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Vice President JD Vance declared Monday that President Trump “has nothing to hide” regarding Jeffrey Epstein, while criticizing former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama for what he described as inadequate investigations into the disgraced financier.
“The president has been very clear. We’re not shielding anything,” Vance told reporters at an event in Canton, Ohio, promoting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“The president has directed the attorney general to release all credible information and, frankly, to go and find additional credible information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case,” he continued. “He’s been incredibly transparent about that stuff. But some of that stuff takes time.”
Vance, echoing other administration officials, emphasized the importance of protecting the identities of victims in any further disclosures about Epstein, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Before taking office, Vance had voiced concerns that the government wasn’t being forthcoming about Epstein or his alleged network.
“For 20 years, you had Obama and George W. Bush’s Department of Justice go easy on this guy. They didn’t fully investigate the case,” he said. “They didn’t show any curiosity about the case, and now Donald J. Trump is asking his Department of Justice to show full transparency.”
“If you want to criticize the people who aren’t showing full transparency, you ought to go after the administrations that went easy on Jeffrey Epstein, the administrations that concealed this case for 20 years, and the administrations that failed to show full transparency.”
In 2007, then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta negotiated a plea deal with Epstein, allowing him to plead guilty to Florida state charges of solicitation and procuring a minor for prostitution. Epstein served only 13 months, much of it on work release.
Acosta was later appointed Labor Secretary by Trump at the start of his first term but stepped down in July 2019, shortly after Epstein’s arrest, amid renewed scrutiny of the 2007 plea arrangement.
“Donald J. Trump, I’m telling you, he’s got nothing to hide,” Vance said. “His administration has got nothing to hide, and that’s why he’s been an advocate for full transparency in this case.”
Trump has come under fire following the release of a Justice Department and FBI memo on July 6 — six years after Epstein’s last arrest — which concluded Epstein died by suicide and did not keep a “client list” of powerful individuals alleged to have had sex with underage girls, contradicting persistent public speculation.
The president has criticized some of his own supporters for embracing what he referred to as the “Jeffrey Epstein hoax” and has accused Democrats of making politically motivated claims about the case.
Last week, a federal judge in Florida rejected a DOJ request to release grand jury transcripts from the investigation that led to Epstein’s 2007 plea deal.
Meanwhile, in Tallahassee, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate, was interviewed for two days by Justice Department officials, including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
