[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 127 (Thursday, July 24, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4693-S4695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Requests
Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. President, last week, I stood here and introduced a
simple resolution calling on the Justice Department to release the
Epstein files, but a Republican Senator blocked it.
In the week since, even more damning information has come out, and
now we know exactly why Trump is bending over backwards to keep these
files hidden.
We know that Epstein was at Trump's wedding. We know that Epstein
once called Trump his ``closest friend for 10 years.'' And we have seen
that Trump wrote Epstein a birthday card and said:
``Happy Birthday--and may every day be another wonderful secret.''
And the real kicker, we learned yesterday that Trump is in the
Epstein files, and he knows it. The truth is coming out, and the
coverup is crumbling. So I am here again, and my request is very
simple. The Senate should go on record supporting the release of the
Epstein files. Any effort to block their release is simply continued
coverup for our Nation's elites.
While I stand here on the Senate floor demanding answers, House
Republicans have run for the exit, ended their term early, skipping
town early to avoid taking up any more discussion about Epstein and the
files. They didn't just punt accountability; they literally fled
Washington, DC.
While everyday Americans are struggling to afford their groceries and
their healthcare, we have a President in the White House focused on
protecting the most powerful men and women who preyed on children. This
is who Donald Trump really is. He campaigned as a man of the people.
When it comes down to it, he is a servant of the powerful and the
elite. He built a movement claiming to fight those same elites, and now
he is protecting them every way possible.
The American people are seeing right through it. They spent years
listening to Trump promise--promise--that he was going to release the
Epstein files, and now he is mocking them every day for even believing
him and all his lies. But the American people are not stupid. They know
something is off. They smell it.
If Donald Trump really wants these files released, they would be out
already. Instead, he is orchestrating a coverup, and he is not acting
alone. The entire Republican Party, the FBI Director, the intelligence
community, and the Justice Department are backing him up to bury the
truth. They are doing everything they can to keep the truth buried
because they know who is in those documents, and they want to protect
them and his friends.
So, today, I am calling on my colleagues to stand with me and stand
on the side of the American people--not the pedophile elites that they
are trying to protect--and call on the Justice Department to release
these files. It is that simple. If there is nothing to hide, then come
out and prove it.
Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule
XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be
discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to the
consideration of S. Res. 325; further, I ask unanimous consent that the
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the
motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with
no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. MULLIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, as we hear
my colleague from Arizona use I would say very liberal truths as to
what he was saying by not giving all the facts, I would also pose this
question: Where was all this outrage over the last 4 years when
Director Wray was over the FBI and Attorney General Garland was over
the DOJ?
He knows, I know, and all the Democrats know that if there was
anything to do with President Trump, they would have happily released
it. My lord, you went after him for everything else you could possibly
think of. Why wouldn't you possibly go after this?
Well, it is because this is nothing but political theater. We know
that. We know that what your resolution is--it doesn't actually have
transparency because we all want transparency. All of us want
transparency. We want to know actually what happened. The American
people want to know what has happened. But what this resolution does is
it actually is a blurred line between the separation of powers.
When we start dictating to the Department of Justice what they can
and can't do--there is a clear separation of power. We are the
legislative branch. That is what we do. We make laws. We can't dictate
to the other branches on what they must and how they must do their job.
Now, with that being said, I would simply ask the question: Why now?
Is it because of their hatred toward President Trump, because they want
to do anything they can possibly do to distract from what they might be
hiding? Why wasn't this done the previous 4 years? What happened? They
had the same files. This case wasn't new.
So this resolution does absolutely nothing; therefore, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. President, in response to the Senator from Oklahoma,
the reason we are here, the reason why there is a request of this
nature is because there is one and only one administration and one
campaign that ran more than 8 years that vilified--
[[Page S4694]]
vilified--DOJ employees that were consistently trying to do their best
job and started a conspiracy theory that has affected hundreds of
people across this country, a conspiracy theory that caused people to
start doing shootings at pizza places, that accused other people and
other politicians of being pedophiles and then said and campaigned that
``If you elect me, I will release the files.'' That was only one
campaign, and that was the Trump campaign.
So now, as he is in power, as he has gotten power, he has
specifically said he would release it in campaign. He had an Attorney
General that said: I have the files on my desk right now, and I will be
releasing it.
As soon as we heard--first from Elon Musk--that Trump himself was in
the files, all of a sudden, we started seeing the coverup starting.
First he wasn't. Then he was. Then it was created by somebody else.
Then it is coming after him.
This is all because the President has to answer to the American
public.
Did you lie for those 8 years and put all these employees, all these
innocent people at risk to cover up for your elite friends? Or is there
something in the file you are trying to hide to protect your friends?
This whole issue started because of only one person, and one campaign
has made this a campaign issue. That is why the American public is
demanding this. That is why the Republican House of Representatives has
fled Washington, DC--Washington, DC. I have not seen, have not heard of
the House of Representatives leaving Washington, DC, since we had to
get away from the redcoats, but that is what happened because this
President wants to avoid accountability, and this President wants to
continue to cover up for his elite friends.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. MULLIN. Mr. President, we all want transparency and for credible
information on the Epstein case to be made public so that the American
people can decide.
The Trump administration has already said they are committed to
releasing all available files. Last week, President Trump directed AG
Bondi to produce any and all permanent grand jury testimony in the
Epstein case.
My colleague from Arizona's resolution tells the FBI and the DOJ how
to do their job.
My resolution would echo the seriousness of the directive from the
President and the DOJ to the courts and calls immediately to unseal all
materials. When combined with what our House colleagues have done, this
resolution moves forward providing justice to the victims and
transparency to the American people.
