Latest news with #EpsteinScandal
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Everything you need to know about the Epstein scandal and why Trump can't escape it
He's accepted a $400 million plane from Qatar as a gift, launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and suffered dozens of defeats in court. But the biggest controversy of Donald Trump's presidency, so far, has turned out to be his decade-and-a-half relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Mr Trump's friendship with Epstein is well known, but it didn't prove a real issue until his administration declined to release any more of the documents it holds on the paedophile financier. Now the US president is being questioned by reporters on his former friend at every opportunity, while the justice department is being consumed by the story and the infighting of senior figures looking to shift the blame. It has even threatened to peel away Mr Trump's ever-loyal Maga base, when nothing else would. At the same time, other figures have been sucked into the scandal, including Bill Clinton, the former president who rode on Epstein's private jet, and Lord Mandelson, the British ambassador to the US who holidayed with him. Here, The Telegraph rounds up everything you need to know about the Epstein scandal – and why Mr Trump can't escape it. Maga Prominent voices in Mr Trump's Maga movement have spent years playing into conspiracy theories that Epstein did not kill himself in 2019, and was silenced by 'clients' who feared he would expose their part in sex trafficking. Kash Patel, director of the FBI, and Dan Bongino, his deputy, have appeared on several podcasts suggesting the paedophile was silenced by a 'deep state' of shadowy government figures. And Pam Bondi, the attorney general, claimed in February she had Epstein's client list 'sitting on my desk right now to review'. So when the justice department and FBI concluded this month that Epstein did not maintain a client list, killed himself in prison, and that there was no compelling reason to produce more documents, the Maga movement erupted. 'Pam Bondi fed a monster,' said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist who worked for the first Trump administration. 'And now there's a chance that the monster eats her.' Mr Trump has been increasingly drawn into a row his law enforcement lieutenants have been unable to contain and is now under pressure from his own supporters to release the full Epstein files. So far he has downplayed it as a 'hoax', urged the media to focus on figures like Mr Clinton and sought, unsuccessfully, to convince a court to release the grand jury transcripts from Epstein's 2019 case. Nevertheless, prominent Maga voices are sounding the alarm. Laura Loomer, the prominent Right-wing activist, has pushed back at the notion of an Epstein cover-up as a hoax and urged Mr Trump to appoint a special counsel to ensure complete transparency over the files, as has Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist. Birthday letter Though Mr Trump appears to have broken off his relationship with Epstein more than two decades ago, more details are still coming to light. Notably, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Trump, like Mr Clinton, had sent a birthday letter to the financier in 2003 when he turned 50, which was compiled into a leather-bound album by Ghislaine Maxwell. In the letter, which featured a drawing of a nude woman in permanent marker with his signature, Mr Trump reportedly told his then-friend they had 'certain things in common', 'enigmas never age', and ended with the words: 'May every day be a wonderful secret'. Mr Trump has fiercely denied writing or sending the letter, and has launched a defamation claim against the newspaper. Subsequent reports have said dozens of people also provided well-wishes, poems and photographs to the album, among them Lord Mandelson, the British ambassador to the US. The former cabinet minister, whom Epstein affectionately referred to as 'Petie', called the financier 'my best pal' in his birthday message, The Wall Street Journal reported. He is also said to have included a picture of a tropical island. The pair had previously holidayed in St Barts in the Caribbean, with Lord Mandelson photographed trying on a leather belt while they shopped together. A spokesman for the ambassador, who has previously said he regrets being introduced to Epstein by Maxwell, declined to comment. Bill Clinton Mr Trump is not the only US president who has been dragged into Epstein's orbit: Bill Clinton was also an associate of the financier. 'You ought to be speaking about Bill Clinton,' Mr Trump told reporters on Friday before departing for a trip to his Scottish golf courses, as he was questioned, once again, about Epstein. Mr Clinton spent nine days in Africa with the paedophile in 2002, a couple of years after he left office. They made the trip on Epstein's 'Lolita Express', accompanied by Maxwell and other figures. The following year, The Wall Street Journal reported the Democrat sent a message to Epstein on his 50th birthday in which he praised the paedophile's 'childlike curiosity'. A spokesman for Mr Clinton declined to comment to the newspaper. Mr Clinton has consistently denied any knowledge of the 'terrible crimes' committed by Epstein. 