President Donald Trump launched into a grievance-fueled tirade after being asked again about the Epstein files, taking aim at everything from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, to the Wall Street Journal and Joe Biden’s autopen.
The lengthy rant took place a few minutes into an Oval Office meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, who came to Washington in the hope of securing a better trade deal with the U.S. and more military support in the South China Sea.
But about 10 minutes into the bilateral session, Trump was asked about Attorney General Pam Bondi seeking a meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice and former girlfriend of child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump told reporters. “But I think it’s something that sounds appropriate to do.”
The president then described the issue as a “witch hunt” and told reporters that “the witch hunt you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold.”
This was a reference to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s weekend claim there was a “treasonous conspiracy” by top Obama administration officials to manufacture the notion of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The basic thrust of the Gabbard’s theory is that Obama used the lame-duck period at the end of his presidency to kickstart what Trump calls the “Russia Hoax.”
But her “evidence” contradicts four previous investigations: 2019 report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller; a 2019 Justice Department of Justice report by the inspector general; a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report issued by the GOP controlled chamber; and 2023 report by special counsel John Durham, who was appointed in Trump’s first term.
Nonetheless, the president told reporters: “This was treason. This was every word you could think of.”
“What they did to this country, starting in 2016 but going all the way up to 2020—they tried to rig the election, they got caught and there should be very severe consequences for that,” he said.
Asked who ought to be investigated, he insisted that Obama was the “ring leader” of the conspiracy, but claimed that Biden and Clinton were also involved, along with former FBI director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA director John Brennan.
“The whole group was there, in a room. Right here, this was the room,” Trump said, suddenly admiring the aesthetic of the Oval Office.
“This is much more beautiful than it was then, but that’s ok. I have nice pictures up, they came out of the vaults, they were there for 100 years. This is much more beautiful.”
Trump’s bizarre, meandering rant is emblematic of the frustration within the White House that its attempts to kill the Epstein saga have not worked.
But the president himself fanned the flames last week, when he described the Epstein files as a Democratic hoax and hit out at members of his own MAGA base for demanding transparency—something that Trump had repeatedly promised to provide during the election campaign.
Despite insisting the case ought to be close, the president pivoted again last week after the Wall Street Journal published a report on Thursday claiming Trump gave Epstein a saucy letter in 2003 featuring a drawing of a naked woman with his name mimicking pubic hair.
Trump strongly denied the letter was his, and is suing the paper and its owner Rupert Murdoch for publishing the article.
But he has also asked Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval”, and Bondi on Tuesday sought an urgent meeting with Maxwell in another bid to quell the political firestorm.
The push to see if Maxwell has any further secrets to spill comes merely two weeks after the Justice Department and FBI released a memo declaring there was no further incriminating evidence regarding the crimes or death of Epstein.
Asked about the department reaching out to Maxwell, Trump said he welcomed the move but added: “I didn’t know they were going to do it. I don’t really follow that too much.”
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