White House Walks Back Trump’s Support for Appointment of Special Counsel in the Epstein Case

The White House on Thursday walked back President Trump’s reported support for the appointment of a special prosecutor in the case of Jeffrey Epstein. Some of the president’s closest allies both on Capitol Hill and far removed from the nation’s capital have been demanding answers for more than a week now. Mr. Trump has personally been pushing back aggressively against those supporters who want more information about the so-called Epstein files, including the deceased pedophile’s list of contacts and supposed clients. In a Truth Social post on Wednesday morning, the president said his backers were being “conned” into believing the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”“I don’t want their support anymore!” the president wrote of those who are asking for the files to be released. That same day, the president reportedly agreed that a special prosecutor in the case would be a fine solution. During an interview with a conservative journalist, John Solomon, on Wednesday, the president said he would back such a move. “I think they could look at all of it. It’s all the same scam,” Mr. Trump said when asked about the FBI opening a probe into allegations that the government has been weaponized against conservatives. “They could look at this Jeffrey Epstein hoax also, because that’s the same stuff that’s all put out by Democrats.”“I think all they have to do is put out anything credible,” Mr. Trump said. The president was more muted later in the day on Wednesday. When asked by a reporter if he would back a special prosecutor for the Epstein case, Mr. Trump simply said, “I have nothing to do with it.”On Thursday, however, the White House made clear that Mr. Trump would not support the appointment of any investigator to take a deep dive into the Epstein saga. “The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case. That’s how he feels, and as for his discussions with the attorney general, I’m not sure,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing on Thursday when asked if the president supported the appointment or if he had talked to Attorney General Bondi about such a move. Just in recent days, some of the president’s most ardent supporters on Capitol Hill have rallied to support a resolution from Congressman Thomas Massie that would force Ms. Bondi to release the files. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, and Congressman Eli Crane are among the Freedom Caucus members now backing the resolution. Most notably, a former aide to the president who now serves in the House signed on to the resolution on Thursday. Congressman Max Miller worked for Mr. Trump during the president’s 2016 campaign and his first term in the White House before being elected to Congress in 2022. Mr. Massie said Thursday that Mr. Miller had agreed to co-sponsor the resolution, which is expected to come up for a vote shortly after the August recess ends in early September. Ms. Leavitt was peppered with questions about the Epstein saga during her briefing on Thursday, though she dodged most of them, saying that Mr. Trump was ready to move on. She was asked about Speaker Johnson saying he was in favor of “transparency” during an interview earlier in the week. Ms. Leavitt said it was a non-issue. “I won’t discuss the president’s private conversations,” Ms. Leavitt said when asked if Mr. Trump had spoken to Mr. Johnson. The press secretary also said that some of the Epstein files were beyond the president’s control, and he could not release them even if he wanted to. “In terms of redactions and grand jury seals, those are questions for the Department of Justice. Those are also questions for the judges who have that information under a seal, and that would have to be requested and a judge would have to approve it,” she said. “That’s out of the president’s control.”

White House Walks Back Trump’s Support for Appointment of Special Counsel in the Epstein Case

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