Andrew Boutros (00:09):
Good morning everyone. My name is Andrew Boutros and I'm the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. I was honored to be appointed to the position in April by the person I have the honor to introduce today, Attorney General Pam Bondi, who's standing right behind me. My appointment has since been approved by the U.S. District Court here in Chicago, and so I'm now the permanent U.S. Attorney here in the district. Under my leadership as the U.S. Attorney, our office has been very busy actively prosecuting serious federal cases that are priorities for the department, everything from international and transnational criminal organizations to drug traffickers, to child predators, to illegal criminal aliens, and many other department priorities. We've been proud to partner with our department leadership on a variety of important matters, including the historic seizure being announced today. It's a real honor and privilege to welcome Attorney General Pam Bondi to Chicago and to have her with us for this important and historic seizure of illegal vaping products.
(01:17)
There's a famous saying that many of us will be familiar with. It is "Lead, follow or get out of the way." General Bondi is unquestionably a strong leader who has a long and distinguished prosecutorial track record of leading from the front, the type of record that you don't often see in an attorney general and that I'd like to take just a few minutes to speak about this morning. For 18 years, General Bondi served as the prosecutor in Hillsboro County, Florida, where she prosecuted horrendous crimes. She sought tough penalties against drug traffickers and violent criminals. She worked tirelessly to deliver justice for victims of sexual assault and domestic abuse, and she was a leader among the prosecutors in her office in helping protect the community.
(02:09)
But General Bondi's prosecutorial commitment continued. In 2010, General Bondi made history by becoming the first woman elected to be the Florida Attorney General. Because of her great success and tough-on-crime approach to enforcing the law, four years later, she easily and comfortably won a second term as Florida's Attorney General. That means that for eight years, General Bondi served the third-largest state in the union as its chief law enforcement officer, where she brought tough cases that protected the public and punished those deserving of punishment. When President Trump selected General Bondi to be the nation's Attorney General, we knew and indeed everybody knew the type of Attorney General we would be getting. A fierce advocate who would lead from the front, be tough on crime, stand for victims, protect children, and the elderly, and tackle head-on some of the worst scourges that have plagued our society, whether that be drugs, violence, illegal immigration, terrorism, fraud, or discrimination. And General Bondi has delivered in all of those areas and many, many more.
(03:32)
It is a privilege to be here with General Bondi and to introduce her as she speaks on today's historic seizure. General Bondi, thank you for your strong leadership and for having the backs of your U.S. attorneys, as well as the thousands of other federal, state, and local law enforcement partners and prosecutors who work hard every day to make America safe. So without further ado, it's my privilege to introduce Attorney General, Pam Bondi. Thank you, General.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (04:04):
Thank you, Andrew. Thank you all for being here today. Can you hear me okay? Okay. Wait. You can hear that? Department of Justice has partnered with HHS, FDA, U.S. Marshals, and ATF, my two agencies. Late July, Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Macari came to meet with me at the Department of Justice. They expressed concerns about the Chinese vapes here in our country. So many think or thought that these were legal. They are not, and we're going to tell you why. Earlier today, pursuant to search warrants issued by federal courts, U.S. Marshals began seizing hundreds of thousands of units of illicit vaping products at locations across the United States, including here at Midwest Goods in this suburb of Chicago. Many of these products, many of these products were smuggled in from China circumventing regulations. They often contain undisclosed or untested chemicals which fail to meet FDA safety standards. We're also finding they evade proper labeling and marketing regulations. It's clear many of these products are being illegally brought into America. They're targeting children, young adults, college students, and even members of our military. They're labeled as cotton candy, bubble gum, Froot Loops among others. These dangerous vapes are being sold near our bases, our military bases, our schools, and they are exposing our children and service members to serious health risk from untested chemicals. In Florida, we have reports of kids in high school and schools and middle schools being taken to the hospital because of lung conditions due to this vaping. Why we're standing here today, we're so close to less than a mile and a half away from a high school, a middle school and an elementary school, and also a military facility is very close by. The retailers are in the same locations, often near military bases. Unfortunately, as I said, many Americans are unaware of the harmful consequences of what's contained in these vapes as they bypass safety standards and oversight required for domestic products, and there is a reason for oversight on these products, and they must be approved by the FDA.
