‘The world will see who’s involved’ and complicit, says attorney for Epstein survivors

Amna Nawaz:

For more on today's vote, I'm joined now by an attorney representing multiple survivors of Epstein's abuse. That's Spencer Kuvin.

Spencer, welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us.

Spencer Kuvin, Attorney Representing Epstein Survivors:

Thank you for having me today.

Amna Nawaz:

So you have been representing Epstein survivors for nearly two decades. I think it's fair to say this moment has been a long time coming for you and for them.

Just give us a sense of what you're hearing from your clients about this moment and how they're feeling right now.

Spencer Kuvin:

Well, first of all, I represented the first young girl that went to police here in Palm Beach. And when the state attorneys failed to prosecute the claim and it went to the federal investigators back then, they were promised justice back then in 2008, only to be denied that over and over and over again.

So to be able to have the world see the full breadth and scope of this sexual pyramid that Jeffrey Epstein had built over the years, it is a breath of fresh air, hopefully, that finally the world will get to see exactly who was involved, and not just Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, but everyone that was involved in this or complicit in this.

Amna Nawaz:

We saw after the release of these latest e-mails some action, right, triggering of new questions, the president calling for a probe into many, including Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers apologizing and stepping back from public eye.

Do your clients see this as some kind of a reckoning? Do they believe that there will be full transparency here?

Spencer Kuvin:

Well, trust but verify, right? I think a wise man once said that.

At the end of the day, my clients are hopeful, as they always have been, that ultimately truth will set free and they will allow the world to see the full breadth and scope of this information. But at the end of the day, they're very skeptical of anything that the government tells them because they have been denied justice for so long.

But what's important is, I think, for the general public to see the full nature of this and the people that were complicit in what was happening.

Amna Nawaz:

I hear you saying the full nature again and again. And I want to note that we have seen files from the investigation released before and they have been heavily redacted, page after page of blacked-out information.

Do you think the same thing could happen again or the Department of Justice could just withhold several documents?

Spencer Kuvin:

Oh, I have no doubt. I don't put it past the government to withhold whatever they think is damaging to them.

But at the end of the day, we have to keep pushing. And my clients want the government and the people behind this to keep pushing to release everything. And the most important thing that needs to be released are the photographs and the videotapes surveillance that was taken inside the mansion at Epstein's home.

The FBI and the Department of Justice are currently sitting on hundreds of hours of videotapes, hundreds of hours of videotapes that show people that were going in and out of Jeffrey Epstein's home. That's what's going to be significant for the world to see.

Amna Nawaz:

Spencer, what do you make of the president's U-turn on this issue, first asking Republicans not to vote to release these files and then coming around and saying they should vote to release them? How do you and your clients look at that?

Spencer Kuvin:

Well, we actually see it as a W-turn.

Remember that President Trump said that he would stand with the victims and was demanding the release of the Epstein files during the election campaign. He then saw apparently what was in those files or was briefed on it, and then he changed his tune and told them not to release the information.

When it looked like that the vote was going to go overwhelmingly in the favor of turning over this information and the Republicans were going to vote for the turnover of information, he then switched again and now said, release the information.

What I think is so significant, though, is, President Trump has said in the past, when it came to the documents that were found in his home here in Palm Beach in Mar-a-Lago, that he could declassify records and documents at the stroke of a pen. I think his own quote was, even if he was thinking about it, he could declassify it.

So we didn't need this law. If President Trump had just abided by his campaign promise to release this information, he could have released this information at the stroke of a pen. So let's get it done. Let's see the documents.

Amna Nawaz:

I'm sure you have seen the reports, of course, of Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, reportedly getting special treatment in prison, seeking to have her sentence commuted by President Trump.

How do your clients feel about that?

Spencer Kuvin:

Disgusted. I mean, in a word, absolutely disgusted.

This is a convicted sex trafficker multiple times over and a convicted perjurer, liar under oath. There is absolutely no person in the jail system that gets this type of treatment with this type of conviction, unless there is some favor to be curried to the government.

She gave them something they wanted. And, in return, they gave her a favor by transferring her to this facility and giving her these privileges.

Amna Nawaz:

Fair to say a lot of questions still unanswered.

That is attorney Spencer Kuvin joining us tonight.

Spencer, thank you. It's good to speak with you.

Spencer Kuvin:

Thank you for having me.