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Floor Speech

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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.

Res.

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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-- 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.

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Mr. GALLEGO. 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. 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.

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Mr. GALLEGO. 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.

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