I never knew this.
Speaker Mike Johnson told a reporter on Friday that President Trump was an FBI informant in relation to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s illegal activities.
Johnson shared that when Trump heard about Epstein’s crimes, he told the FBI everything he knew about Epstein.
The Daily Mail provided more context behind Johnson’s remarks:
House Speaker Mike Johnson has revealed that President Donald Trump was once an ‘FBI informant’ in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s illegal activities.
Johnson made the stunning comments in the halls of Congress on Friday after being pressed by CNN’s Manu Raju about Trump routinely calling the Epstein files controversy a Democrat-invented ‘hoax’.
‘What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him,’ Johnson said. ‘I’ve talked to him about this many times, 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,’ added Johnson, which now raises new questions about Trump’s relationship with Epstein.
As recently as Wednesday, Trump called Epstein scandal a ‘hoax’ after the Department of Justice insisted in July that there was no client list.
‘This is a Democrat hoax that never ends,’ Trump told reporters at the White House.
‘From what I understand, I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,’ he continued.
Watch the moment Johnson said it here:
ABC 7 reported the latest update on what Congress is doing to release more of the Epstein files:
Massie is using a maneuver known as a discharge petition to attempt to force a floor vote on his legislation. For the effort to succeed, he will need 218 signatures. If all Democrats sign the petition, only six Republicans would need to add their names.
So far, four Republicans have signed on. In addition to Massie, they are: Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina. Greene is, notably, a fervent supporter and key ally of Trump’s on Capitol Hill.
But the petition appears to have lost a bit of momentum. Multiple House Republicans who were initially supportive of Massie’s legislation said this week they wouldn’t sign his petition, citing the release of over 30,000 Epstein-related documents by the Oversight Committee.
Johnson and the White House have also urged Republicans to not sign the petition. One White House official previously told CNN that helping Massie and Democrats with their petition would “be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration.”
If Massie gets his 218 signatures, he needs to wait at least seven legislative days before bringing the bill to the floor. House leaders can also take up to two legislative days before they put it to a vote.
Even if Massie’s bill clears the House, there’s no guarantee it would get a vote in the Senate. Majority Leader John Thune told CNN on Thursday he did not think the chamber needs to pass the legislation, citing the Justice Department’s release of thousands of pages related to the case.
Asked whether the Senate should vote on a bill that may get a vote in the House over the objections of GOP leaders through a discharge petition or a bill introduced by Democrats in the Senate, the Republican leader said he was “not sure what that achieves.”
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department in August for the full set of Epstein files and is receiving them on a rolling basis. The panel, which released over 30,000 pages this week, plans to publish more documents going forward.
The panel has also issued several other subpoenas in its investigation, including one to Epstein’s estate last month for the financier’s “birthday book” – a reported collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday that included a note bearing Trump’s name. Trump has repeatedly denied writing a letter for Epstein’s so-called birthday book and sued The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on it, for defamation.
The estate is expected to begin producing materials on September 8, but that production is expected to have redactions, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
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