To no one’s surprise, President Donald Trump’s demand that everyone shut up about Jeffrey Epstein isn’t going over too well with Americans who are upset about the Justice Department ignoring calls for transparency about the dead convicted sex offender. As the administration struggles to get their outraged surrogates back in line, its answers to basic questions about the case are becoming increasingly incoherent.
Trump has already fallen back to absurdist claims that the lingering questions about Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking operations and the circumstances surrounding his death are a “hoax” engineered by former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — one his supporters were “stupid” for believing.
When asked during Thursday’s press briefing exactly what Trump thinks is the “hoax,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied: “The president is referring to the fact Democrats have now seized on this as if they ever wanted transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein,” and that “the Democrats have control of this building, the White House, for four years and they never did a dang thing when it came to transparency in regards to Jeffrey Epstein and his heinous crimes.”
So the “hoax” is that Democrats didn’t release the Epstein files while they were in power? This makes zero sense considering Trump has been saying Democrats “made up” the files in the first place as part of a ploy to make him look bad, a la the Russia investigation. Meanwhile, the Trump’s administration is actively attempting to bury the situation and demanding that their supporters simply look the other way.
Leavitt went on to stumble through a whole round of questioning regarding the administration’s reversal on promises to release large troves of evidence related to Epstein, and their decision to effectively close the book on allegations of a widespread sex trafficking ring.
When asked if Trump would consider pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell “if the Epstein case is a hoax,” Leavitt simply ignored the question. She also indicated Trump will not appoint a special prosecutor to assess the trove of Epstein evidence the Justice Department is keeping under wraps.
When asked what was stopping the administration from redacting sensitive information that could potentially harm or identify victims, Leavitt deferred to the Justice Department, and said that it was “out of the president’s control.”
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“I only say, the American people should trust in President Trump,” Leavitt said at one point.
Given that the president is currently calling the people who trusted him and his administration to provide the public answers about the Epstein case “stupid,” it’s hard to imagine why anyone would take his spokesperson at her word.
From Rolling Stone US
