On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee made public a transcript of former Attorney General Bill Barr’s deposition, which, according to the Republican claims, shows that Barr was unaware of any incriminating connections between President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. The transcript is about 120 pages long.
Even if the committee’s ranking Democrat said last month that the complete transcript did not exonerate Trump, this remains the case.
Several individuals and organizations have been subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee as part of their investigation of the Department of Justice’s handling of the Epstein case.
Barr is one of them; he told investigators that he and Trump discussed Epstein twice: once after the convicted sex offender’s suicide and another occasion he couldn’t pinpoint.
Barr further denied that Trump had any opinions on the DOJ’s Epstein investigation, nor did he offer directions or voice preferences regarding its handling, as seen in the transcript that HeadlinesForever Digital was able to get.
Barr stated he did not remember informing Trump that his name was on Epstein-related materials during a line of inquiry by Democratic Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett.
“I’m curious to know, in those conversations that you do recall with the president, do you recall ever informing him that he was in the Epstein files at all, number one?” The transcript states that Crockett inquired.
Well, I’m not sure what the “Epstein files” mean these days, Barr said in response. However, I must say that I refrained from engaging in such a discourse with him. Logs showing that he was using Epstein’s jet for commutes from, say, Miami to New York or New Jersey, or somewhere along those lines, became public knowledge at some time. That was not anything I remember talking about with him.
Crockett followed up, “And you have no direct knowledge of any of the young women or women that claimed that they had encounters with the president through Epstein, correct?”
There was no mention of proof to back up that assertion, Barr stated, as reported in the transcript.
Following the investigation, Barr informed the authorities that he thought any damaging information against Trump would have been revealed long ago if it had existed. He also hinted that the same would have been the case with former president Bill Clinton, who, similar to Trump, was reputedly acquainted with Epstein at one point.
If anyone in the government felt that someone was trying to hide something up, I think word would get out. I believe word would spread. To add insult to injury, “New York and the Southern District of New York are notorious for housing countless leaks pertaining to investigations,” as Barr pointed out.
“So, in your experience, you have no doubt that if SDNY prosecutors saw evidence of a crime, they would have followed that evidence to indictment and, if it led to a conviction, they would have followed the facts to the end,” a lawyer from the House Oversight Committee questioned. Does it seem reasonable to you?”
Barr stated that he would have expected similar actions, even from prominent figures.
“I also feel, you know, that, you know, they would’ve done the same for Clinton, I believe,” he pointed out.
It seems to me that this was all happening under Joe Biden’s presidency as well, and that if they had evidence, it would have been easy to use it against President Trump. My doubts about the existence of any proof stem from the fact that I was never given any information about it.
“It is possible that the SDNY did not inform me, you know, how deep they were in the investigation of particular individuals,” the ex-official said to the previous Trump administration. I wouldn’t be surprised by it.
“By the same token, I feel that my view of that office and the people involved would be that, if they had evidence establishing a crime, they would pursue it as such,” said Barr.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, claimed that Barr’s comments did not absolve Trump of guilt, leading to partisan tensions following his appearance.
During his deposition with the committee yesterday, Attorney General Barr was unable to exonerate President Trump of any wrongdoing. In a statement dated August, Garcia argued that Chairman [James Comer, R-Ky.,] ought to make available the complete, unaltered transcript of his interview.
However, it seems from the transcript that Trump was not criminally connected to Epstein, at least according to Barr’s memory.
One of Barr’s two talks with Trump about Epstein occurred after she learned about the suicide, she claimed. I informed him about it and assured him that we would be researching it thoroughly, and I phoned him up and said, “You better brace for this” or something along those lines. The second one, I’m not sure if it occurred before, during, or after his suicide; I mean, it might have happened around the time of his arrest or afterwards, among the ongoing happenings.
It was common practice, according to the transcript, for current Attorney General Pam Bondi to notify Trump that his name was in the Epstein files in the last few months. Barr defended this action.
“I think that would normally be what the attorney general would do, you know, is to give the president a heads-up if something is going to happen like that, the release of documents that have his name in it and that will be, you know, a lot – there would be a lot of speculation about it,” he said.
Communicating with the chief executive about the impending release of his name is entirely standard practice. I don’t see any fundamental problem with it.
Barr admitted at one time that the FBI investigation had flaws, but he struggled to remember many details about the inquiry overall. The time the authorities spent searching in vain for Ghislaine Maxwell was characterized by him as “embarrassing.”
Barr also denied any involvement in the conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein’s death, even though the DOJ’s decision to shut the case earlier this year caused uproar.
“Absolutely,” he said when asked if the belief that Epstein committed suicide remained in his mind.