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Floor Speech
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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I compliment the minority leader for coming forth and saying what the Senate has agreed to do, which is to force the Epstein files to be released, which must be backed up by the force of law because we know that the administration failed to release half of the paperwork--some 3 million pages. We know that they blocked out whole pages in order to disguise, apparently, the protection of powerful men they don't want drawn into this discussion.
Then they proceeded to not redact the names of victims, as the law required. Let us not forget what this entire Epstein scandal is about. It is about powerful, wealthy men grooming, abusing, and raping young women and men. That is what it is about.
I cannot understand for the life of me why the Republican leadership just objected for us to seek enforcement of the law that we passed unanimously here. Why is the Republican leadership protecting powerful men? Why are they protecting the administration allowing 3 million pages to be held on to? Why are they allowing page, after page, after page to be blacked out to protect those powerful men? Why will they not respond to the fact that when these files were released, they did exactly the opposite of the law and failed to redact information about the victims, revictimizing so many?
This is 1,000 percent unacceptable, and it is unacceptable to our values as a nation, our values which talk about equal justice under law. That is why, by unanimous consent, we said those files must be released. But it is meaningless if the administration simply chooses not to comply and then my Republican leadership colleagues proceed to block the ability to enforce what the Senate agreed to pursue: accountability, justice for the victims, transparency over this horrific scandal.
Mr. President, I hope my Republican colleagues will reconsider their objection because what they have just done is wrong, morally wrong and wrong under the values of equal justice under law, wrong under the values of justice for those who have been victimized, wrong under the value of accountability for the perpetrators.
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