The White House clarified Thursday that President Donald Trump does not support appointing a special prosecutor to review files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.
It signals a shift in the president’s thinking after he considered having his Attorney General Pam Bondi appoint one a day earlier following outrage from his MAGA base.
‘The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case. That’s how he feels,’ White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Mail in the daily briefing.
Leavitt said the president was confident in the Justice Department’s ‘exhaustive’ work on the case.
‘The Attorney General and the FBI, led by Pam Bondi, Dan Bongino, Kash Patel. These are great patriots. Some of the most trusted voices in the Republican party movement,’ she said. ‘It’s part of the reason the president appointed them to these high law enforcement positions.’
Leavitt said Trump also supported the release of any new details in the case if necessary.
‘The president has said if the Attorney General and Department of Justice and the FBI have more credible evidence in regards to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, they should put that forward,’ she said.
Leavitt further mocked Congressional Democrats for demonstrating newfound interest in the case, accusing them of doing so now for political reasons.
‘They had control of the White House for four years, and they didn’t do a dang thing when it came to transparency in regards to Jeffrey Epstein and his heinous crimes,’ she said.
This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, looks on
During an interview with JustTheNews.com on Wednesday, Trump seemed open to appointing a prosecutor to look into Epstein and other conspiracies.
When he was asked about his support of a special prosecutor reviewing the ‘weaponization’ of the DOJ against conservatives in the 2016 election, Trump said he did and that a special prosecutor could look into the Epstein files as well.
‘I think they could look at all of it. It’s all the same scam. They could look at this Jeffrey Epstein hoax also, because that’s the same stuff that’s all put out by Democrats,’ Trump said when asked what he’d most like to see the FBI investigate.
Trump expressed concerns that former intelligence and law enforcement officials could have tampered with evidence surrounding Epstein case.
‘I can imagine what they put into files, just like they did with the others. I mean, the Steele dossier was a total fake, right? It took two years to figure that out,’ he said, referring to former FBI directors James Comey and Christopher Wray.
He described the case as a ‘hoax’ and lamented that Republicans were still hung up on the case despite an effort by the Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice to put the controversial case behind them.
‘But they ought to look into the Jeffrey Epstein hoax too, because that’s another hoax that’s frankly, put out by the Democrats pushing, pushing the Republicans, and put out by the Democrats,’ he added.
The president and his administration face ongoing controversy after the Justice Department announced in a memo that there was no evidence to support the conspiracy theory that Epstein was murdered in prison and that he did not have a client ‘list’ that they could release.
New photos of infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell at the Clinton White House, one day after Maxwell pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking charges.
This undated trial evidence image obtained December 8, 2021, from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York shows British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate in 1997
The news sparked outrage from the president’s followers who anticipated the eventual release of the files after Trump promised during his presidential campaign to release them.
Congressional Democrats jumped on the case, further exploiting the disappointment from Trump’s base, even suggesting the president was tied up with the Epstein case and covering it up.
Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office he was discouraged by many of his supporters clinging to the case.
‘I’ve lost a lot of faith in certain people, yeah, I’ve lost. Because they got duped by the Democrats,’ he told reporters.
On Wednesday, Trump also berated his followers on social media for their focus on the ‘Epstein scam’ he said was perpetrated by Democrats.
‘Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years,’ he wrote.
He criticized Republicans and his MAGA supporters for not focusing on his successes and distracting the public with the case.
‘Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats’ work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!’ he added.
On Tuesday, Trump tried to dismiss the case as ‘boring’ and said he did not understand why the case was so important to his supporters.
‘He’s dead for a long time,’ Trump said of the disgraced financier. ‘He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody.’
The president spoke about the issue that threatens to further plague his presidency after a trip to Pennsylvania on Air Force One.
‘It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring, and I don’t understand why it keeps going,’ he said to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews.
Epstein’s associate Ghislane Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida after she was convicted in June 2022 for conspiring with her boss Epstein in the sexual exploitation of minors.
The White House dismissed any notion of Trump pardoning Maxwell.
‘There have been no discussions or consideration of a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, and there never will be,’ a senior White House official told the Daily Mail.