(06:52)
Parents, talk to your children. These things seized right here today. Watermelon Ice, targeting a child, also an American flag on it. Don't let the American flag fool you. It's Chinese. Chinese. You think they're targeting our military? You think they're targeting our kids by this? These illegal and unregulated products are not safe. They contain extreme amounts of nicotine, which is why high school kids have had to go to the hospital. Toxic chemicals and metals and sometimes are laced with THC. We're seeing the equivalent of a full pack of cigarettes in a single vape pen, A full pack of cigarettes. One vape pen can equal 20 cigarettes. These are what our teens, our college kids, and often young members of our military are using. One agent compared it as someone who thinks they're doing a shot of alcohol, but they're really taking a pint, drinking a pint. That's the extreme amount of nicotine that we are dealing with.
(08:09)
And make no mistake, Chinese companies are making billions of dollars off of these products. They're peddling them into our country. Just the products behind us here have a retail value of over $14 million back in this warehouse, retail value. And that's just in this one warehouse. The Trump administration and President Trump will not let the American people suffer the consequences of dangerous chemicals being pushed into our communities by Chinese companies and manufacturers. And I cannot thank Secretary Kennedy once again enough, for the incredible work he is doing for our kids, for our and for our country. The Department of Justice is conducting a nationwide operation today to remove illicit vaping products that are being strategically distributed and sold at retailers across our country. While today's seizure in Illinois is the largest so far, additional seizures today as we speak, are being made or have been made this morning, at five other retailers and four other distributors in North Carolina, Arizona, New Jersey, Georgia, and Florida.
(09:29)
We are extremely proud, again, of this joint effort, and we are just getting started. Let this be a clear message to the retailers and the distributors pushing these illicit vaping products on our kids and on our families. This ends today. This is your final warning. The Department of Justice will use every legal tool available to stop the distribution of illegal vaping products in America. These flavored vaping products are illegal. Don't let your child say, "I walked in a convenience store and bought it so it's legal." It's not. The Department of Justice will use every legal tool to stop it. Today's success was made possible because President Trump and everyone standing here with me today played a major role in it. Secretary Kennedy, U.S. Marshal Gadyaces Serralta who went in and seized these products. FDA Commissioner Makary and ATF Director Bob Cekada, who's here with me, his agents went in and made these controlled buys all over the country over the last few weeks we've been doing this after we met with Secretary Kennedy.
(10:40)
And I want to commend again, Secretary Kennedy for everything that he's doing to help Americans. He has made this a top priority at the Department of Health and Human Services, and I thank him for being a fellow, a patriot, and a friend. It's my honor to introduce to you Secretary Bobby Kennedy.
Secretary Kennedy (10:57):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Thank you, General Bondi. I also want to thank Marty Makary who is the head of FDA and Gaddy Serralta at the US Marshals and US Attorney Boutros, and all the people at ATF, at the Marshals service and FDA who participated in this raid. During the Biden administration, the Biden administration slow-walked approvals of US made vapes. Those companies were behaving responsibly. They were sharing consumer information, they were putting appropriate labels. They weren't using bubble gum and candy-coated flavors and these vivid colors to attract kids, and they were including chips and all their products to deter young people from using them. Because of the vacuum that was left by the failure to timely approve US products, Chinese products flooded the market and those products are now 9,000 brands of e-cigarettes being sold in this country. Only 27% have FDA approval. They're coming from China.
(12:44)
This is a typical one. It's designed to attract children. Its piña colada flavored. It's made in China, and this is pretty typical. And these include all kinds of contaminants, including formaldehyde and THC and things that we don't know about because there's been no FDA approval. These products are illegal in China, so the Chinese government, the CCP will not allow this. You will go to jail and worse in China, if you try to sell this to Chinese citizens. They're making products there that they believe are so dangerous they can't sell to their own citizens, and they're dumping them here in our country. And the Chinese are getting richer while our children get sicker. And we're putting an end to that. Between August 1st and August 14th, in partnership with the ATF, FDA did purchases at distributors in five different states in Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, Arizona, and we did more in California and Florida with ATF.
