Carlson: Bondi ‘made up a bunch of ludicrous' Epstein files claims
In the NBC News interview published Monday, Carlson said he doesn't believe the Department of Justice (DOJ) has 'much relevant information about Jeffrey Epstein's sex crimes' that would satisfy those who have long called for the release of 'Epstein files.'
'Rather than just admit that, Pam Bondi made a bunch of ludicrous claims on cable news shows that she couldn't back up, and this current outrage is the result,' Carlson told the outlet.
Bondi has faced intense backlash after acknowledging last week that there was no 'client list' connected to Epstein's alleged sex trafficking of minors and no evidence to suggest he didn't die by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges.
President Trump has repeatedly defended Bondi and urged his supporters to move on from the Epstein case, but pressure has continued to mount among the president's base to fire the former Florida attorney general.
Bondi said in a February Fox News interview that an Epstein client list was on her desk to be reviewed and alleged that the DOJ had obtained hours of video related to the case. The White House in March invited 15 far-right influencers to an event, where they received white binders labeled 'The Epstein Files: Phase 1,' but the display drew immediate backlash because the documents provided were already publicly available.
Bondi later claimed in another TV interview that she was duped into thinking she had all the files related to the government's Epstein investigations and was seeking additional documents after hearing from an alleged 'whistleblower.'
Bondi said last week that she was initially referring to documents related to the Epstein case — not a specific 'client list,' and the footage she had mentioned was child sex abuse material that would not be released to the public. She said there was nothing else to be released from the case.
Trump posted on Truth Social over the weekend that Bondi is doing a 'FANTASTIC JOB!'
'We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening,' he wrote. 'We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Trump survived many scandals, but the Epstein story poses a new test
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up But Epstein clearly has posed a problem for the White House. At minimum, it has been a distraction at a time when Trump wants to tout his legislative victories. If it continues to grab public attention, it could pose a more significant threat at a time when Trump's standing with the public already has been on the decline, though polling shows him steady with his own party. Advertisement Trump lashed out at the Journal's story after it was published, threatening to sue both the newspaper and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, who has been an important, although inconstant, political ally. The next day, he filed a libel lawsuit in federal court in southern Florida, alleging the article defamed him. Advertisement Trump's handling of concerns related to Epstein, the wealthy child sex predator who died in jail in 2019, recently provoked a rare eruption among the president's most loyal supporters, prompting MAGA leaders to caution that some in Trump's base could become disillusioned enough to sit out the midterm elections. Many Americans believe the U.S. government has hidden information on possible associates of Epstein who may also have committed sex crimes against minors. Some have questioned the official ruling that Epstein's death was a suicide. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted Tuesday and Wednesday found 60 percent of Americans think the 'government is hiding details about Epstein's death,' including 55 percent of Republicans. And 69 percent said the federal government is hiding details about Epstein's clients, including 62 percent of Republicans. The belief that others took part in Epstein's abuse of minors was especially prominent among some of the president's strongest supporters, who believed Trump would expose the corruption upon retaking office. The Justice Department's announcement this month that there were no more files from Epstein's case that warranted release caused intense anger among those people and among some MAGA influencers. At least among prominent MAGA figures, however, the Journal article has triggered a now-familiar reaction - causing Trump's fractured base to quickly rally around him as a victim. That has quieted much of the recent MAGA frustration. At least for now. 'This is primarily a within-MAGA problem,' Whit Ayres, a longtime Republican pollster, said of the Epstein situation. 'The vast majority of Americans don't spend every waking moment wondering what happened to Epstein.' Advertisement The other group of Americans among whom the Epstein case could pose a problem for Trump, however, are the less-partisan, more disengaged, occasional voters among whom Trump did extremely well during the 2024 campaign. Even before the Epstein case, Trump had been losing ground among such voters. A characteristic quality of such voters is disaffection from the political system and suspicion that it favors the wealthy and well connected. The Epstein case plays into those voters' existing feelings and could cause some who have supported Trump to lose faith in him. Democrats have tried to capitalize on that, seizing on the issue and calling for the Trump administration to release files about the Epstein case. At least so far, however, not many voters have been closely tuned in to news about the case, although online search traffic has increased sharply in recent days. