Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, says there are a number of powerful people mentioned in the Epstein files he wants to see testify, as Congress continues to go through the millions of documents released by the Department of Justice.
Among the people he anticipates the committee will want to hear from — and soon — is Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates. In emails, Jeffrey Epstein made allegations that Gates had had an affair, contracted an STI and then secretly tried to give his ex-wife antibiotics.
“He’s someone that I think both Republicans and Democrats want to speak to,” Garcia told NOTUS’ Reese Gorman on the latest episode of On NOTUS.
Garcia also named Elon Musk and Steve Bannon — but acknowledged that Democrats might need a majority in Congress before being able to bring both men in for testimony.
“We should talk to Steve Bannon. He clearly was palling around with Epstein,” Garcia said. “Elon Musk seems to have information and was pretty confident in Steve Bannon’s involvement in some of what Epstein was doing. It’d be great to get testimony and information about what Mr. Musk might know.”
Robert Garcia on the Epstein files and working with anti-gay lawmakers
Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat who serves as the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, has been at the forefront of Congress’ investigation into the Epstein files. He joined NOTUS’ Reese Gorman shortly after viewing the unredacted files at the DOJ and talked about people named in the files the committee wants to hear from — Bill Gates and Steve Bannon in particular. He also talked about being an openly gay member of Congress and what it’s like working with lawmakers who have anti-LGBTQ views.
“So I think that’s whether Republicans do it or we have to do it, when we get to the majority,” he added. “I don’t wanna wait that long. I think we should get it done now.”
Garcia said that partisanship does not impact who the committee wants to speak with about the Epstein files.
Bill and Hillary Clinton agreed earlier this month to testify in the Oversight Committee’s investigation into the Epstein files, following months of back and forth over the committee’s subpoenas. Hillary Clinton will likely sit for testimony Feb. 26, with Bill Clinton testifying the following day.
“The political party is really of little interest to us,” Garcia said. “We just want to know, what do these men know about what happened? When were any of them involved in the trafficking of women? And there’s a lot of men in these files and a lot of powerful men, and those are the folks that we want to talk to.”
Garcia spoke on the podcast just after returning from the DOJ where he saw some of the documents unredacted. Members of Congress have been furious that the Epstein files released by DOJ appear to be over-redacted without explanation, in violation of the law.
“We were able to see some of the names of some pretty powerful people that had no business being redacted,” Garcia told NOTUS’ Reese Gorman in the latest episode of the On NOTUS podcast. “And so we don’t understand what’s the explanation for redacting the names of powerful men, of men in business, some billionaires that we know of? Why are their names redacted where they are not survivors or victims?”
Garcia said that of the documents he viewed, which were less redacted than those publicly available, many still censored much of the information blocked from the public.
“It’s very clear that the documents that were presented to Congress are highly over-redacted,” Garcia said. “Even if you compare the same document that was released to the public and then the version that was supposed to be unredacted, many of the documents were exactly the same. There was no difference.
“It wasn’t just protecting victims’ names,” he added. “So that’s completely against what the law says and what we’re supposed to see in the Congress.”
On NOTUS is a weekly podcast in which host Reese Gorman talks to lawmakers about how they got to Washington and what motivates them. You can download or listen here.
Don’t miss the stories shaping Washington.
Sign in
Log into your free account with your email. Don’t have one?
Check your email for a one-time code.
We sent a 4-digit code to . Enter the pin to confirm your account.
New code will be available in 1:00
Let’s try this again.
We encountered an error with the passcode sent to . Please reenter your email.