(13:59)
ATF actually went to 14 different retailers. Our agency went to five different distributors, and the result is today we are doing raids, these kind of operations across the country to confiscate the vapes. Today, these gentlemen from ATF and FDA confiscated 50 truckloads of this material and 90% of it comes from China. These kind of operations we're doing to target the biggest distributors and also to send a message throughout this entire industry that this will not be tolerated anymore, that there's a new sheriff in town, her name is Pam Bondi, and that we are going to target these Chinese vapes and stopped them from poisoning our children. And now I want to introduce another of our partners out of the US Marshals service, Gaddy Serralta.
Gaddy Serralta (15:09):
Thank you. It is quite an honor to be here with our attorney General Pam Bondi, as well as Bobby Kennedy, our HHS secretary. Today, the US Marshals, along with FDA, DOJ civil division and ATF, took affirmative steps to protect our nation and its children from adulterated and misbranded tobacco products. E-cigarettes marketed to our youth, along with our partners, the United States Marshals seized and removed from the marketplace more than 1400 individual pallets of non- FDA approved products from five warehouses or distribution centers and eight retail locations across the country.
(16:10)
These seizure actions happen simultaneously today to prevent products and retailers from learning of the operations and hiding those products to be sold later. These seizures and the US Marshals role during this operation directly support one of the Attorney General's primary goals for the Department of Justice's asset forfeiture program, which is to and deter criminal activity by depriving criminals of property used or acquired through illegal activities. This operation is a great example of how the United States Marshals Service and its partners are joining forces to protect the youth in America. Now we have the pleasure of introducing the Commissioner, Marty Makary from FDA.
Andrew Boutros (17:31):
Great. Thank you and thank you Attorney General Bondi, Secretary Kennedy, my other colleagues here. If you haven't noticed in the last three or four years, there have been vape and smoke shops popping up like popcorn on every neighborhood in America. What's in those shops? Well, right here you have it up to 85% of the vape products in those stores are illegal. They're banned in China where many of them are made, and we have been asleep at the wheel. And so when we did an assessment under the jurisdiction of the FDA under our tobacco center, I realized that we walked into a mess and I called Secretary Kennedy and he quickly convened Attorney General Bondi and others, and we realized we walked into a mess. This was basically off the radar. Today marks the most significant confiscation of illegal vape products in FDA history, and I'm proud to be here.
(18:34)
We need to send a message that we cannot allow this epidemic of childhood vaping to go on without us recognizing what's going on. We have to educate houses of worships and school districts, parents, teachers. We need everybody's help. We need to understand what's going on. I'm a physician, and when the opioid epidemic was starting to move, when we were starting to see people come in with an overdose from a prescription opioid, we started talking as a medical community, but the group think set in. Doctors and their organization said there's no risk of addiction. For 15 years, we were asleep at the wheel. Some doctors tried to wave the flag and say, "Hey, we have a major crisis, but nobody paid attention to them." The establishment locked arms, ignored it, not because they were malicious, they just had group think. They missed a giant epidemic that was brewing in the United States.
(19:43)
Medical conferences were in on it. As a researcher, if you studied the opioid epidemic, you got very little funding or academic promotion. The journals were in on it. The New England Journal of Medicine said that perhaps one person was addicted out of 30,000 plus people that took a prescription opioid. Well, they were all wrong, and they woke up way too late. Well, the broken CDC that we inherited under the Biden administration had a study that is still highly cited that says that roughly 5% of young people are using vaping products. The methodology is flawed. It recently changed, and it is out of touch with what's going on among American youth. Walk into a high school in America and listen to the teachers, listen to the parents, listen to the students, ask the students. We have to listen.