Mr. President, as I said before, we want transparency, but the courts
control the grand jury; the judges that oversee the courts control the
grand jury. We in this body can have resolutions back and forth and
suggest that it be done, but truthfully, the judges have to do it. AG
Bondi and the President have both already called upon the judges to
release this information.
What my resolution is simply saying is that we agree with the
President, we agree with AG Bondi on the judges and calling upon the
judges to release it.
As if in legislative session and not withstanding rule XXII, I ask
unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S.
Res. 335, which is at the desk. Further, I ask unanimous consent that
the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no
intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me
explain to the American people what just happened. My colleague from
Oklahoma refused to join me in calling on the DOJ to release all the
Epstein files. Instead, he offered his own resolution calling on the
courts to unseal the records.
When asked if it did both, which I am asking to do both--I want to
call for transparency, and, of course, we could ask the Justice
Department and the courts--he is also going to object.
Republicans are demanding that the courts be transparent but aren't
willing to ask the same thing of the Trump DOJ. This is the height of
hypocrisy. They want to tell the courts to be transparent but aren't
willing for themselves to be transparent.
This is the second time in 1 week the Senate had the chance to demand
transparency and stand up for the truth. Instead, my colleagues chose
to protect, again, the powerful elites.
If there is truly nothing to hide in those files, then what are they
so afraid of? What are they hiding? Why the panic? Why the
backpedaling? Why all the objections?
Congress should work for the people, not the powerful elites and
definitely not for one man or one administration. Today's resolution
should have made that clear.
Therefore, I ask that the unanimous consent request be modified such
that my resolution, S. Res. 325, be discharged from the Committee on
the Judiciary; further, that the Senate proceed to the en bloc
consideration of S. Res. 335 and S. Res. 325; and that the resolutions
be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider
be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action
or debate, all en bloc.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the modification?
The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. MULLIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, it is
interesting that my colleague wants to continue talking about the
elites, but the elites are the ones who actually covered up the last 4
years of the Biden administration.
I mean, think about what happened during the Biden administration.
They covered up, No. 1, for his cognitive behavior; No. 2, they covered
up the Hunter Biden laptop; No. 3, they covered up the Russiagate and
continue to cover up the Russiagate; and No. 4, they covered up the
fact that an autopen signed every--well, every one of his papers except
one.
Where was the coverup? Where did the elites come from? Well, it is
because of the pressure from the Biden administration that actually did
put it on all the social media outlets.
It is interesting, when I started talking to the social media
founders after President Trump was elected, they said: We feel like we
can actually do our job again. Why? Because the DOJ wasn't threatening
to sue them; the Biden administration wasn't threatening to blackmail
them. Yet my colleague from Arizona is saying that we are covering up
for the elites?
Let's be honest. We know these files have been out there forever. I
don't remember a single time the Biden administration called on these
things to be released, and I definitely don't remember my colleague
from Arizona calling for these files to be released.
As I said before, this is nothing more than political theater.
Everybody sees it. The American people see it. And what else can
President Trump and AG Bondi do but call on the judges to release the
information? We are simply going back and forth here saying the same
thing.
The difference between my resolution and my colleague from Arizona's
resolution is mine isn't blurring the boundaries between separation of
power; mine is simply calling upon the judges to release the
information. What my colleague's resolution does is truly trying to
tell the FBI and the DOJ how they can proceed in doing their job and
how they can actually present the information--basically saying: We
want all that information to go through Congress.
Well, I am sure Congress has never once played politics with any
information. I am sure that this investigation would be handled much
like other investigations into this administration that the Democrats
have done over the last, I don't know, 8 years. I am sure this will be
handled just like any other thing they have tried to go after, like the
baseless impeachments or the baseless special counsels or the
unbelievable amount of charges they have tried to file against the
President. I am sure this will be handled the exact same way.
What we are simply wanting to do here is give them cover. So if my
colleague from Arizona actually wants transparency, then he would drop
his objection to my resolution and just simply have mine go through,
and we
[[Page S4695]]
can move forward with the transparency that maybe both of us actually
want.
Therefore, I object to combining them. I would ask my colleague once
again to accept my resolution.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard to the modification.
Is there objection to the original request?
The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let's just
understand why we are here. The political theater was started more than
8 years ago--the political theater started just 5 months ago when the
President said, after appointing his Attorney General, that they are
going to release the Epstein files; when the Attorney General said ``I
have those files right here; I am going to show them to you,'' and
then, all of a sudden, the shenanigans started. All of a sudden, the
files are gone; they are not there; they were made up by somebody else.
That is where this political theater is coming from.
The American public wants to know why. Why, after 8 years of this
President promising that ``I will release the files''; why after 8
years, getting into the office and then appointing his Attorney General
and then directing the Attorney General to go look for those Epstein
files and that Attorney General saying they are going to release the
Epstein files and then poof--all of a sudden, there is an issue. All of
a sudden, there is backpedaling.
This is what stinks for the American public. This is what smells like
an elite coverup. That is what we are trying to get to.
If my good colleague from Oklahoma agreed with me, then we would do
both because that is what is being demanded by the American public,
because the first promise was made by this President that they were
going to release the files. That is where this political theater
started.
With that, Mr. President, I object to the good Senator from
Oklahoma's motion, and I yield back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. MULLIN. Mr. President, in closing, I would just simply say that
maybe my colleague from Arizona and I can work together, if he wants
to, and we can drop some of the stuff in his resolution. Maybe we can
come up with a conclusion with my resolution. I have concerns about
yours blurring the lines between the separation of powers and at the
same time want transparency.
If we can both agree we want transparency--we have worked together on
several issues in the past. Let's sit down and try working this one
out.
Mr. President, with that, I yield back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.