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House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Thursday that President Trump “was an FBI informant” who worked to bring down Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.
Johnson was pressed by CNN’s Manu Raju about Trump calling the Epstein files a “hoax.” He explained that Trump was only referring to “the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him,” not the “terrible, unspeakable evil” of Epstein’s crimes.
Trump has argued the case is being twisted for political purposes. “It’s perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats work,” Trump said. He has also dismissed claims that more is being hidden as “bullsh*t,” condemning Republicans for buying into the “Jeffrey Epstein hoax.”
Johnson defended Trump, saying: “What he’s talking about is the Democrats who are doing this with impure motives. If they cared so much about this, why didn’t they do something during the four years of the Biden administration when the Biden DOJ had all the records. They think it’s going to somehow be mud thrown on him. It’s not. He has no culpability in this thing at all. The President has clean hands. He wants all the records out.”
Johnson further insisted: “He has never said or suggested or implied— I’ve talked to him about this many times. He is horrified. It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.”
When asked if Trump should meet with victims, Johnson replied: “I suspect he probably will. Yeah, he has great compassion for them. The President has a very compassionate heart. He hates the fact that these women suffered those wrongs. He hates what Epstein is accused of and who he was.”
This comes after Epstein victims held a Capitol Hill press conference on Wednesday demanding the Department of Justice release all Epstein files, as lawmakers push legislation to force their disclosure.
At the event, victim attorney Brad Edwards said Trump assisted him in 2009. “He helped me. He got on the phone. He told me things that were helping our investigation,” Edwards said. He added: “I can tell you that I talked to… President Trump back in 2009 and several times after that. He didn’t think that it was a hoax then. In fact, he helped me. Now, our investigation wasn’t looking into him, but he was helping us then.”
Edwards expressed frustration with Trump’s current stance: “This about face that occurred, none of us understand it. How do you not stand behind these women after you’ve heard their stories and know that hundreds of them were abused, and it was only because files are being kept in secrecy.”
Separately, one victim mentioned Trump during the press conference, but none claimed to have seen him with Epstein. Chauntee Davies said Epstein “bragged” about having “powerful friends,” including Trump, but did not place Trump at any trips or encounters. She did note, however, that she traveled to Africa with Bill Clinton while being abused and “manipulated” by Epstein.
Would you like me to shorten this into a tighter news-style summary version (around 3–5 paragraphs), or keep it as this longer detailed rephrasing?
