“We smell a rat!” – Merkley on Epstein Cover-up

Senator Jeff Merkley

27.3K subscribers

172,619 views Dec 17, 2025

Senator Merkley demanded transparency and justice at a Senate press conference about the Epstein Files on December 16, 2025.

How this was made

Auto-dubbed

Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Learn more

Transcript

Follow along using the transcript.

Senator Jeff Merkley

27.3K subscribers

Transcript

0:00

We smell a rat.

0:03

Why? The president campaigned on

0:07

releasing the files.

0:09

Pam Bondi assured everyone the files

0:12

would be released.

0:14

Cash Patel said the files will be given

0:18

to the public. And yet here we are.

0:22

Not a single bit of these files has been

0:25

released. And then what happened?

0:29

Well, we had over in the House

0:32

bipartisan leadership with Ro Con Kana

0:35

and Thomas Massie and a discharge

0:38

petition. And as the discharge petition

0:41

started to reach the critical number

0:44

required, the House went on eight weeks

0:48

of vacation in order to avoid releasing

0:50

these files. That's never happened in

0:53

American history.

0:55

And then we find as they were coming

0:57

back,

0:59

what happened? An announcement that some

1:03

new investigations were being launched.

1:06

That was on November 14th.

1:09

And on the evening of the 18th, Senator

1:12

Schumer went to the floor, asked for

1:14

unanimous consent that the bill from the

1:18

House be deemed passed when it arrived

1:21

in the Senate, and unanimous consent was

1:24

secured from all to send this message.

1:27

And what happened the next day? Pam

1:30

Bondi gets up and says, "We have this

1:33

new information to justify new

1:36

investigations."

1:38

The timing of that's awfully suspicious.

1:42

So the leaders in the House and the

1:43

Senate demanded a meeting. We wrote to

1:47

Pam Bondi, Ro Kana, Tom Massie,

1:52

myself,

1:56

Ben Ray Luhan, and we were joined and I

1:59

welcomed the bipartisanship of Senator

2:02

Mowski to say, "We want to know what

2:06

you're up to. meet with us and explain

2:08

these new investigations. What is this

2:11

new evidence? What are you undertaking?

2:14

And how are you setting forward a plan

2:15

to make sure all the documents are

2:17

released on the 30-day notice? We got a

2:20

response.

2:22

The response was, "We acknowledge

2:24

receipt of your letter." That's it. So,

2:27

one of the things to watch for is the

2:29

argument that vast sections had to be

2:31

redacted in some cases to defend the

2:35

integrity of some newly invented

2:38

investigations.

2:39

One way or another, we anticipate that

2:43

Trump is going to continue to hide the

2:46

files that should be released. We must

2:49

not let it happen. We must not let it

2:51

happen because we are about

2:53

accountability for the perpetrators and

2:56

justice for the victims. And that will

2:59

not happen unless there is transparency

3:01

and the documents are released in