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted over the past week found that a relatively small share of voters, 2 in 10, said they were following news about the Epstein files 'very closely.' Top right-wing commentators over the past week issued negative predictions, some dire, about Republicans losing down-ballot seats in next year's midterm elections. Some longtime MAGA supporters felt betrayed that Trump was not sufficiently going after the so-called Deep State, they warned, while other newcomers to the movement, including young men who were not previously politically active, would simply be disenchanted and not bother to show up again to the polls. By the end of the week, most of those warnings from prominent Trump supporters had quieted, replaced by solidarity behind the president. Among those recently sounding the alarm was Stephen K. Bannon, Trump's former adviser who hosts a daily talk show popular with Trump's MAGA supporters. Bannon and other prominent right-wing commentators Friday were still calling for the administration to release more files on Epstein, and to appoint a special counsel - which the White House has said Trump will not do. But they directed their chief ire at a familiar enemy: the news media. Advertisement This time, it was toward Murdoch, the owner of the Wall Street Journal and a number of other conservative-leaning news outlets, including Fox News. Bannon has long argued that Murdoch, despite his conservative credentials, was out to take down Trump politically. 'MAGA is now united, because they can see there's a common enemy. They see exactly what the reality is - it's the Deep State, with their media partners, led by Murdoch, that's out to destroy Trump,' Bannon told The Washington Post, framing the saga as a conspiracy against the president, rather than about the White House's decision-making on Epstein. 'And that's been obvious from the beginning.' Prominent conservatives were quick to mock the allegations raised against Trump, posting their own stick-figure drawings of women as a nod to the Journal's reporting that Trump's 50th birthday card to Epstein included an apparent hand-drawn outline of a naked woman. Trump allies - and even one recent high-profile enemy, Elon Musk - also quickly dismissed the alleged text included in the card, saying it did not sound like something Trump would write. Trump and his White House advisers have expressed annoyance for much of the past two weeks at the continued focus on Epstein. Fresh off a July 4 signing of Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' which the White House has touted as the fulfillment of some of Trump's campaign promises, the president and his team have wanted to talk about anything else. Advertisement 'I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country's history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,' Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier in the week. By Thursday night, that aggravation had turned to anger, with Trump vowing to sue Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal over the reporting on a letter he said was 'fake.' While Trump and his administration have insisted that the general public is not concerned about Epstein or their review of documents related to him, recent polling shows that voters across the spectrum question his handling of the case. The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 54 percent of Americans disapproved of how Trump was handling the issue, while just 17 percent approved. Republicans were split on Trump's handling of the issue, with 35 percent approving, 30 percent disapproving and 35 percent unsure or not answering the question. 'President Trump is the proud leader of the MAGA movement and currently has record-high support among Republicans,' White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement, adding that Trump is 'quickly delivering' on promises, and describing America as 'the hottest country ever as a result.' White House officials in recent days have repeatedly touted a recent CNN poll that shows Trump's approval rating notching up slightly among Republicans. The same survey, however, shows just over 60 percent of all voters opposing Trump's new spending bill. 'I don't know that he's worried about the general electorate at all at this point,' Ayres said, adding that the latest news story about Trump and Epstein seems to help Trump with his base, 'because it creates a typical enemy.' Advertisement 'But it doesn't resolve the fundamental issue of the Epstein files,' Ayres continued, 'and what they will or will not release to the public.' - - - Emily Guskin and Scott Clement contributed to this report.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
The British editor who revealed Trump's Epstein letter
On Tuesday afternoon, as her newspaper prepared to publish details of a bawdy birthday card Donald Trump allegedly wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, Emma Tucker's phone rang. It was the US president, dialling in from Air Force One to have a word with the British editor of the Wall Street Journal. Earlier that day Mr Trump had been announcing an AI investment package in Pittsburgh. Now he was irate, demanding the 'fake' story was pulled and threatening to sue if Ms Tucker did not yield. His efforts were in vain. On Thursday night, the newspaper published details of a message said to be signed off with a drawing of a nude woman. Mr Trump had used his signature to represent pubic hair, it is alleged. The report was certainly salacious; it sparked further questions about Mr Trump's relationship with the paedophile financier. It helped fan the flames of arguably the biggest crisis of Mr Trump's presidency so far, the growing demand for his administration to release the full so-called Epstein