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To Donald Trump’s frustration, the controversy surrounding his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case has not gone away, and new details continue to emerge. NBC News reported, for example, on the president making an acknowledgement that he hadn’t made before.
Asked whether [Attorney General Pam] Bondi had told him if his name appeared in a file related to Epstein, Trump said ‘no,’ adding that Bondi has ‘given us just a very quick briefing.’ Trump claimed that the files were ‘made up’ by his predecessors, though previously he has discussed the files, and his allies have called for their release.
By all appearances, the president has lost control of the entire story, and these latest comments didn’t do him any favors.
Asked whether the attorney general briefed him on the Epstein case, Trump conceded that this did, in fact, happen, though he characterized it as “a very quick briefing.”
This was notable in its own right, in part because it was a new acknowledgement and in part because it raises a variety of related questions. Why did he receive a briefing on this case, as opposed to the countless other matters that cross Bondi’s desk? What did Bondi tell him? What did he say in response? Did he give her any directions about how to proceed? Was this the first conversation the two have had about the late millionaire pedophile, or the latest in a series?
As part of the same brief exchange at the White House, the same reporter pressed further on whether the attorney general told him about his name appearing in the files. “No, no,” Trump replied, before quickly shifting to a different conspiracy theory related to the underlying conspiracy theory.
“These files were made up by Comey; they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden — you know, we went through years of that with the ‘Russia Russia Russia’ hoax.”
So, a few things.
First, the idea that Barack Obama and former FBI Director James Comey “made up” the so-called Epstein files is demonstrably ridiculous. It was the Trump administration that investigated, arrested and charged Epstein. It was in 2019 during Trump’s first term when Epstein, facing sex trafficking and conspiracy charges, died while in custody, and a medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.
Obama and Comey couldn’t have manufactured files even if they wanted to: Not only did they have no incentive to fabricate fake evidence, they were also nowhere near the levers of power in 2019. (In an earlier iteration of the same silly theory, Trump included Hillary Clinton and former CIA Director John Brennan for reasons unknown.)
Second, if nefarious Trump foes had “made up” these files, wouldn’t they have included Trump in them to make him took bad? Should we assume, in light of comments like these, that the files do make him look bad?
Third, Trump’s Russia scandal was quite real, no matter how many times he lies about it or how many times he tries to rewrite recent history.
And finally, if the Republican president is hoping these bizarre comments are going to make the broader controversy go away, he’s likely to be disappointed.
For her part, Bondi was asked about the matter soon after Trump’s odd exchange with reporters. The attorney general refused to comment.