(20:45)
What percent of your other high school students are using or addicted to one of these vape products, often an illegal product with one of these fruity flavors? By the way, there is no FDA approved fruity flavor vape product. There is no FDA approved video game vape product. We have to listen. Now, ask doctors and they'll tell you as I have. They don't know. They don't know how many people are using these on a regular basis in high schools. When I talk to parents and teachers and kids in high schools, I'm hearing 20%, 40% of the kids in high school, 50% of the kids in high school. This is an epidemic that we have yet to fully understand. So we need to pay attention. In this Chicago area, there are approximately 194 Starbucks. There's approximately 102 McDonald's. There's approximately 194 Starbucks in this Chicago area, and approximately 102 McDonald's. There are over 1,200 vape and smoke shop and other retailers
Andrew Boutros (22:00):
… are selling vaping products. We have to wake up and we're doing everything we can at HHS to create funding around understanding what's going on. We talk a lot about how to address addiction in the United States. The best way to address addiction is to stop young people from getting addicted. Thank you. I'm going to introduce Deputy Director Cekada.
Gaddy Serralta (22:27):
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for having me here today. We're honored to be part of this event here. ATF and our partners with the United States Marshals, FDA and HHS have been working on this for the last several months to put this operation together. From ATF's perspective, our jurisdiction is derived from the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, the PACT Act, which also covers the vaping products. As you've heard today, this is just a start of our activities to prevent this from infiltrating our communities further than it already has. ATF has the full authority to inspect locations that deliver and sell vape products around the country.
(23:14)
These operations will continue moving forward, unannounced throughout our communities. We will continue to work with our partners that are standing behind me. ATF will focus all the efforts on the supply and the flow of currency that's actually making its way… The currency derived from selling this product is making way to our foreign adversaries. You've heard China mentioned multiple times, that's one of the primary receivers of the currency, but the currency's also being received by cartels operating inside the United States that are based in Mexico and in other countries abroad, in addition to our own criminal organizations that operate here domestically.
(24:04)
We will solve this threat by continually working together as the team that you see here today and others that will join us in the future. Collaboration between this partnership, the communities that we work with, and educating our parents and the students and the schools around our country to prevent this from getting worse than it already is. Thank you very much for having me here today. Appreciate the partnership.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (24:29):
Come on up. Bobby. Questions?
Media (24:31):
Yes, ma'am.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (24:31):
Go ahead. We'll go this way. Go ahead.
Media (24:52):
[inaudible 00:24:38] that we see things like in Chicago that are working against our current administration.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (24:54):
Yeah. First to start with the lawlessness you ask about here in Chicago. It has the highest murder rate in the nation's capitol here in Chicago and an incredibly high number of unsolved violent felonies. I believe only 16% have been solved this year. So, yeah, Chicago is very violent. We're here in a suburb of Chicago today, but we have a government here that does not want to cooperate with President Trump, and he wants to come in here and he wants to help this city. He wants to clean up Chicago and its suburbs.
(25:26)
You ask about this in fentanyl. Well, what we know is the Chinese's business model. They bring this into our country, they distribute it, they get kids addicted, they add THC, and ultimately, it could be laced with fentanyl. Thank goodness we haven't seen any fentanyl overdose deaths yet. That's why we're here today, that's why we're on the front end instead of the back end of this problem, to seize this, to stop it now before fentanyl is laced into these things. But it's actually a miracle that we haven't seen that yet, but we have seen THC at very high levels laced into that. Thank you. Go ahead. We'll go down.
Media (26:09):
What is the status [inaudible 00:26:13].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (26:13):
So, right now what we've done here is a seizure. We're in the very beginning steps. The FDA went in, as Dr. Makary told you, we went in, FDA, and they did inspections of businesses, of retailers. Then, our ATF agents went in and did control buys all over the country. Since we met with Secretary Kennedy, we've started doing that, working hand in hand with our US Marshals, who today are the ones who made these seizures. Thank you, Gady Serralta, and thank you Agent Cekada for that. We started doing the seizures and seized all these products.
(26:48)
Right now, we're in the initial stages. We don't know yet who knew what. We know they were selling these. We know they were distributing them.
Media (26:54):
[inaudible 00:26:58].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (26:59):
No, we have made no arrests. Right now, we're in the civil aspect of this. But again, these businesses, you need to be aware, the retailers all over this country stop selling this stuff, it's illegal. The only three flavors, Doctor, are the tobacco, the cinnamon, and the menthol that are legal.
Media (27:20):
I got one more question.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (27:21):
Go ahead.