files. But it also brought Mr Trump into open conflict with one of the world's most powerful media moguls, the Wall Street Journal owner Rupert Murdoch. The call between Ms Tucker and Mr Trump was tense, The Telegraph understands. After the story was published, Mr Trump fired off a lengthy denial on Truth Social, his own media platform. The 79-year-old accused Ms Tucker of running a 'false, malicious, and defamatory story' and filed a $10bn lawsuit against the WSJ, naming Mr Murdoch and the reporters who wrote the story as defendants. Holding her nerve has earned Ms Tucker the wrath of the US president and many of his loyal followers. But the Epstein story is the type of reporting Ms Tucker made a name for on Fleet Street – and now the US – those close to her say. For months, Mr Trump has been angered by the WSJ's coverage of his policies as the newspaper has continued to refuse to shy away from criticising his policies. While NewsCorp's media outlets, the New York Post and Fox News, often portray the president in a positive light, the WSJ has not attempted to curry favour with the White House. Media executives such as Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have appeared to try and appease the US president, but the WSJ has stood out for critical pieces, at times skewering his policies. In May, when a reporter from the newspaper attempted to ask Mr Trump a question on Air Force One, he denounced the paper as 'rotten' and as having 'truly gone to hell'. However, the WSJ has maintained its influence. Last month, JD Vance, the vice-president, travelled to Mr Murdoch's Montana ranch to speak to the media mogul, his son Lachlan and other Fox News executives. Ms Tucker, 58, was selected by Mr Murdoch as the newspaper's first female editor-in-chief, replacing Matt Murray in February 2023 in a bid to shake up the publication. Born in London in 1966, she grew up in Lewes, Sussex, before going to study Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at University College, Oxford, where she edited the university magazine Isis. After joining the graduate trainee programme at the Financial Times, where she met her close friend Rachel Johnson, Boris Johnson's sister, she went on to work in the newspaper's Berlin and Brussels bureaus. In 2020, she became the first female editor of The Sunday Times in more than a century. Ex-colleagues describe her as tenacious. Asked about the run-in with Mr Trump, John Witherow, the former editor of The Times, told The Telegraph of his former deputy: 'I know she's tough.' Within weeks of arriving at the WSJ, Ms Tucker demonstrated her determination to back her reporters in the campaign to release WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich, who had been detained in Russia. But while she received praise for her campaign for Mr Gershkovich's release, her arrival was not welcomed by everyone. Many staff were abhorred by job cuts, restructuring and a push to digital-first to attempt to bring an edginess back to the publication. Last year, more than 100 journalists staged a protest against the changes, covering the walls of her office in Post-it notes with comments such as 'the cuts are killing morale'. Ms Tucker told Vanity Fair that while the cuts 'may look callous, it's so that we get it right, so I don't have to do it over again.' She has also come under fire for coverage from both sides of the political aisle. The WSJ was the first newspaper to report on Joe Biden's mental fitness, journalism that was denounced by some left-leaning publications at the time. She also clashed with Mr Murdoch, with reports suggesting he was 'livid' with her after the WSJ described a newsletter launched by a former CNN reporter as a 'must-read'. Ms Tucker has also been outspoken about standing up to the Trump administration. Responding to claims by the CEO of Elon Musk's X that her newspaper had run a fake news story about the platform, she said: 'Many of the stories we publish do upset political leaders or CEOs, but we can't, you know, we have to be thinking about the validity of the story.' Ms Tucker will now likely face Mr Trump in court in some form as her paper defends the $10bn lawsuit. Whether full details of the alleged birthday card will come to light is not yet clear. Unlike the two reporters who brought her the story, and Mr Murdoch she is not named in Mr Trump's legal action. Since parts of the letter were published on Thursday, the Trump administration has already promised to release more transcripts from the investigations into Epstein. But the scandal shows little sign of going away. The release of the grand jury documents may fall short of what many of Mr Trump's supporters have sought. On Sunday, one of Epstein's former attorneys called on the US Justice Department to release additional investigative records from its sex-trafficking investigation, and urged the government to grant Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein's former girlfriend and former British socialite – immunity so that she can testify about his crimes. In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Alan Dershowitz said the grand jury transcripts that Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday asked a federal judge to unseal would not contain the types of information being sought by Mr Trump's supporters, such as the names of Epstein's clientele. 'I think the judge should release it, but they are not in the grand jury transcripts,' Dershowitz said on the programme. 'I've seen some of these materials. For example, there is an FBI report of interviews with alleged victims in which at least one of the victims names very important people,' he said, adding that those names have been redacted.
