Mullin: Epstein Prosecuted by Bush, Trump; Silence Under Obama, Biden

Democrats and their allies in the media are trying to conflate the pursuit of Jeffrey Epstein transparency in another political dog and pony show to smear President Donald Trump, but Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., rejected it as yet another hoax, using simple logic lost on the left.

Mullin, in a testy exchange, repeatedly reminded Jake Tapper, CNN's "State of the Union" host Sunday, that he and the Democrats are on the wrong side of history again on this, like the Russiagate "hoax."

"So transparency is what we're all about, but the Democrats are trying to distract from their awful record and from the questions they need to ask, like who was signing the executive order since it was an autopen?" Mullin told Tapper. "Who was actually choosing – or choosing to continue to run the Russiagate, when we know it was a huge hoax? Who was making the decisions at the White House?

"And they can't answer that. So they're deciding to run a distraction by this Epstein file, when it's a big hoax and the American people know it, because they never said a word about it when [former President Joe] Biden was in office."

Tapper tried to pin the lack of transparency on the Trump administration, which is the one that brought Epstein to justice, and the George W. Bush administration that begin the saga – as opposed to the Obama and Biden administrations that did nothing with it, all to silence from the left, Mullin noted.

"[Attorney General] Pam Bondi and the president and Congress wants transparency," Mullin reminded Tapper, saying she and Trump and the GOP made "assumption that the judges were going to release" when they promised transparency. "We want them to release the files. However, we can't make them release it because of separation of power.

"The judges, the judicial branch, have the files and they have the documents. Every document that Pam Bondi has, every document that the [FBI Director] Kash Patel has, they have been heard by a grand jury.

"We saw the judge in Florida say, no, she's not releasing it. We're waiting on the judges in New York to say, are you going to release it or do you not? We all want transparency. And what's funny about this is the Democrats want it, too.

"But when I put my resolution forth, guess what? The Democrats also denied the request. So it's interesting to me, though, Jake, that, for the last four years underneath President Biden, not one Democrat asked for the files to be released. Now, they're all about transparency.

"But yet President Trump is the most transparent president we have had. I mean, look, you wrote the book literally on the biggest cover-up from the Biden administration, the cover-up that the previous administration covered completely for President Biden the whole time he was in office."

Tapper, denied Mullin's claims that all grand jury documents are under court seal, and continued to press the Democrats' narrative to smear Republicans and Trump for an alleged cover-up, saying Bondi and the FBI could release Epstein files at their will – albeit ignoring the fact the Biden administration could have done the same by his faulty logic.

"Well, Jake, that's not true: You know better than that too, because you know every piece of file that they have, every video, every document, every flight log has all been heard by a grand jury," Mullin said. "They have all been seen by a grand jury.

"And we want the judges to release it. Pam Bondi has called on the judges to release it. Trump has called on them to release it. And the Congress has called on them to release it. But we can't because there's a true co-equal branches of government, so we can't force the judicial branch to do anything.

"All we can do is ask them to do it. We assumed that the judges would release it."

Still, Tapper, attempted to conflate the saga as a GOP cover-up, saying the Trump administration has files not under seal – again ignoring the fact, by his logic, then the Obama administration and Biden administration did, too.

"No, there isn't – Jake, there isn't one piece of document that Kash Patel at the FBI or Pam Bondi in her office has that a grand jury hasn't seen: So, everything that they have would have to be released by the judges," Mullin repeated. Tapper, then turned to Bondi's early weeks of the administration statements she has the files and wants to release them.

"But she can't – no," Mullin responded again. "She can't release it until the judge has released it, because if it's been heard by a grand jury – and, Jake, you know this – if it's been heard by a grand jury, regardless if Pam Bondi has it or the FBI has it, the judge overseeing the case that the grand jury listened to and saw the documentation and the evidence has to be released by the judge.

"And you know that."

Tapper disagreed that everything heard by the grand jury is under seal by the court saying "If the FBI has it, they can release it."

"Then why did the judge refuse to release the records in Florida? Because once it's been heard in the case, it is a sealed case," Mullin said. "It is sealed by the grand jury. You have been through this. That's why we're even debating this, because if it is considered evidence in a case, then it is sealed."

Then, Tapper attempted to mark the 2008 date of the initial Epstein grand jury files to blame Bush, but Mullin tried to remind him the grand jury might have come in 2008, but it was sealed by the court in 2009 by the Obama administration.

"The case was sealed in 2009 – that's absolutely true," Mullin said. "It was heard in 2008. It was sealed in 2009."

Again, Mullin tried to get Tapper to apply his logic to the Obama administration (2009-2017) and the Biden administration (2021-2025), but to no avail.

"And, remember, in 2019, that President Trump and his administration called for it to be unsealed at that time, too," Mullin said, noting Epstein was investigated during the Bush administration, scored the sweetheart deal that stay silent through the Obama administration, before it was revisited and brought Epstein to justice during the Trump administration – and then again left silent against under another Democrat president.

"It went silent, and not a word was said during the Biden administration, not a word," Mullin said. "Nothing was said during the Biden administration."