Controversy surrounding the friendship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein has come with an unexpected update.
There has been a lot of talk regarding Trump and Epstein since he began his second presidential campaign last year.
Mostly, it was the outrage that Trump had promised to release all files related to the convicted sex offender but failed to do so once he was named POTUS.
The House of Representatives Oversight Committee recently released over 33,000 pages from the Epstein files on 2 September, but it didn’t stop people from speculating about Trump’s long association with him from the 90s into the 2000s.
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Epstein, a disgraced financer, was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 as he awaited his trial.
In previous years, Trump speculated that Epstein may have been murdered, and called for a full investigation into his death.
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However, last week he called it a hoax, saying: “From what I understand, I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president.”
As per Trump’s own recollection, he and Epstein fell out before he was first convicted in 2008.
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While this still led people to question whether this was true or false, the US Justice Department released transcripts of their interview with former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and it seems to answer some questions about Trump’s proximity to the crimes.
Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 and charged with conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom, transport, and sexually abuse female minors.
She was handed a 30-year prison sentence in June 2022, and is believed to know much about the inner workings of the criminal sex ring.
“I actually never saw the President in any type of massage setting,” she said of Trump, as per the transcript.
“I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The President was never inappropriate with anybody.
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“In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”
Now, it has been alleged that Trump was actually an FBI informant for Epstein.
Mike Johnson, a senior Republican told CNN that Trump believed Epstein’s crimes were of ‘terrible, unspeakable evil’.
“What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him,” Johnson said.
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“I’ve talked to him about this many times, many times. He is horrified. It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself.”
Bringing up the Mar-a-Lago event, which is where Trump and Epstein allegedly argued and the POTUS severed ties, Johnson added: “When he first heard the rumour, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”
This shocking claim has led to many to call for further information.
For instance, Republican Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, and Democrat Ro Khanna, of California, are campaigning for a vote which could see the entirety of the Epstein case information released via public majority.
One senior Trump administration appointee simply said to Rolling Stone when asked about Johnson’s claim: “What the hell is he doing?”
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Other advisers allegedly seemed confused at the ‘informant’ comment, saying it may have been referencing past media comments about Trump, but that those reports were not to suggest he was an FBI informant tasked with collecting information on Epstein.
LADbible reached out to the White House and the FBI for comment.
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, Politics, US News
Britt Jones