Epstein committee chair blasts 'criminal cover up' and demands Ghislaine Maxwell testify

Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, told MSNBC's Ana Cabrera Thursday that the Republican cover up of the files related to late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is criminal, and he is pushing for Epstein's convicted partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell to appear before the committee.

Garcia also blasted Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's (R-LA) refusal to seat Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva. Grijalva was elected to a U.S. House seat following a special election on September 23, become what would be the decisive 218th signature for a bipartisan discharge petition to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files.

"I mean, it's criminal. This is outrageous that we have a duly elected member in an election certified by her own state, with 800,000 people in the state of Arizona with no representation in Congress," Garcia said.

He noted that the reason for this is that "Mike Johnson is afraid of the Epstein files and currently playing cover up for Donald Trump and the White House. There is no other reason for this."

Garcia added that because Grijalva "is the last vote, as we know to get the Epstein files released to the Congress in a vote. And Mike Johnson apparently is taking orders from Donal Trump, who does not want Grijalva seated because that would be the final vote."

Garcia said Trump and Johnson are "too scared of getting justice for the survivors, of women and girls who have been trafficked in the past by Jeffrey Epstein and other powerful men," and that the shutdown makes the cover up easier.

"This shutdown has become, I think, really emblematic of the corruption in the Republican party, " Garcia said. "Let's get this government open, let's seat Adelita Grijalva, let's lower the costs for working families and that's what Democrats right now are saying."

In addition to the Epstein files, Garcia says he also wants to see Maxwell come before the Oversight Committee, and on Thursday he sent a letter to the warden of her low-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, because, he said, he wants answers.

"This is something every American should be concerned about," Garcia said. "Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been convicted of horrific crimes against children and women, who herself she abused with her partner Jeffrey Epstein and did horrific things."

Garcia says that Epstein's survivors are "appalled" at the treatment Maxwell is getting in her so-called country club prison.

"For her to be moved from her maximum security location to this kind of, more relaxed environment where she now has access to Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Todd Blanche who went to visit her, where' she's now telling her own side of the story — this is incredibly concerning and there is a clear cover up going on here to try to get Ghislaine Maxwell to align with whatever story the Department of Justice and President Trump want to tell," Garcia added.

Garcia said that, among other things, "we want to know who has actually ordered" Maxwell's transfer. "We want her in front of the Oversight Committee. She's answered questions of Donald Trump. It's time for her to answer our questions."

Garcia says that his co-chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) "on the Republican side says it's going to happen. It's time to bring her in front of the committee."