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Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse joins me now. Senator, thank you

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very much for being here. What was it about this

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case that drew your attention so

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strongly and got you so involved in reopening it?

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- Well this is what government exists to do, is to

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protect the powerless and the voiceless. So many

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things in Washington, D.C., that government does, it

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has no business doing. But this is what government

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is for. It's to defend weak victims,  like all these

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girls. Now, many of them are 30-something women.

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But these little girls were raped by this guy and trafficked by this guy.

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The Miami Herald reporting from late November

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and early December is really incredible and

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those journalists did some really

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extraordinary work and service to their neighbors.

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I chair the Judiciary Committee's Oversight Subcommittee,

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and so I I reached out to the Department of

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Justice repeatedly in December and January saying

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they have to reopen this investigation.

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- So, with regard to

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Mr. Acosta, who is the Labor Secretary now, you

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heard his explanation at that hearing.

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He says that the evidence merited

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the deal that they struck, that he has to register

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as a sex offender

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for the rest of his life, that he did serve time

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and he believes that there was nothing wrong with

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the agreement. What do you say to that?

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- Well, let's drop a few distinctions. So first of all,

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just as an objective matter,

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this guy victimized dozens, probably scores, of

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little girls and the sentence he got was pathetic.

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Every mom and dad in America, frankly not just

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moms and dads but anybody with a heart,

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should be heartbroken by what happened here to

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those girls, to those victims,

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but also with the absurdity of a sentence that short.

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Now there are two investigations. So, I started

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demanding us in December.

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Fortunately, Attorney General Barr, during his

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confirmation hearings in January, pledged

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that DOJ would reprioritize this issue and in

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February they started an investigation. But we should

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distinguish between two of them:

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The criminal matter pursuing Jeffrey Epstein

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right now is a Southern District of New York

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investigation, and as disgusting and as sick as this story is,

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this is good news today that SDNY has opened

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this investigation. Lots of good prosecutors

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there, and the FBI has been looking into this case,

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so that's a great investigation.

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The other thing that's happening is the Office of

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Professional Responsibility inside the Department

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of Justice has been looking at the question of

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how could he have gotten this ridiculously light

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slap-on-the-wrist sweetheart deal.

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So what that he's a billionaire? So what that he's

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rich and powerful and has the best lawyers money

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can buy? He victimized a whole bunch of people and

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law should be on the side of those little girls.

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- I mean one of the

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one of the shocking things about the deal that

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was struck just as an aside here,

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is that it also basically

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absolved anybody who had any connection with him

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in in any of these situations. You know any of

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the people who may have also been there. Is that right?

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- Well, it looks like the non-prosecution agreement,

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and I wanna say that we're we're getting near

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some really technical legal matters, and so I'm

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glad we have the Southern District of New York

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pursuing this investigation, but the

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non-prosecution agreement looks like it protected

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people who are raping those little girls in Palm

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Beach, but it looks like it didn't extend to

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Manhattan. And so that's what the Southern

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District of New York has been able to do in

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reopening this case. I don't want to comment about

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the particular people inside the chain of command

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in the Department of Justice ten years ago because

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there's an ongoing investigation now that the

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Office of Professional Responsibility is

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conducting, and they're gonna be reporting back to

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us in the Judiciary Committee and then we'll have a lot more to say.

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-This tweet came from Christine

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Pelosi, who is the daughter of Nancy Pelosi. She said:

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"This Epstein case is horrific

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and the young woman deserve justice. It is quite

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likely that some of our faves are

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Implicated but we must follow the facts and let

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the chips fall where they may - whether on

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Republicans or Democrats."

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You know, the dangerous thing here is that, you know, we have,

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you know, people cross paths with him

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and we have to be very careful because these are

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extremely

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awful

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suggestions here. So President Bill Clinton just

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put this statement out, very forceful statement

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moments ago

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saying that he knows

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nothing about the terrible crimes that Jeffrey Epstein

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pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago

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or those with which he has recently been charged

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in New York.

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He went on to say he's not spoken to Epstein and

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well over a decade and has never been to

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Little Saint James Island, Epstein's ranch in New

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Mexico, or his residence in Florida, which is

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where a lot of this is supposed to have played out.

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There's a story in the New York Post today and I think we

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have pictures of the two young women as they

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arrived at court. Courtney Wild

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was 14 years old, she said and was in braces. She

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said that he convinced her to bring him

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70 to 80 girls who were 14 to 15 years old over

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the course of those years, she's the person on

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the right.

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On the left is Michelle Licata

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who said that she was told to

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give massages that became increasingly sexual in nature.

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I think of these

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young women in these tragic stories who are

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basically kidnapped and they're held

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against their will in these cases and everyone

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sort of understands that it's very clean cut and

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even when questions are raised, you know why

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don't you just run away?

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Why didn't you give up?

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There's all kinds of psychological things that

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become in play here that prevent them from doing that.

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Do you see a parallel here?

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- Well first of all we should just admit that human

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trafficking is a scourge of our time.

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We celebrated the Fourth of July last

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week and an America that moved forward and included everybody

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without regard to race in the great American

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story. So the end of slavery is something that

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we celebrate in America, rightly. But I don't think

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a lot of Americans understand there are actually

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more slaves on the globe today that at any point in

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human history.

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And so human trafficking is a scourge and we need

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to be pursuing this. Government does a

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whole bunch of crap It shouldn't have any

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business involved in, trying to regulate the size

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of your soft drinks.

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Government ought to be doing a lot more of this.

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Going after bastards like this guy.

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This isn't a time for people to say, "Oh

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is a Republican or Democrat gonna be implicated?"

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Every American should stand on the side of those

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little girls.

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case as it moves forward. Senator Sasse, thank you

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very much

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for being here tonight. Great to see you, sir.

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- Thanks Martha