Media (27:22):
One more question. For parents that are watching this right now, what can they do if there's a vape shop in their neighborhood? Can they go in, pick up a product, check to see if one of these products are on the shelf there? I mean, what can they do?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (27:36):
Well, if it's any of these flavored products, they are illegal. That's what we're trying to let parents know today. You can't have this stuff. The one I just showed you is illegal. All of these, watermelon ice, piña colada, strawberry, that one looks like the candy Juice Heads. Some of them have video games… You think that's targeting an adult? No, those are targeting kids. Those are targeting elementary and middle school kids. That's why we're on the front end of this to shut it down before they start lacing it with other things as well. Alana, go ahead.
Media (28:07):
[inaudible 00:28:10].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (28:09):
Sure. On topic first.
Media (28:11):
I just want to address something [inaudible 00:28:18], given the rise and how quickly we're going to see that.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (28:19):
Sure. I'm going to let them answer that, Doctor.
Andrew Boutros (28:23):
So, we need to have an all-of-the-above strategy, and so it's not just FDA. NIH is going to be funding research. If you are an academic physician, as I was at Johns Hopkins, and you want to study the impact of this potential health harm, your career is going to get sidelined. You're not going to get the NIH funding. So, we need to fund not just gene therapy, but what's happening to our nation's youth at scale. We need an all-of-the-above approach. So, I want to be very honest, there's no single silver bullet. We need to address the distribution networks, which General Bondi has been incredibly receptive to say, "We're onboard."
(29:04)
We need to educate people and we need to also address something called port shopping. I'm not sure if you're familiar with port shopping, but what I learned when we all came into office is that the Chinese vapes were showing up at US ports. The Customs and Border Protection were setting it aside for our FDA inspectors. We were saying, "Yes, this is an illegal product. We're going to refuse it." It was going right back on the ship and then going to another US port. They were laughing at us in China. Our border was essentially entirely porous to these shipments, so we are ending port shopping. We are using an all-of-the-above approach.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (29:46):
Off-topic. Oh, sure.
Media (29:47):
[inaudible 00:29:48].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (29:57):
So, the status now is we have arrested him. We are charging him federally because it was a murder on mass transit. This young woman died a horrific, horrific death as we all saw, captured on video. It was horrible. The steps are we charge, then we indict. Then, legally, we make the decision whether or not to seek the death penalty. That is certainly on the table once he is indicted for this horrific crime. Go ahead.
Media (30:27):
Two questions. One on-topic, one off-topic.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (30:30):
Let's do on first.
Media (30:31):
On-topic, what do you attribute to the rise of vape across the US?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (30:36):
I'm going to give you my opinion, then I'd love Secretary Kennedy to jump in. I'm seeing it in Florida. We're all seeing kids walking down the street with this stuff, and I guarantee you their parents have no idea that this is a pack of cigarettes, the amount of nicotine in one of these. I was floored when I learned out how much nicotine is in these. And again, some of these are laced with THC. We don't know if these are yet. These were just seized, but many of them in the vape shops are.
(31:02)
I think it's access. They're easy to get. They're marketing children and parents think they're legal because you can walk in businesses on almost what every corner practically and buy these. We're all seeing vape shops all over the country. And if they're selling this stuff, if they're selling the fruity flavors that we talked about, it's illegal. I think it's access. It's easy to get. And it's awareness, and that's why we're on the front end of it because parents need to know, your kids can't be doing this. Kids need to know they can't be doing this. Military needs to know they can't be doing this.
Media (31:35):
Do you have an update on the weaponization report? And also, I know that you have Ed Martin as special attorney looking into the double primary residency that allege gangs, as well as the senator from California. Are you also requesting that other individuals who have this double primary residence… I know that there's an allegation that there are other cabinet officials of this administration, that they should also be prosecuted and investigated for the same allegation?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (32:06):
I cannot comment on any pending investigation. Some people have, but it's not proper to comment whether there is or is not a pending investigation on any of that. Back to the weaponization, you may be asking about a memo. I issued a memo yesterday to parents because we've started school again. And parents have the right, unlike the last administration, parents have the right to go in a school board and feel free to talk to the school board, to speak at school board meetings about the education their children are getting, whether their children in elementary school are being forced to read books about transgender. They have the right to do that. We're going to look out for parents and their rights in the Trump administration. Next question.
