Criticism of the Trump administration’s handling of files related to late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein isn’t limited to right-wing influencers.
Jake Tapper joined in the largely MAGA-affiliated chorus of critics who felt the FBI could share more info about the case against Epstein. The CNN host took President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi to task over a recent memo claiming that a long-anticipated list of Epstein’s clients did not exist.
“There might not be a list, but there are certainly files that can be released,” Tapper said on “State of the Union” Tuesday. “There’s a trove of information that the Trump administration is right now refusing to share, information that could well point to the powerful folks who availed themselves of the sex trafficking victims of Jeffrey Epstein.”
Tapper went on to note that the FBI’s online vault has thousands of pages of “heavily redacted” files on Epstein.
“This isn’t going to go away,” Tapper said. “The public, you, you’re being played for fools here.”
The Department of Justice memo alleging no list and no foul play in Epstein’s death kicked off a firestorm of angry reactions from the MAGA faithful. Infowars host Alex Jones, sometimes Trump adviser Laura Loomer and billionaire Elon Musk all criticized the Trump admin in the wake of the message, saying that the president had gone back on his promises to release the information.
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Trump waved off the outrage the next day, wondering why anyone would care about the dead sex criminal and his potential associates.
“Are you still talking about Jeffery Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “We have Texas, we have this – we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable.”