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Democrats Walk Out of Tense Epstein Briefing with Bondi and Blanche; Police: Body Found Amid Search for American College Student James Gracey in Barcelona; FBI Director Patel Grilled About Agency Firings; Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Gives Update on War with Iran. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 19, 2026 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:30:00]

JAMES MARSH, ATTORNEY FOR EPSTEIN ACCUSERS: It would be very unusual, I think, for federal officials and law enforcement to question him. There's the attorney-client privilege that even survives Jeffrey Epstein's death, so I'm not sure if he raised that today at all. Certainly none of these people are pleading the fifth because, you know, that makes them look guilty.

Much easier to prevaricate and say, well, you know, I had no actual knowledge. There's nothing, you know, that indicated to me that there was anything amiss here. I mean, those are much more palatable answers for Congress than the American people, but I think people are smart enough to know at this point that, you know, people like Indyk and the Kahn and the other people within Jeffrey Epstein's orbit, they really have no incentive to tell the truth.

There's no really information to discover from them because they have a vested interest in maintaining, you know, sort of a nebulous secret, you know, well, I didn't really know. I couldn't have known. There's nothing to be gained by these individuals from telling the truth.

So it doesn't surprise me that law enforcement didn't question him as Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer, but clearly there were a lot of things that were lacking in the law enforcement investigation, dating back to my client, Maria Farmer, in 1996, who made this report that literally could have put Jeffrey Epstein away for 20 years in 1996. So it's a lot of questions to be asked here.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, that was just verified, obviously, in this release of Epstein files. A copy of Epstein's trust shows he planned to leave Indyk $50 million. What questions does that raise for you?

MARSH: I mean, he clearly has got a vested interest in his testimony, and he clearly has a vested interest in wrapping up the estate as soon as possible and getting a cash distribution. I mean, people are smart enough to realize that if you've got $50 million at stake, it doesn't really benefit you to give a tell-all tale of the seeded life and times of Jeffrey Epstein. Again, these people have no credibility whatsoever. And although Congress, I think, is doing the right thing by going through these steps and putting these people on the record under oath, maybe they will find a reason to charge him with perjury. Sometimes, ironically, that's more effective than getting him on the crimes directly. So we'll see what becomes of that.

I know that, I don't know, for us in the victim community, these answers ring absolutely hollow.

KEILAR: Sources say that last night, the Democrats on the committee walked out of the briefing that they were having from Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is, of course, President Trump's former personal lawyer. Democrats pushed Bondi on whether she would comply with a subpoena to testify, saying they would save their questions for when it would be on the record, meaning under oath. Do you think that was the way to go, or do you think they could have learned something last night even though it wasn't under oath?

How important is that being under oath to your clients?

MARSH: Well, I think all of the statements, whether they're under oath or not, are important to consider in light of everything that we've learned about Jeffrey Epstein. I, among many people, give the administration here some credit for releasing these files to begin with. I never thought we'd see the day where we'd see any of these files.

So given the reality that they did release the files, we can quibble about missing files, who was named, who wasn't named. Certainly those are legitimate avenues of inquiry, and there's answers to be had. But in terms of releasing the files, I mean, if I were Bondi, I'd say, you know, look, we did the best we could under a strict deadline.

We released as many files as we could, and now we're cleaning up. So I guess I wouldn't shy away from testimony if I were her. And certainly the Democrats in the committee should be present for every statement, whether they like it or not, because there's still a lot of information to be discovered in this case, in the files, and in the acts of the government, including the FBI's failure to investigate Maria Farmer's complaint back in 1996.

So eventually we'll get to some government accountability here, and I think that's really what my clients are looking for, and many of the survivors want to know. We know all the people that were in Jeffrey Epstein's life had no incentive to turn him in, blow the whistle, reveal all of the unseemly acts that were going on. Many of them participated in this.

But in terms of the government and the people that had an obligation to investigate, to keep other women and children safe, and to uncover the truth of what happened, I think there's a lot of unanswered questions there. And we look forward to the committee's full exploration of the FBI and the other government officials starting in 1996 to the present day. That's where we really want to get answers.

KEILAR: James Marsh, it's great to have you again. Thank you for being with us.