'I had always thought Epstein was odd but had no inkling of the crimes he was committing,' he wrote in his 2024 memoir, Citizen: My Life after the White House. On Wednesday, a House of Representatives committee voted to subpoena both Mr Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state. Should they testify, it will continue to keep the Epstein story in the headlines. Democrats The Democrats were shattered by their election defeats in November and the return of Mr Trump. Since January, their poll ratings have fallen further, with the party descending into factional fights and casting in vain for something to cut through with the electorate. With the Epstein files, they smell blood. Prominent Democrats are doing their best to make Mr Trump squirm over his association with the paedophile, and Ro Khanna and Robert Garcia, two congressmen, have approached the Epstein estate executors about getting hold of the alleged birthday album. Mr Khanna also led an attempt with Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman and regular thorn in Mr Trump's side, to schedule a vote to compel the administration to release the Epstein files. That attempt faltered when Mike Johnson, the House of Representatives speaker, refused to schedule a vote, and Congress broke early for the summer recess. Not all of it is congressional manoeuvres, either. The party's governing body, the Democratic National Committee, has launched a series of attack ads on Right-wing YouTube channels urging Republican voters to hound their representatives over the documents. 'Call your representative. Demand they release the Epstein files,' one advert demands, over a clip of Mr Trump dancing with Epstein in the 1990s. Mid-terms Republicans in Congress are wary of a mauling in the mid-terms next year over the president's refusal to produce the Epstein files. One congressional aide told The Telegraph their boss was coming under extreme pressure from voters, saying: 'When you don't release information and do this cover up, you essentially fuel conspiracy theories and misinformation.' Mr Johnson appears to have tried to have it both ways, treading a fine line between the voters he will need to maintain control of the House – and keep hold of his speaker's gavel – and Mr Trump. Perhaps the president's closest ally in Congress, he appeared to turn on him recently when he demanded the release of 'everything' the government was holding on Epstein. At the same time, he cut short the congressional session, thus avoiding a vote on releasing the documents, which would have forced representatives to choose between potentially angering their constituents or the president. Mr Johnson, who was accused of 'running away… to cover up for paedophiles' by Democrats, has denied the Epstein vote influenced his decision. Ghislaine Maxwell Epstein may have killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, but Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year prison sentence for procuring young girls for her former boyfriend, is still around. Mr Trump is likely to have met her in the late 1980s while moving in the same gilded circles of the New York elite, when she was acting as a social emissary for her father, Robert Maxwell, the late publishing titan and fraudster. During the 1990s and early 2000s, the pair were regularly photographed together, attending the same dinner parties and functions. On at least one occasion, the pair flew together on the 'Lolita Express', Epstein's private jet. 'Donald liked Epstein but he was crazy about Maxwell, a very charming lady,' Steven Hoffenberg, a former business associate of Epstein, told The Washington Post before his death in 2022. With the Trump administration under immense public scrutiny, Maxwell was questioned by Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general, on Thursday and Friday. She did not invoke her Fifth Amendment defence to avoid answering questions, her lawyer said, and her brother told The New York Post that she was assembling new evidence to present to the Trump administration. Critics have suggested Mr Trump is dangling a sentence reduction or pardon, he has not ruled one out, if Maxwell can shift the spotlight away from him and onto his political opponents.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
MAGA Senator Hit With Brutal Fact-Check Over Wild Epstein Claims
Republican lawmakers are doing everything they can to squash the Trump administration's Epstein scandal—even if their theories don't make sense. Speaking with CNN's The Source Thursday night, Senator Bernie Moreno claimed that 'the media and Democrats' were fueling the boiling pressure campaign to unveil the Epstein files. 'No matter how much is disclosed at this point, there's going to be a small segment of the population fueled primarily by the media and the Democrats that are never going to be satisfied with what's out there,' Moreno said. But a few outliers immediately came to mind for host Kaitlin Collins. 'Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer are not fueled by the media and Democrats,' Collins said. 'They would probably take offense to that.' Bannon has called for full public transparency on what Trump has derided as a Democrat-invented 'hoax.' (Bannon was reportedly paid to media train the deceased pedophile.) Loomer, meanwhile, effectively predicted the right's new-fangled spin on the scandal last week, which has so far involved cozying up to the pedophile's longtime girlfriend and imprisoned criminal associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, in a supposed 'pardon campaign.' 'I said a small population of Republicans,' Moreno said, laughing. 'Yeah, but that's the president's base,' Collins threw back. The Ohio Republican further insisted that Trump has 'never been more popular'—though recent polling indicates he's wrong on that point, too. A Quinnipiac poll published last week found that 63 percent of voters disapprove of the way that the Trump administration has handled the Epstein case, which has so far included the Justice Department backtracking on the existence of certain documents. There is mounting evidence that Trump and Epstein had a remarkably close relationship. The New York Times reported Thursday that Trump was named as a contributor on a birthday book for Epstein organized by Maxwell. The Times's story backed up the bombshell report from The Wall Street Journal last week, which unveiled a salacious letter that Trump had penned to his 'pal,' making reference to 'a wonderful secret.' The president has vehemently denied that he was ever close with Epstein.
