jeff ballou: good afternoon, everybody. i m sure the gavel woke you up. welcome to the national press club, the world s leading professional organization for journalists. my name is jeff ballou, news editor with al jazeera media network, where my colleague has been unjustly imprisoned by the government of egypt for 957 days. we have called for his immediate release, along with other detained journalists. i am particularly grateful to my fellow members to pitch hit for our 112th president, alison kodjak, who is getting well-deserved rest while she prepares for her new duties leading the investigations unit at the associated press, having just left national public radio. thanking the members as always for putting their trust in me to have served as their 110th president in 2017. today, we welcome our headliner, elijah cummings. democrat from the state of maryland and chairman of the house committee on oversight and government reform. before i get into the formal introduction, w
i m sure the gavel woke you up. welcome to the national press club, the world s leading professional organization for journalists. my name is jeff ballou, news editor with al jazeera media network network, where my colleague has been unjustly imprisoned by the government of egypt for 957 days. we have called for his immediate release, along with other detained journalists. i am particularly grateful to my fellow members to pitch hit for our 112th president, alison kodjak, who is getting well-deserved rest while she prepares for her new duties leading the investigations unit at the associated press, having just left national public radio. thanking the members as always for putting their trust in me to have served as their 110th president in 2017. today, we welcome our headliner, elijah cummings. democrat from the state of maryland and chairman of the house committee on oversight and government reform. before i get into the formal introduction, we will introduce to head to tabl
fellow members who have been asked to come back and pinch-hit for our 100 and 12th president, allison kojak, who is getting well-deserved rest leading investigative unit having just unit at the associated press, having just left national public radio. thinking the members as always for putting their trust in me to has have served as the 110th president in 2017. we welcome our headliner, congressman elijah cummings, democrat from the state of maryland, chairman of the house committee of oversight and government reform. before i get into the formal introduction, we will introduce the head table. a couple of housekeeping rules. the latter first. if you do have a question for the chairman, those of you in the ballroom, you have your cards on the table. please write them down and pass them up front. we will try to ask as many of them as time permits and so forth. also if you have a mobile device and you have slipped in there in the past few minutes and didn t hear my earlier w
i m sure the gavel woke you up. welcome to the national press club, the world s leading professional organization for journalists. my name is jeff ballou, news editor with al jazeera media network, where my colleague has been unjustly imprisoned by the government of egypt for 957 days. we have called for his immediate release, along with other detained journalists. i am particularly grateful to my fellow members to pitch hit for our 112th president, alison kodjak, who is getting well-deserved rest while she prepares for her new duties leading the investigations unit at the associated press, having just left national public radio. thanking the members as always for putting their trust in me to have served as their 110th president in 2017. today, we welcome our headliner, elijah cummings. before i get into the formal introduction, we will introduce to head to table and a couple of housekeeping rules. the latter first, if you do have you in the those of ballroom, you have your c
sec. acosta: good afternoon. let me start by reiterating that i m pleased that the new york prosecution is going forward. his acts are despicable and then you prosecution offers a better opportunity to more fully bring epstein to justice. in 2008, a major newspaper described the epstein prosecution like this. a florida grand jury, a grand jury convened by the district attorney of palm beach county, had charged epstein with a lesser offense. at that time, the epstein legal team was elated. he would have avoided prison altogether. but then the united states attorney s office in miami became involved. epstein got an ultimatum. plead guilty to a charge that would require jail time and registration or face federal charges. that was the week, more than 10 years ago, that epstein went to jail. times have changed and coverage of this case has really changed since that article. facts are important and facts are being overlooked. this matter started as a state matter. it was prosecut