Donald Trump’s attacks on James Comey are linked to dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose ghost the president can’t seem to shake, Trump’s biographer says.
Author Michael Wolff joined the Daily Beast podcast Inside Trump’s Head to examine the president’s motivations for going after the former FBI director, who was controversially charged last week with obstructing a congressional investigation and making false statements.
Wolff said it stretches back years and relates to unproven chatter in Trump world about Comey’s supposed involvement in Epstein’s legal affairs.
“It’s one of those Trump things, that he can’t let anything go,” he said. “The Comey question, and the Comey family, has really haunted him from the earliest moments of his administration—even before the administration.”
Comey “is fired in May of 2017, which then immediately leads to the appointment of Robert Mueller, which then haunts Trump through the end of his term,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles.
“But he also believes that Comey, coming out of the FBI, has been involved with leaking Epstein material. This goes to 2019. So at that point, the Southern District of New York, which is the Justice Department office in Manhattan, has commenced an investigation, a separate investigation, of Donald Trump.”
Epstein was arrested in July of that year. “The senior lawyer in this investigation is Maurene Comey, James Comey’s daughter,” Wolff noted.
“Within Trump circles, there is the belief that Epstein is, in fact, arrested to squeeze him for information about Donald Trump,” he explained. “And we don’t know what information that might be because conveniently, at least for Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein dies shortly thereafter. At any rate though, Donald Trump continues to hold this belief and this grudge.”
Trump has distanced himself from Epstein, claiming he cut off the Palm Beach regular—with whom he has been photographed on multiple occasions—well over a decade ago. Trump is reportedly named in the so-called “Epstein files.” Trump and his administration have refused to release all the files.
Wolff then recounted how, earlier this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that no further files would be released—a move that set off a firestorm on the right.
Shortly afterward, he noted, “Maurene Comey is fired from her job with the Southern District. And then subsequently, not long after, her father is indicted.”
“The poetic turn here would be for James Comey just to declare that he is running for president of the United States, as did Donald Trump when he was facing indictment,” Wolff said.
The White House, in a statement to the Daily Beast, doubted Wolff’s credibility.
“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s–t and has been proven to be a fraud,” Communications Director Steven Cheung said. “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.”
The Epstein issue, which has long nagged at the president, could be made more relevant during government shutdown negotiations, Wolff said.
Democrats are handling the shutdown, which went into effect after midnight Wednesday morning, “terribly,” he argued.
“They’re playing it as Democrats. The opportunity that they have is for all eyes to be on them, and so they need a message. What’s the message? Why are they doing this? What is the clarifying thought?” he said.
“And the clarifying thought is not, I’m afraid, healthcare, no matter how worthy a thought that is. It doesn’t cut through all of the frustration that so many people, Democrats and Republicans, feel,” he continued.
Instead, he went on, they could use “the most obvious” tool at their disposal.
“I’m looking at this and I actually can’t for the life of me understand why they would not pick up the most obvious issue and say: ‘We will close down the government until the Trump White House releases the Epstein files.’”
“I hope the Democrats are watching,” Wolff said later. “It’s the Epstein files. It’s Epstein. If they would have learned anything, there is only one obvious weakness for Donald Trump, one obvious threat. It’s Epstein… Why wouldn’t they use that?”
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