Media (32:46):
Where you the first [inaudible 00:32:47]?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (32:52):
I'm not going to comment on anything regarding whether there is or is not a pending investigation. Thank you.
Media (32:57):
[inaudible 00:32:59].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (32:58):
Next question.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
[inaudible 00:33:00].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (33:00):
Okay, sure.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
[inaudible 00:33:02]. Are you planning to pull the [inaudible 00:33:02] off the shelves?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (33:10):
Yes, on that. And I meant to let Secretary Kennedy jump into on your question about the increase. So yes on that, and let me him jump in on that as well.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I mean, it's an interesting question, but there's study after study that shows that addiction rates are directly related to availability, and to also the absence of social stigma. We've had a series of waves of addiction in this country and the early 20s. When heroin and cocaine were legal we had a wave of addiction. In the 1980s we had the crack epidemic, which suddenly you could get cheap cocaine on every corner. It created a wave of addiction. The opioid crisis was created by the availability of OxyCodone, the ready availability. There are historical examples, for example, at one point, 80% of the adult population of Iran was addicted to opioids, because it was common, it was available. Today, almost 100%, according to some reports, of the adult population of Yemen is addicted to khat, which is an amphetamine-like a plant.
(34:34)
And so it's really, there is a direct lockstep correlation between the availability of an addictive product and a level of addiction throughout that society, and the complete absence of social stigma for this. Parents watch their kids sucking on these things, they assume they're okay, they don't understand the addictive nature of it. And so there's no real stigma. And part of what we're doing right now is changing the moral milestones of this drug to let people understand that this is a drug, that it is dangerous, and that it is illegal. And with the hope that we create those stigmas that will fortify our society against another wave of addiction.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
[inaudible 00:35:24].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (35:24):
I'm going to get you… You had an off-topic, right?
Speaker 3 (35:25):
[inaudible 00:35:26].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (35:25):
Go ahead. Sure.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
You said [inaudible 00:35:28] last night, that [inaudible 00:35:30]. How come [inaudible 00:35:32] administration crackdown, so, quote, "We're going to go in to see [inaudible 00:35:37] there." How is the justice department [inaudible 00:35:40] Chicago operation, and what's the [inaudible 00:35:42]?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (35:43):
So Chicago doesn't want the President's help. The President's made it very clear, he wants any major city in this country, any city, who they want his help, he wants to come in and help them. What we've done in DC is remarkable. I was with the mayor last night, I was with the police chief of DC last night. We were all together, we're working hand-in-hand. All of my agencies, ATF, DEA, FBI, US marshals, working hand-in-hand with park police, with the metro, with the transit authorities, with the National Guard, HHS, ICE, working hand-in-hand, and it's been a tremendous success. DC is a safe city again, it's going to be a beautiful city again. President Trump is working hard to do that. But the number of arrests, we've made over 2000 arrests, taken hundreds of guns off the streets.
(36:33)
I think we got three last night, I see the results every single morning. We got assaults last night, many arrests last night still to be made, but we're making DC safe again every night. So yeah, the president wants cities to ask us. You're going to hear an announcement very soon where we're going next, but we want Chicago to ask us for the help, and they're not going to do that, we understand. Let me go to the next one. Go ahead.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
[inaudible 00:36:56] is it your intent to reduce the number of vape shops [inaudible 00:37:02]?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (37:05):
Yeah, you ask about reducing the number of vape shops, so everyone can hear over there. What we're doing right now is we're on the front end. We're telling you, if you have this stuff, get it off your shelves, because this is your final warning, we're coming after you. If you have it, get rid of it, because we're coming after you. There are 1,000 vape shops you said, doctor, right around here? Well, you're a lucky one if you didn't get raided today, so get rid of this illegal stuff because it is illegal.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
[inaudible 00:37:33].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (37:33):
Go ahead.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
[inaudible 00:37:34] audio today of [inaudible 00:37:37] killer, who was released today [inaudible 00:37:40] showing he's clearly mentally unwell. And there's reports that he's schizophrenic. To ill and you just reported it. Are you concerned that his mental status will have an effect [inaudible 00:37:48]?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (37:49):
Yeah, being mentally ill and being competent to stand trial and sane are two very different things. I've prosecuted people many times who are mentally ill. But yeah, we'll look at all that, of course, when making all of the decisions regarding penalty phases. He had been arrested 14 times. The guy had been to prison, so clearly he was competent for robbery with a firearm, an assault with a firearm. He had committed multiple assaults. And then in July he had made, I think, fake false multiple 911 calls, yet by the district attorney and by a magistrate judge, he was told he can make a written promise to appear in court. That's worthless. Had he done that in July, had he been taken into custody, a 14-time arrestee, she would've been alive today.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
[inaudible 00:38:39].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (38:39):
Go ahead.
