House Speaker Mike Johnson has caused confusion among White House staffers after his since-retracted claim that Donald Trump was an FBI informant on Jeffrey Epstein.
Author Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast podcast Inside Trump’s Head during Wednesday’s episode that White House staffers suspect the president may have been involved in Johnson’s Epstein confusion.
“Mike Johnson says that Trump is an FBI informer, and the people in the White House go, ‘What the f–k? What is he talking about?’” Wolff told host Joanna Coles, referring to what one senior administration appointee told Rolling Stone.
“Nobody knows this. Nobody’s aware of this. Therefore, they immediately conclude—because this happens again and again and again—that it was Trump who called Mike Johnson and came up with this story based on this kernel of truth that it was Trump who first went to the police about Jeffrey Epstein, but not to protect the young women of Palm Beach,” Wolff said.
Coles added: “To protect himself against Jeffrey. So he goes nuclear on Jeffrey before Jeffrey goes nuclear on him.”
Wolff agreed.
Johnson’s initial comment drew considerable attention.
“And so he has to retract this because it is completely preposterous,” Wolff said. “So there, another Epstein chapter.”
The White House disputed Wolff’s account.
“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s–t and has been proven to be a fraud,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast. “He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
On Monday, Johnson cleaned up his remarks from the week before.
“What I was referring to in that long conversation was what the victims’ attorney said: more than a decade ago, President Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago,” he told reporters. “He was one of the only people, or one of the only prominent people … that he was willing to help law enforcement go after this guy.”
Johnson continued: “So the president was helpful in that. I don’t know if I used the right terminology, but that’s common knowledge, and everybody knows that. So this is much ado about nothing.”
Trump said in July that he cut ties with Epstein after he “stole” Mar-a-Lago workers, including 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre. Epstein was a Mar-a-Lago member until October 2007, according to club records. Epstein had been arrested for soliciting prostitution more than a year before.
At no point was Trump an FBI informant, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday while fielding questions about the publication of a suggestive drawing and letter Trump denies writing to Epstein for his 50th birthday.
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