House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday attempted to clean up earlier remarks he made claiming that President Donald Trump had been an “FBI informant” in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
“What I was referring to in that long conversation was what the (Epstein) victims’ attorney said,” Johnson told reporters. “More than a decade ago, President Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, and he was one of the only people, one of the only prominent people, as everyone has reported … that he was willing to help law enforcement go after this guy who was a disgusting child abuser, sex trafficker, all the allegations. That’s what they heard. So the president was helpful in that.”
The speaker added: “I don’t know if I used the right terminology, but that’s common knowledge, and everybody knows that. So this is much ado about nothing.”
Some had seized on Johnson’s comments on social media, seeking to paint Trump as a hero in relation to the case that has seen heightened national political furor in recent weeks.
Pressed by CNN Monday on whether Trump had specifically told him about any involvement with law enforcement’s investigation of the late convicted sex offender, Johnson said he was “recounting what others have said” but that he and the president have spoken about “the Epstein evils many times.”
Johnson, when asked, said he had no information about whether Trump had ever been asked to wear a wire.
“I was repeating what has been common knowledge for a long time. The president was helpful in trying to get Epstein for the law enforcement to go after Epstein. That’s always been my understanding. That’s common knowledge. It’s the public’s understanding. I didn’t — I was not breaking news there, OK? What I’m trying to emphasize is that the president is as disgusted about this as everyone is.”
Speaking with reporters at the Capitol last week, Johnson defended the president’s handling of the Epstein files and said he helped law enforcement in the case.
“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. The president knows and has great sympathy for the women who have suffered these unspeakable harms.”
Asked at the time to clarify the comment, a spokesman for the speaker’s office said in a statement that Johnson was “reiterating what the victims’ attorney said, which is that Donald Trump — who kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago — was the only one more than a decade ago willing to help prosecutors expose Epstein for being a disgusting child predator.”
The White House declined to comment on the matter.
Brad Edwards, a lawyer for numerous Epstein abuse victims, implored the president last week to back survivors’ push for transparency around the case, saying Trump had helped him with his investigation of the case in 2009.
At the time, Trump was not in public office and Epstein had just been sentenced to 18 months in a minimum-security prison for his crimes with minors as part of a plea deal that has since faced significant criticism for being too lenient.
“Back in 2009 and several times after that, he didn’t think that it was a hoax then. In fact, he helped me. He got on the phone, he told me things that were helping our investigation. Our investigation wasn’t looking into him, but he was helping us then,” Edwards said.
“So at this point in time, I would hope that he would revert back to what he was saying to get elected, which is, ‘I want transparency.’ This about face that occurred, none of us understand it,” he continued
Johnson on Monday indicated that House Oversight Chairman James Comer and committee members were planning to visit the Epstein estate in Florida to view visitor logs as part of their probe into the case.
As CNN has reported, a bipartisan group of House Oversight staffers are expected to travel to New York City this week to meet with lawyers representing Epstein’s estate to view unredacted documents related to the case.
