SEATTLE – Donald Trump frequently gives a pretty big clue as to when the question he’s being asked is one he’d prefer to avoid.
Often he’ll appear unshaken, magnanimous even, but then he often attacks not just the subject matter but the person asking – as often as not a member of the “fake news” media.
That was the case on Tuesday when he was asked why his own supporters were not happy with his handling of an investigation into the death of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, six years after he was found dead aged 66 in his cell in a New York jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
“He’s dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is,” Trump told reporters after flying to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid but it’s boring. I don’t understand why it keeps going. I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi has been taking much of the blame for not releasing the ‘Epstein files’ (Photo: Ken Cedeno/Reuters)If the 79-year-old President finds himself in a tight spot at the moment, it is one very largely of his making. For years he pushed and profited from spreading conspiracy theories and lies, not least about the results of the 2020 election.
Theories have swirled around the Epstein case for years, including claims of an “incriminating client list” featuring the names of wealthy and influential individuals, suggestions Epstein had participated in blackmail, and that he had been killed in jail.
During the most recent election campaign Trump told supporters he’d release any material about Epstein, who had been awaiting trial for alleged sex trafficking charges having been accused of procuring young women and children to be used for sex by his wealthy friends and clients.
His most prominent abuse victim, Virginia Giuffre, took her own life in April. She reached a multimillion-dollar settlement in 2022 with Prince Andrew, who she accused of sexually assaulting her. He has denied wrongdoing.
Among those demanding the release of such material and of a purported “client list” were figures such as right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino, and Kash Patel, who had served in Trump’s first administration.
The Justice Department (DOJ) and the FBI, now being led by Patel and Bongino, were tasked with investigating the matter. Earlier this year, Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, told Fox News she had a “client list” related to Epstein sitting on her desk.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer (Photo: Jacob M Langston for The Washington Post via Getty)Yet last week, the DOJ announced there was no such client list, no evidence Epstein had killed himself, and the FBI had decided “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”. Bondi clarified that she had been referring to the Epstein case file on her desk, not his client list.
For large numbers of Trump supporters who had been waiting for the release of the material, the DOJ’s answer felt like both a betrayal and another government cover-up.
A range of high-profile Maga figures who’ve supported Trump, including Steve Bannon and conspiracist Laura Loomer, have hurled hard words at the administration on which they normally heap praise.
While Loomer has not yet attacked Trump personally, she has attacked Bondi and called for her to be fired. “Pam Bondi is very damaging to President Trump’s image,” Loomer wrote on social media.
Other Maga figures have levelled accusations and threats at Bondi and Patel over the matter. Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais said: “If the attorney general has knowledge of people who committed sex crimes with the minors, she should be prosecuting them.”
But despite the accusations levelled at Bondi no one can still be under any illusions over who has the real power in this administration.
Trump and his girlfriend – and future wife – Melania Knauss, Epstein and British socialite and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in February 2000 (Photo: Davidoff Studios/Getty)The episode presents Democrats with an easy opportunity to attack Trump. Why won’t the President release all the files and appoint a special counsel to look into it? Why is his administration attempting to shift public attention away from the case?
In a 2002 interview with New York magazine Trump said of Epstein, a wealthy financier: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with.”
He added: “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
But then in July 2019 when Epstein was charged with sex trafficking, Trump claimed he had fallen out with him 15 years before.
Last month, amid fallout between Trump and his billionaire former adviser Elon Musk over a policy bill, Musk claimed – without evidence – on his social media platform X that Trump “is in the Epstein files” and “that is the real reason they have not been made public”.
square JEFFREY EPSTEIN Why is Maga world fracturing over the Jeffrey Epstein case?
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Musk later deleted the post. Trump has never been implicated in Epstein’s criminal behaviour, and he said in a post last year, “I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island”.
This week, Trump praised Bondi’s handling of the Epstein matter and, in an unlikely assertion, claimed she would be the person who decided what material ought to be released. “She’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her,” Trump said. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”
Asked by a reporter if he thought his name was in any of the files he said: “No, no.”
Trump very clearly wants the matter to go away. But that does not seem likely any time soon.
Another staunch Trump loyalist who opposes him on the matter is Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said she would be keen on a private viewing of the Epstein files at the DOJ and wanted them all released eventually. She told reporters: “I’d like to see all the information come out.”
Another senior Republican, House Speaker Mike Johnson, said he similarly wanted “transparency”.
“It’s a very delicate subject but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it,” he told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson.
“The White House and the White House team are privy to facts that I don’t know. I mean, this isn’t my lane and I haven’t been involved with that, but I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out there.”
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