CNN
4 hours ago
- CNN
Analysis: This week's big questions: Can Trump finally quell the Epstein storm — and is it hurting his presidency?
Even President Donald Trump doesn't seem to think his angry and chaotic efforts to end the renewed storm over convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will work. He warned in a weekend social media post that 'nothing will be good enough' to satisfy what he claims are leftists and troublemakers fanning the uproar. In reality, however, the controversy was heightened by Trump's defensive outbursts following his aides' clumsy efforts to quell conspiracies they fueled before the 2024 election over Epstein's death in prison and a supposed celebrity client list. But Trump's Truth Social post raises important questions. Will the intrigue, which differs from most of his political tangles since it set the president against his own base, be accelerated by new revelations, including curiosity over Trump's past ties to Epstein, an accused sex trafficker? Or, after two weeks of internal recriminations, will the MAGA movement unite to protect its patron following a Wall Street Journal report Thursday on Trump and Epstein, which the president used to set up his trademark assault on 'fake news'? Trump did everything he could to ignite new political fires Sunday to distract attention from the Epstein saga. He demanded that the NFL's Washington Commanders play again as the Redskins and blasted Obama administration officials over intelligence findings that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help him. But the Epstein matter has so far created its own momentum and defied his efforts to quiet it. It's rather curious in this sense, since it seems less pertinent to the lives of millions of Americans than the impact of Trump's radical policy moves and power grabs, which have repeatedly tested the Constitution and risked harming the economy. But scandals that boil away and don't fade are always a dangerous sign for White Houses, even when the president has a Teflon hide as thick as Trump's. One reason this controversy has legs is that its foundations are part of the MAGA philosophy — the idea that hidden elites in the intelligence agencies and government are running an American 'deep state' that hides the truth about issues like child sex trafficking. Declarations by Trump officials who fomented the conspiracy that there is nothing to it seemed only to validate the concerns of committed conspiracists in the movement. The uproar showed no sign of passing at the weekend, frustrating Trump's efforts to highlight the success of his first six months in power, which he has used to gut parts of the federal government and to send a jolt of social change through American life. Democrats launched a new push to discomfit Trump, parroting demands by some MAGA activists for total transparency over the Epstein case as they try to finally find some traction against a president who has obliterated opposition in Washington. 'The president blaming Democrats for this disaster … is like that CEO that got caught on camera blaming Coldplay,' Sen Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, told CNN's Jake Tapper on 'State of the Union' on Sunday. 'This is his making: He was president when Epstein got indicted for these charges and went to prison. He was president back then. So all of us would believe they know what's in these documents. They know what's there. They have been claiming forever that they should be released.' The administration's missteps might give Democrats an opening, especially since Trump's approval ratings are now in the low 40s and there is growing public concern over his signature hardline deportation policies. A new CNN/SSRS poll Sunday showed that 55% of Americans think Trump has gone too far with his deportations. But despite fierce internal bickering in the MAGA movement, it's doubtful Epstein is a deal-breaker for most of the president's supporters. A CBS News poll Sunday showed GOP voters evenly split over the Trump administration's handling of the matter. A majority of MAGA Republicans said they were satisfied; only 36% of all voters and 11% of Republicans said the issue matters 'a lot' when evaluating Trump's presidency. But if the public feels this way, why won't the storm abate? GOP officeholders are still having a tough time navigating Epstein questions, a sign perhaps that the political impact might be greater than initially expected. Closing ranks around Trump, they are now trying to create a classic GOP vs. Democrats fight that might further confuse and polarize the public. Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett recalled that Democrats had blocked GOP attempts to release all information on the case when they held power in the Senate. 