President Donald Trump said on Monday that any incriminating evidence against him in the files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein would have already been released by former President Joe Bidenâs administration.
A reporter asked Trump during his visit to Turnberry, Scotland, if he had been informed about whether his name is in the Epstein files, prompting the president to reply that the former administrationâs handling of the files is a âhoax.â The president further noted that those files would have been used to benefit Biden or former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election.
âThose files were run by the worst scum on Earth. They were run by Comey, they were run by Garland, they were run by Biden and all of the people who actually ran the government, including the autopen,â Trump said. âThose files were run for four years by those people. If they had anything, I assume they wouldâve released it. The whole thing is a hoax. They ran the files, I was running against somebody who ran the files. If they had something, they wouldâve released ⌠Those files were run by these people, they were run by my enemy. If there was anything in there, they wouldâve used them for the election.â
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has come under immense pressure to release all of the files after the agency, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), concluded in a July 6 report that Epstein committed suicide in August 2019 and that he did not possess a so-called âclient list.â Trump has defended Attorney General Pam Bondi against the widespread criticism she has received over her handling of the files, particularly after she alluded to having the client list on her desk during a Fox News interview in February.
The president stated in a Truth Social post from July 17 that he asked Bondi to release âall pertinent grand jury testimonyâ that is subject to court approval.
Trump has acknowledged his previous friendship with Epstein, though he said they cut off contact after a âfalling outâ over a Palm Beach property in 2004, according to The New York Times. Two years later, authorities arrested Epstein for the first time and charged him with felony solicitation of prostitution.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) alleged in a July 17 story that Trump wrote a suggestive letter to Epstein in honor of his 50th birthday in 2003, which included a drawing of a ânaked woman.â The president, who has denied the accusation, sued The WSJ, Â Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones & Company Inc., News Corporation and the two WSJ reporters who authored the piece over the allegation.
On the night of Epsteinâs death, correctional officers Tova Noel and Michael Thomas did not perform the required 12:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. counts and completed a form falsely saying that they did. After they initially faced charges, the DOJ let them off the hook in May 2021 after prosecutors argued they had upheld their deferred prosecution agreement.
Dr. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist hired by Epsteinâs brother, told âFox & Friendsâ in October 2019 that Epsteinâs autopsy was more consistent with homicidal strangulation than suicidal hanging.
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