Speaker 6 (38:39):
I know you said a warning to this warehouse back in January, the discussion back in August. Did they just blatantly refuse to cooperate with you [inaudible 00:38:50]? And could this result in criminal charges as the investigation [inaudible 00:38:55]?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (38:56):
Yeah, he asked about the vape shop behind me. See, after we met in July, we began doing, again, sending the FDA into all of these businesses, into the retailers, and into some of the distributors. You want to answer that?
Gaddy Serralta (39:13):
Sure. Yeah. So our asset forfeiture unit who happens to be present here, works behind the scenes all the time. When we get orders from the courts to seize items, usually they're items that were taken from bad guys that have already been arrested. In this case, it's just items that have been deemed to be illegally in the United States. So what we've done is we executed those warrants, we then get told basically to destroy the equipment once the seizure notice is processed, and we'll be destroying all this useless poison.
Speaker 7 (40:04):
Other than [inaudible 00:40:05].
Attorney General Pam Bondi (40:06):
Wait, let me add something to fully answer your question. I think you asked could there be potential criminal charges? Absolutely. Go ahead.
Media (40:14):
[inaudible 00:40:15] will DOJ investigate the Epstein birthday book to determine if the letter showing President Trump's alleged signature is authentic or not?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (40:23):
I believe that was handed over to Congress and we're cooperating with Congress. All right, thank you all-
Speaker 8 (40:29):
[inaudible 00:40:29] two more questions.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (40:30):
We're about to finish. Go ahead. Quickly.
Speaker 8 (40:33):
Can you elaborate on what kind of criminal charges? So beyond losing their inventory, what do these retailers risk? And then off-topic, with Operation Midway Blitz, what's the threshold for success?
Attorney General Pam Bondi (40:43):
So first of all, I'm going to let you direct the Operation Midway Blitz. So first on topic, there are potential criminal… First of all, you could lose your business if you're a retailer and you're selling this stuff. So right now we're on the front end of it and we're telling you, you're on every corner, get this stuff out of your stores. You can only sell the legal items, you cannot sell anything that's not FDA approved. And so potential criminal charges yet to be determined. You want to talk about Midway Blitz?
Gaddy Serralta (41:11):
Sure. So the immigration surge, I'm assuming is what you're referring to. Are you referring to the immigration surge? I'm asking you, what was your question about Midway Blitz? The immigration surge?
Speaker 8 (41:35):
Well, with Midway Blitz, what's your threshold for success?
Gaddy Serralta (41:37):
Well, stamping out crime is our threshold for success always. Whenever we grab guns from bad guys that would usually use them to either rob, rape, or maim or hurt or kill someone, that's success to me. So every life saved is a success. We've been saving a lot of lives here in our surges. We've saved a bunch of lives in DC, and in any other state that wants President Trump's assistance in combating violent crime, I am sure we'll be there saving lives as well.
Attorney General Pam Bondi (42:18):
Thank you all.
Gaddy Serralta (42:19):
Thank you.
Speaker X (42:19):
[inaudible 00:42:20].
(42:19)
[inaudible 00:42:20].
(42:19)
[inaudible 00:42:20].
(42:19)
[inaudible 00:42:20].
Speaker 9 (42:20):
[inaudible 00:42:20] you can get some photos, and you can…