'Where the heck was she the last four years?' Burchett asked, also on 'State of the Union,' in a reference to Klobuchar. Trump's hopes of dampening the furor may depend partly on matters out of his control. But if he simply stopped talking about it, it might help. His frequent outbursts and claims that nobody cares about Epstein could be just Trump being Trump. But they also offered an opening for critics to suggest he's got something to hide. And the weekend brought several media accounts detailing the past relationship between Trump and Epstein — two tabloid fixtures in New York whose association was no secret early in the 21st century. No law enforcement authorities have ever accused Trump of wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. But more revelations of their past contacts could enliven public interest and frustrate the president's attempts to change the subject. That does not mean that Trump necessarily did anything wrong, or that anything occurred that could hurt him politically now. It's still not clear whether this is a controversy that could impose a real cost on a presidency or something that could blow over in a couple of weeks. Still, a Wall Street Journal report last week about a collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, including a note bearing Trump's name and an outline of a naked woman, is reverberating. CNN has not independently confirmed the report, and the president and his lawyers said the letter supposedly sent by Trump was a fake. Trump has filed a $20 billion libel suit against the paper. But the spectacle of a court battle between the president and The Journal's owner, Rupert Murdoch — a clash between two of the most influential and powerful titans of the conservative movement — is guaranteed to electrify public attention over the Epstein case. But comments by MAGA influencers such as Steve Bannon suggested that a fight between Trump and a paper seen as a pillar of the old right-wing establishment could heal splits in the movement. And Trump is an expert at weaponizing attacks against him to galvanize supporters. Consider how he turned his four criminal indictments into the most famous political comeback in history. There are other aspects of the uproar that make an accurate assessment of its long-term impact impossible. Outsiders can't know for sure whether the Trump Justice Department and FBI leadership are being truthful about the findings of their review of the Epstein case. In a memo that dismayed much of the MAGA media machine, both agencies said there was no incriminating client list, nor evidence that the accused blackmailed prominent individuals. They stood by findings that Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019. Most Washington scandals explode because of a cover-up or political malpractice. There's no public evidence at this stage of the former. But there's plenty to support the idea that this is a political disaster the administration brought upon itself. Attorney General Pam Bondi, for instance, implied earlier this year that she had details of Epstein's client list on her desk, raising expectations among activist MAGA members of bombshell disclosures. Bondi has proved herself a valuable Trump lieutenant, notably in showing the kind of ultimate loyalty to the president and his political cause that many modern attorneys general have preferred to avoid in the interests of the fair administration of justice. But her handling of the Epstein case has been accident-prone and exposed Trump to political risks. If he comes looking for a culprit, her political foundation could quickly erode. As an example of her eagerness to please Trump, Bondi and her team sprang into action quickly last week when the president demanded the release of grand jury testimony from the Epstein prosecution. But even if the judge quickly allows this — which seems unlikely — there's no guarantee it would satisfy the demands for more transparency from Trump's base, and much material would remain under seal. The MAGA meltdown has also presented other members of the administration with tricky political considerations. Vice President JD Vance spent years calling for more transparency on the Epstein files before becoming Trump's running mate. But he was quick to blast the Wall Street Journal report with a profanity on X last week. For now, Vance's political fate rests in Trump's hands. But no Republican who wants to run for president in future can risk being seen as a member of the Beltway 'deep state.' Trump made multiple attempts to change the subject over the weekend. He repeatedly highlighted another conspiracy theory — given life by his director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — that the Obama administration committed treasonous acts when the spy agencies warned of a Russian attempt to influence the 2016 election. Later Sunday, Trump shared an apparent AI-generated video depicting former President Barack Obama being arrested by FBI agents and jailed in an orange jumpsuit, overlaid to a soundtrack of Trump's campaign anthem 'Y.M.C.A.' And the president warned that he'd thwart a plan for the Commanders to return to the District of Columbia in a new stadium unless they changed their team name. The franchise decided in 2022 after years of pressure from Native American groups to rebrand amid concerns their original name was offensive. Trump also called for baseball's Cleveland Guardians to reclaim their identity as the 'Cleveland Indians' in a characteristic attempt to stoke culture-war controversy to fire up his base and steal oxygen from other issues. This might work for him again. But the fact he's delving into his classic tricks of political distraction is a telling sign he still doesn't know how to end the Epstein morass.
