President Donald Trump is under pressure from his MAGA base to appoint right-wing firebrand Matt Gaetz as a special prosecutor to investigate the Epstein case as rage continues over a potential cover-up.
Months after Gaetz was forced to withdraw his nomination to be Trump’s attorney general amid allegations of sexual misconduct with an underage girl, the former congressman is being touted as the man MAGA wants put in charge of examining the crimes and death of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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“Matt Gaetz would be the best,” former Trump strategist Steve Bannon said on stage with conservative activist Charlie Kirk at this weekend’s Turning Point USA summit.
“Matt Gaetz would be a no brainer, right?” Kirk added to rapturous applause by the crowd.
The push to appoint a special prosecutor and release a full report to the public is one of several options being war-gamed by White House insiders as a way of potentially staving off the backlash Trump faces over the Epstein saga.
Tensions flared last week after the administration determined that Epstein, who died in prison while awaiting trial in 2019, didn’t have a celebrity “client list” and was not murdered as many in MAGA world believe.
But if Trump decided to appoint a special counsel, Gaetz would be a controversial choice given a congressional ethics committee report released last year found he regularly paid women for sex; had sex with a 17-year-old; broke Florida’s statutory rape laws; and frequently used illegal drugs.
Gaetz had consistently denied wrongdoing, but was forced to withdraw his nomination for attorney general amid the scandal, paving the way for Trump to pick Pam Bondi to be Trump’s chief lawmaker instead.
Gaetz now hosts his own show on One America News Network, and continues to be an outspoken MAGA conservative.
A fierce Trump loyalist, he is divisive even within his own party, having orchestrated the far-right coup to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.
Meanwhile, Bondi’s handling of the Epstein case has threatened to turn into a political crisis for the president after she clashed with FBI deputy director Dan Bongino last week, resulting in Bongino not showing up to work on Friday as he pondered whether to stay in the job.
Bongino is yet to surface publicly, however Trump on Sunday said he had spoken to him and that he “sounded terrific” and “I think he’s in good shape.”
The president also took to social media to defend Bondi, who has been the subject of much of MAGA’s rage for overpromising and under-delivering on the files.
“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump wrote Saturday.
“We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, has been lobbying Trump for a special prosecutor to get to the bottom of the issue.
But he too suddenly became embroiled in the Epstein scandal after former First Buddy Elon Musk suggested on X that the MAGA warrior was also on a notorious Epstein “list”—something Bannon strongly denies.
Earlier this year, during his epic breakup with Trump, Musk had also accused the president of being in the files, but subsequently removed the post from his social platform.
The post MAGA Demands Trump Use Teen Sex Accused Gaetz to Probe Epstein appeared first on The Daily Beast.
