President Donald Trump is countering criticism of the Justice Department’s failure to release much-hyped records around the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, trying to place blame on former government officials.
On Tuesday, he accused former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as former FBI Director James Comey, of making up such documents.
“I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden … ,” Trump told members of the press at the White House before departing for an event in Pennsylvania.
The president on Wednesday posted on Truth Social blaming Democrats in general for a “new SCAM” that “we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”
Epstein was arrested in 2019 and found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City about a month later. Investigators concluded that he killed himself.
Trump suggested last year that he was considering releasing information about the Epstein case if he won a second term. In February, the Justice Department released some government documents regarding the case, but there were no new revelations. Then, earlier this month, it acknowledged that a months-long review of additional evidence in the government’s possession had not revealed a list of clients and said no more files related to the case — other than a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself — would be made public. The announcement led to outcry from Trump supporters.
Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared to intimate in a Fox News interview in February that a client list was “sitting on my desk” to be reviewed for release. She said last week that she was referring to the Epstein case file generally, as opposed to an actual client list. Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino then had a contentious conversation at the White House as backlash grew to the Justice Department’s decision to withhold records.
Trump, members of his administration and conservative influencers have spread unsubstantiated claims surrounding Epstein for years. Conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death are a popular trope in right-wing spheres, playing on Trump’s repeated promises to reveal and dismantle the “deep state” — a supposed secret network of powerful people manipulating government decisions behind the scenes.
