[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 123 (Thursday, July 17, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4440-S4441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Jeffrey Epstein

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, Donald Trump has made some farfetched 
statements over the last few months, but a stunner in the last few days 
was his claim that the Jeffrey Epstein matter was a ``hoax'' and a 
``scam.''
  Here is why the President is wrong. The figure at the center of this 
story was an ultra-rich, well-connected sex trafficker. He was a serial 
rapist of women and young girls. And for some reason, the Trump 
administration that claimed they would be the most transparent 
administration ever turned on a dime.
  The President had run on a campaign with a promise to expose the 
Epstein files. Now, he and the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, say, nope, 
nothing to investigate when it comes to Epstein and sex trafficking. 
All these claims are just ludicrous.
  I want the American people to know that is wrong. If you want to know 
why, just look at the latest report from our investigators that was 
discussed in the New York Times this morning. Somewhere in the Treasury 
Department, locked away in a cabinet drawer, is a big Epstein file that 
is full of actionable information--``follow the money''--details about 
his financing and operations that await investigation.
  Last year, the Biden administration allowed our investigators to look 
at portions of the file. We did that at the Treasury Building. Here is 
what it says. Treasury's Epstein file details 4,725 wire transfers. Let 
me repeat that--4,725 wire transfers--adding up to nearly $1.1 billion 
flowing in and out of just one of Mr. Epstein's bank accounts. If you 
ask me, that is more than 4,000 potential lines of investigation right 
there. Hundreds of millions more flowed through other accounts. That is 
even a lot more to investigate.
  The file shows that Mr. Epstein used multiple Russian banks, which 
are now under sanctions, to process payments related to sex 
trafficking. A lot of the women and girls he targeted came from Russia, 
Belarus, Turkiye, and elsewhere.
  One shudders to think about the kinds of people who must have been 
involved in trafficking these women and young girls out of those 
countries and into the Epstein web of abuse.
  Again, these are all potential leads the Department of Justice ought 
to be digging into. This is about years and years of international sex 
trafficking.
  None of this is a hoax. None of it is a scam. I would like to say, I 
consider it insulting to the intelligence of the American people for 
the Trump administration to simply say there is nothing to investigate 
here.
  When the Trump administration came in with a lot of fanfare about 
transparency and openness, I said I am going to follow up on that. So I 
wrote to the Attorney General, Ms. Bondi; Treasury Secretary Bessent; 
FBI Director Patel, and I asked them all to produce the Epstein file to 
the Senate Finance Committee so it could be reviewed. In fact, I made 
that request multiple times. The Trump commitment to transparency based 
on the response didn't mean a whole lot because they just refused.
  Here is what one Treasury official wrote back to me:

       The Department of Treasury has previously made documents 
     available relating to the matter in response to your 
     inquiries. Accordingly, we understand that you have the 
     information you seek from the Treasury related to this 
     request. We thank you for your attention to this important 
     issue.

  For anybody who is familiar with how these discussions go in 
Washington, DC, what I just read was code for the bureaucrats saying: 
You are asking for information. Go pound sand.
  The Trump administration may be trying to close the books on the 
Epstein sex trafficking, but I want it understood, as a senior member 
of the Senate Finance Committee, where we spend a lot of time looking 
at where substantial sums of money are going, particularly if they may 
be promoting wrongdoing and helping to evade taxes, we are going to 
stay on this fight to hold the wealthy individuals accountable for the 
harm that they, clearly, were involved in, injuring the young women and 
others in this sex trafficking.

[[Page S4441]]

  I am going to have more follow-up for Attorney General Bondi very 
quickly. As for today, if she doesn't want to do the investigating, 
doesn't want the DOJ to do it, let me just reinstate my original 
demand: Have that Treasury information given to the Senate Finance 
Committee and have us, on a bipartisan basis, do our work. That is what 
we do in important investigations.
  If the Trump people believe they need additional authority to carry 
out the requests that I make, again, this afternoon, let me offer to 
help them write the bill myself. The idea that there is nothing more to 
investigate--not when you have 4,000 wire transfers, many of them 
associated with the possibility of wrongdoing and sex trafficking 
promoting--the idea that you have that and there is nothing to 
investigate when it comes to the Epstein sex trafficking operation is 
ridiculous.
  Pam Bondi was the attorney general in the State of Florida where a 
lot of the Epstein crimes were committed. The Attorney General ought to 
know better, of all people.
  I can't begin to understand the President's handling of this or why 
he thinks this is just going to go away. But I am here to say that our 
investigators have spent 3 full years looking into this. And the reason 
why is because we feel so strongly about the horror of sex trafficking 
and our commitment to root it out.
  The President of the Senate is new to this body, but I am sure he has 
dealt with these issues before. You can't have a much bigger horror in 
front of you than sex trafficking abuse. So we are talking about real 
evil--real evil--done to women and girls by Jeffrey Epstein. And, Mr. 
President, nobody gets to sweep that under the rug.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.


                      Remembering John Stulp, Jr.

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I rise today to remember the life of John 
Stulp, Jr., a son of Colorado's Eastern Plains, Colorado's first and 
only water czar, and the former commissioner of agriculture for our 
State.
  In his 45 extraordinary years of public service, John was appointed 
by five Governors--of both parties--to two cabinet positions and six 
State boards and commissions.
  Governor Bill Ritter, who appointed John as commissioner of 
agriculture, said:

       If we had an award for the most universally loved cabinet 
     member, it would be John Stulp.

  I agree.
  After graduating from Colorado State University with a degree in 
veterinary science, John returned to Prowers County with his beloved 
wife Jane. Together, they ran Stulp Land and Livestock for 50 years, 
growing dryland wheat and raising cattle, while continuing to practice 
veterinary medicine.
  I was honored to spend time with him and learn from John, including a 
visit to the Stulp farm in 2013.
  Over the years, the Stulp family farm has welcomed Members of 
Congress, State legislators, commissioners, and school groups with open 
arms and warm hospitality. John always had something cold to drink when 
you were there.
  He was a farmer first, and of farming he said:

       You don't farm because you want to; you do it because you 
     have to. It's in your blood.

  John was elected county commissioner in deep-red Prowers County as a 
Democrat, which testifies precisely to the kind of leader he was--
steady, willing to work toward compromise, and always putting the needs 
of Southeastern Colorado first.
  We could use his example around here.
  As a water czar under then-Governor Hickenlooper, he had the enormous 
task of creating a water plan for the next 50 years. Skeptical at 
first, John's quiet and thoughtful approach brought rural and urban 
users to the table and helped forge compromise over some of the 
toughest issues that we face in the West and in Colorado.
  He knew that rural Colorado was counting on him, I would suspect, all 
of his life, but he was also thinking beyond himself and beyond his own 
backyard--about the next generation of Coloradans: his 5 kids and now 
14 grandkids and about what they would inherit.
  John leaves an incredible legacy in Colorado, not just with regard to 
the work he did to ensure that rural Colorado was represented in the 
capital of Denver or in the expertise and counsel he gave to countless 
leaders but, I would say, most importantly to him, in his family.
  I send, on behalf of the people of Colorado, my condolences to the 
entire Stulp family--to John's children, to his grandchildren, to his 
wife Jane.
  Colorado will feel his loss, and his leadership will be deeply 
missed. I think his example will testify to the standard every one of 
us should strive for of leadership in our States and in our communities 
and as members of our families.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Moreno). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.