone who voted for Epstein transparency, passed a bill Trump signed, and it cost $34 million and Rachel: Right. Jordyn: the defense secretary's travel schedule to erase him. Rachel: So you gotta ask, if the transparency promise was solid, why did the accountability vote cost that much to remove? Jordyn: Somebody was very motivated. And speaking of who was... Who is actually calling this out correctly and from which side of the aisle? That gets interesting fast. Rachel: So here's the friendly fire moment-and it's a clean one. Jordyn: Oh, it's clean-almost embarrassingly clean. Rachel: A Democrat and a libertarian Republican built the most consequential transparency law of this administration-together. KHANNA sponsored the bill, MASSIE co-led it. They stood outside the DOJ reading room and called it out when the DOJ broke the law. Jordyn: And after the primary, Khanna said on video: He lost because he had the "guts" to take on the Epstein class. That's a Democrat eulogizing a Republican. Rachel: Nod—here's the honest version of this: critics were saying Trump would stonewall Epstein transparency for over a year before MAGA firebrands picked Jordyn: Yes. Rachel: up that same argument. Jordyn: Right, and we waved it off as partisan noise—Jordan talked about this last episode. Rachel: Jordan talked about it, yes. Jordyn: The critique was correct; the argument didn't get— It can get more valid when Tucker Carlson or Boebert made it, but it got heard. Rachel: That's the part that should bother Jordyn: Hmm. Rachel: people. Jordyn: The point isn't that the Left is right about everything, it's that the Right accountability argument is the right argument, full stop, regardless of who's holding the receipt. Rachel: And one of the two who built this thing just got fired for it-the other one still in Congress. Jordyn: The law is still on the books, though, which is actually where things get Get interesting. Rachel: That's exactly where we're going next. Jordyn: So the law is still standing; that's the thing people might miss. Right, Massie's gone-but the Epstein Files Transparency Act doesn't expire when he does. According to The Hill's reporting on his argument, future attorneys general are still legally bound by it, every one of them, regardless of who's in Congress. Nodding, he said there are still millions of files unreleased-millions-and Newsweek reported MAGA firebrands are threatening to derail the farm bill over this, so the pressure inside the caucus didn't just evaporate. And before he leaves, Massie vowed to keep reading names into the congressional record. Speech and debate immunity means nobody can touch him for it legally. He already named at least three billionaires implicated in the files. Sarcastically, very constitutional of him. Chuckling, extremely. But here's the watch list question I keep coming back to: Does Ed Gallrein, the guy who literally owes his seat Speaker 4: to the American people, Jordyn: really owe his seat to the American people? Seat to Trump ever used that seat to push enforcement? That's the real tell, because the law exists; the DOJ is still required to release the rest; the question is whether anyone left in that building has appetite to actually enforce it. Or does the law get quietly defunded, quietly amended, quietly buried under a procedural vote nobody's watching? The infrastructure survived; the enforcer didn't. Which tells you something. And honestly, that's exactly where we need to land for our closes. So here's the through line. MAGA promised transparency. Congress passed a law requiring it. Then the administration spent over $34 million and flew the Defense Secretary to Kentucky to remove the one guy who actually tried to enforce it. The accountability tax. Paid in full. And now Trump's claiming the release absolves him. The files reportedly flag his name in over... Rachel: Over five thousand documents per the New York Times, the co author of the law that forced those documents out just lost his seat. Connect the dots yourself. Jordyn: According to NPR's January reporting, there are still roughly two point five million pages the DOJ hasn't released. The law still binds them. That's not speculation, that's the statute. Rachel: Right. And the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Jordyn: Act is public law; you can read it; it explicitly bars withholding on embarrassment grounds. That language didn't disappear when Massie lost. What gets me is the DOJ's own behaviour confirms the thing they're denying: you don't spend thirty four million dollars and deploy your defence secretary against a backbench libertarian because he's wrong. Rachel: Quietly-that's the receipt. Jordyn: The law exists; the remaining pages are required; the obligation doesn't expire; if the DOJ ignores it, that's the story, knowing the law is the first step to holding any one accountable for ignoring it. Rachel: Right, the infrastructure survived, the bill is still due. Okay, so that's our episode. And honestly, Jordyn, I keep coming back to Massie's concession line. Jordyn: If the legislative branch always votes with the president, we do have a king. Rachel: Said it with his whole chest after losing the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, over $34 million to oust one guy for wanting transparency. Jordyn: And the law he built still on the books, the accountability is still there. That's the part that doesn't get buried. Exactly; you can lose the seat, you cannot Rachel: Mm-hmm. Jordyn: pass the law. Totally. Speaker 3: Rachel, that's the whole episode in one sentence, honestly. Jordyn: I'll take it. Speaker 3: Look, if this one made you think, share it with one friend who's been biting their tongue. That's the ask. Jordyn: Subscribe wherever you listen, drop us a rating so more politically homeless voters can actually find us. Speaker 3: Thanks for being here. We'll see you next week. Jordyn: Stay curious; don't outsource your skepticism. Speaker 5: See you next time.