Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, urged every American to read what he called an “extraordinary” new report on Donald Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Raskin told MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace that he and his fellow Democrats were demanding an independent special counsel to investigate the pair’s decadeslong relationship.

The 50-page report, released Monday by House Judiciary Committee Democrats, drew on interviews with the committee, survivor accounts, FBI records and documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Democrats allege in the report that a “growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of young women,” and they accuse the Justice Department and the FBI of “doing everything they can to keep the American people in the dark about it.”

In response to the report, a White House spokesperson said, “None of these allegations are true,” and said Trump had been “fully exonerated of anything related to Epstein.” And in a statement to MS NOW, a DOJ spokesperson called the report “nothing more than a last-ditch effort by House Judiciary Democrats to mislead the public.”

Trump and Epstein’s relationship, spanning from the 1980s to the early 2000s, is well-documented. Trump has said their friendship ended around 2004 and that he knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes. He has denied that he engaged in any sexual misconduct with any woman connected to Epstein.

Raskin said the Justice Department’s refusal to thoroughly investigate Epstein’s “enablers” and possible co-conspirators “forced Democrats’” hand. “The idea that you run a billion-dollar global human trafficking ring, and only two people are guilty of crimes, and one of them happens to be deceased,” was hard to believe, he said.

The Maryland Democrat also accused the Justice Department and Attorney General Todd Blanche of failing to cooperate with other investigations into Epstein and his associates. “With foreign governments that are asking for information from the DOJ, Todd Blanche is not helping,” Raskin said. “Same with states that are engaged in doing state-level investigations and prosecutions related to potential crimes that were committed in their states.”

“We’re demanding an independent special counsel to take this over from the Department of Justice, with the hopes that the truth will come out and justice will be done for hundreds and hundreds of victims,” Raskin said.

He urged viewers to “read the report,” saying, “The detail is extraordinary. But we’re not even trying to make the case here. We’re not prosecutors. But we’re saying the Department of Justice has completely abdicated their responsibility.”

“And why?” Raskin asked. “We cannot understand any reason other than they’re trying to protect Donald Trump.”

You can watch Raskin’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.

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