MARSH: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: And coming up, brand new information in the search for an American college student missing in Barcelona.

[08:05:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We have some breaking news to share with you in the search for an American college student who disappeared after a night out in Spain. James Gracey, a 20-year-old junior at the University of Alabama, was last seen outside a club in Barcelona on Tuesday. This picture was taken shortly before he disappeared.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher joins us now. And Dianne, you have some brand new information for us.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, a body has been found but not yet identified.

[08:10:00]

A spokesperson from law enforcement of Barcelona just telling our CNN colleague, Pau Mosquera, when asked about the search for James "Jimmy" Gracey. Now, the spokesperson said the body was found this afternoon on Somorrostro Beach. That's a stretch of beach in front of the Choco nightclub.

That is where Gracey was last seen by a friend around 3 a.m. on Tuesday. Again, I do want to stress, that is all the information we have at this time. A body that was found has not yet been identified.

Now, there has been a visible police search presence and activity. You can see in some of this video here of the Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra aquatic force out on the waterfront. There's some cordoned off areas near the Olympic Port as well.

They have been around Olympic Port and Somorrostro Beach, the marine and underwater units searching throughout the day as well as on Wednesday in that immediate area around where, again, Jimmy Gracey had last been seen. He arrived in Spain on Monday morning for a spring break trip to spend the time there in Spain with friends who were studying abroad. We're told by family members the 20-year-old University of Alabama student went out that night in a big group, and then a friend said he later got separated in the early morning hours.

The picture that you may be seeing right now, where he's in a white shirt and has a sort of a chain with a rhinestone cross, that was taken that night, and that is what they believe that he was wearing at the time that he disappeared. Now, we do know that police recovered his phone after it was stolen. His family has been pleading for any kind of information over the past 48 hours saying this was completely out of character for Jimmy, who they describe as a responsible and kind person who took care of his four younger siblings with his parents all the time.

He was the chaplain and also the philanthropy chair of his fraternity at the University of Alabama, an accounting major down there.

SANCHEZ: Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much for that update. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: During today's House Intel hearing on global threats, lawmakers pressed FBI Director Kash Patel on why members of a counterintelligence team recently got fired.

KEILAR: And that unit was in charge of monitoring threats from Iran, and they were ousted just days before the war started. Here's part of Director Patel's testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: Unaffiliated.

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN) INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: And the people you fired, those 12 people, they were experts on Iran, were they not?

PATEL: I don't believe so.

COHEN: They worked in counterintelligence, did they not?

PATEL: I'm taking you at your word, sir. I'm not familiar with every single word.

COHEN: You're the chief director. I'm not. You should know the answer. You fired the people. Where did they work?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We're joined now by Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director and CNN senior law enforcement analyst. I just wonder what you make of this, Andy, because CNN has previously reported this team was ousted because of their work on the investigation of Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents. And this has been broadly reported.

The FBI, the DOJ, they were asked about this weeks ago. But Patel is playing dumb. What do you make of this?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It's unbelievable. Well, first of all, as you mentioned, this has been widely reported in many, many outlets. There are many sources for this reporting.

It's not a mystery to anyone. So the fact that he would show up for this hearing and not be prepared to answer questions specifically about this, whatever those answers might have been, is just absolutely unforgivable. And it shows a consistent level -- a consistent lack of professionalism and a consistent lack of really consideration and seriousness for his job, this part of his job, being to testify in front of Congress.

If he actually -- if the playing dumb is not an act and he actually doesn't know the answers to these questions, which I cannot possibly believe, but if that's the case, then we're in even bigger trouble here, I think.

SANCHEZ: What does it signify to you that these folks were let go? I mean, he described, I guess, ethical reasons was the description that he gave. But what does it mean that the nation's experts on Iran and specifically on threats coming from Iran at a moment where we are at war with them, lost their jobs, and the FBI director doesn't understand exactly where they worked or what they did?

MCCABE: Well, what it means, Boris, is that as a result of these poor decisions, the nation is at greater risk. And so the one person responsible for running the organization whose mission is to protect America and uphold the Constitution is essentially not doing that, at least in this case. Let's remember that Kash Patel testified in his confirmation hearing, he assured the Senate that he would not engage in retaliatory firings.

He would not fire people simply for the work that they had done. But this is exactly what he has done since he's been director. Many people have been either fired or essentially pushed out of the FBI because of the cases they used to work in the prior administration, cases that they didn't choose, cases they were simply assigned to, and they worked in an entirely lawful way.

Now, as for the reasons, the bogus reason that he gave that this was due to some sort of ethical lapse, fine. Then where's the investigation?

[14:50:00]

Where's the Office of Professional Responsibility investigation into what he alleges is some sort of a misconduct on the job? There isn't one, because that reason is just a pretext. These people were fired as an act of political retaliation, which he assured the Senate he would not do. And now, of course, he's done it many times.

KEILAR: He was asked as well about DOJ's investigations and prosecutions of non-citizen voting, and he couldn't say or would not say how many non-citizens had been convicted for voting in U.S. elections or say how many active investigations are underway at the FBI. Can you help us understand that? Is that normal maybe to not talk about active investigations, but should he have known about how many people are convicted?

MCCABE: It's absolutely normal to not discuss the details of ongoing investigations, whether they're about voter fraud or anything else. So if that were the case, if that's what he's saying here, then that would be normal. However, talking about people who have been convicted in open court for a crime, absolutely, you should know that information and you should be prepared to discuss it, especially at a time like this when the administration has made election security claims central to their focus.

So again, you have Kash Patel being stunningly unprepared to testify truthfully and completely to comply with the oversight process in Congress. So it's not a good look, but worse than that, it's not really doing his job.

SANCHEZ: Andrew McCabe, thanks so much for sharing your perspective. Be sure to watch Director McCabe and a new CNN original series, "STANDOFF, THE FBI POWER AND PARANOIA." It airs Sunday night at 9:00 right here on CNN.

So one in three TSA agents at the world's busiest airport have called out today as they're forced to work without pay. We'll take you live to the busiest airport in the world at Hartsfield Jackson International, when we come back.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Let's go right now to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who began a press conference moments ago giving an update on the war with Iran.

Let's listen.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Welcome to the foreign press. First of all, I just want to say I'm alive and you're all witnesses. And now that I dispatched this piece of fake news, I want to give you an update on Operation Roaring Lion.

Under President Trump's visionary leadership, America and Israel are acting together in Iran with great determination and unprecedented strength. Operation Rising Lion is designed to remove the existential threats posed by the Ayatollah regime, the regime that has waged war against America and Israel and the people of Iran for 47 years. It chants death to America, death to Israel, and it delivers death to its own people.

Our goals are three. One, removing the nuclear threat. Second, removing the ballistic missile threat and removing both of these threats before they're buried deep underground and become immune from aerial attack.

And third, this means creating the conditions for the Iranian people to grasp their freedom, to control their destiny. Today, the Ayatollah regime is not only attacking America, not only attacking Israel, not only attacking the Iranian people. It is attacking the entire Middle East and beyond.

They've attacked civilians and Americans and American assets in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman, and they've even attacked through their proxies Cyprus and Europe. We've warned for decades that their ballistic missile program would be used to attack these targets far and wide. And if they're not stopped, that's just the beginning. The death cult in Iran is trying to blackmail the world by closing a key international maritime route, the Straits of Hormuz. It won't work. Israel is helping in its own way, and intel and other means, the American effort to open the Straits of Tehran -- of the Hormuz, rather.

But I want to ask you to imagine how the Ayatollah regime would be able to blackmail the entire world if they had ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads. Just imagine what they would do. Look at what they're doing now and imagine what they would do if they had ballistic missiles, international-range ballistic missiles, and nuclear-tipped warheads.

Just imagine what a great threat that would be. So today, Israel and the United States are protecting America, Israel, the entire Middle East, but I venture to say the entire world. Despite the fake news that is unfortunately being spread since the start of the war 20 days ago, we are winning and Iran is being decimated.

Iran's missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed. Hundreds of their launchers have been destroyed, their stockpiles of missiles are being hit hard, and so are the industries that produce them. That's important.

In Rising Lion, we destroyed missiles and we destroyed a lot of the nuclear infrastructure. But what we're destroying now are the factories that produce the components to make these ...

END