CTV News
7 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
U.S. House Oversight Committee subpoenas Ghislaine Maxwell for deposition
House Oversight Chair James Comer has subpoenaed Jeffrey Epstein's former associate Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition. Maxwell is seen here in October 2016 in New York City. (Sylvain Gaboury//File via CNN Newsource) House Oversight Chair James Comer has subpoenaed Jeffrey Epstein's former associate Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition. The committee said in a release that the deposition will take place at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, on Aug. 11. 'The Department of Justice is cooperating and will help facilitate the deposition at the prison,' a statement from the committee said. Comer told CNN's Manu Raju on Tuesday that it was an open question whether his panel would begin a full-blown probe into the Epstein scandal, saying: 'We'll see what she has to say.' But he said that Republicans wanted more information released by the Justice Department regardless of where his panel's inquiry goes. The move to issue the subpoena comes as many congressional Republicans have called for more transparency over the Epstein case. This story is breaking and will be updated with additional information.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Declares War on Murdoch With $10B Lawsuit Over Epstein Exposé
President Donald Trump has declared war on Rupert Murdoch as MAGA rages over the Epstein scandal, suing the media mogul and saying he 'looks forward' to making him testify in court. The looming showdown between the president and his on-again, off-again ally comes roughly 24 hours after Murdoch's Wall Street Journal reported on a letter and drawing that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein two decades ago. The letter was given to Epstein for his 50th birthday and, according to The Wall Street Journal, contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman. 'We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,' Trump is alleged to have written on the gift. 'Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? … Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.' The revelations have infuriated the president, who announced that he had filed a $10 billion libel lawsuit against Murdoch on Friday afternoon, along with the Journal's publisher, Dow Jones & Co., and the two reporters who wrote the article in federal court for the Southern District of Florida. 'I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his 'pile of garbage' newspaper. That will be an interesting experience!!!' Trump wrote earlier. The lawsuit is the latest legal action Trump has taken against a media outlet. He has also sued ABC News, which agreed to pay $15 million to Trump's presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos' inaccurate on-air assertion that the president had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. This month, Paramount Global also agreed to pay $16 million to settle a legal dispute regarding an interview it broadcast on CBS with former Vice President Kamala Harris. Friday's lawsuit was the latest evidence of the complicated relationship between Trump and Murdoch, whose media outlets, such as Fox News, have propped up the president for years—even to the point of deluding its audience about the 2020 election. Trump's insistence that the election was stolen cost Murdoch $787.5 million in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems after Dominion accused Fox of rigging its voting machines to favor Joe Biden at the 2020 election. The messy court case ended up with Murdoch giving evidence under oath that Fox presenters had 'endorsed' Trump's lies of a stolen election knowing they weren't true. The Epstein saga could prove equally explosive and revelatory if it ends up in court, adding to what has already become a political headache for the president. MAGA anger over Epstein erupted after a Justice Department memo declared there was no evidence to suggest that Epstein was murdered, or that he had a 'client list'—something that many Trump supporters have long believed. Trump, who had come to office promising transparency over the Epstein files, has since tried to brand the issue as a Democratic hoax, and has become so frustrated that he accused 'past' supporters of buying into the 'bulls--t'. 'If you're trying to do crisis management, this is probably a textbook case of how not to do it,' said Professor Todd Belt, from the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management. 'Donald Trump gets frustrated and he loses his temper, but the people who have to answer for that are going to be the Republicans who are running for office next year. The longer this stays in the media, the bigger a problem it is.' The Wall Street Journal article has raised further questions about the president's relationship with Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving underage girls. Epstein's former girlfriend and associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was subsequently sentenced to 20 years in jail for helping Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls. The letter cited in the article was allegedly given to Epstein in 2003—five years before he was first convicted in Florida for sex crimes—and contained Trump's signature. But while Trump denies writing it, he was forced to abruptly reverse course and ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to 'produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval' regarding the Epstein case. Bondi responded immediately with a post that undercut the memo her department sent out declaring the case closed. 'President Trump—we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts,' she said on Thursday night. The motion was filed on Friday afternoon, but legal experts say getting the court's approval to release sensitive Grand Jury testimony is likely to be a long shot due to the longstanding secrecy surrounding them. This secrecy is intended to protect various interests, including the subject of the investigation and potential witnesses. 'It won't help him now,' said Trump critic and lawyer George Conway, the former husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. 'Because now everyone's going to ask, what's pertinent? What's all the other material not presented to a grand jury?'
The Guardian
19-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘The ghost of Epstein is haunting Trump's presidency': inside the ‘Maga' revolt
'I feel so betrayed and so angry. This is not what I voted for.' 'This cemented permanent deep state power.' 'I'm concerned about being able to trust Donald Trump to keep his word.' 'What about justice for these young ladies who were trafficked? What about their justice? Don't they deserve justice?' These were just a few of the calls that besieged conservative radio hosts across the US this week. The president's ardent supporters spent the past decade fulminating over various foes, from Barack Obama and the deep state to undocumented immigrants and transgender children. Now they have a new target: Donald Trump himself. The 'Make America Great Again' (Maga) base is in revolt as never before. The trigger was Trump's broken promise to publicly release details about Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, who was facing federal charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died in jail in 2019. Spurred by the president and his allies, Trump's movement has long latched on to the Epstein scandal, claiming the existence of a secret client list and that he was murdered in his cell as part of a cover-up. But last week the justice department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced there was no evidence that the disgraced financier kept such a list or was blackmailing powerful figures. Far from closing the case, the memo deepened supporters' obsession and sense of grievance. A movement defined by the view that elites rig the system against them felt cheated. Trump made efforts to douse the flames with ever-shifting explanations, excuses and distractions but merely poured fuel on the fire. To some, his erratic and evasive behaviour implies a guilty secret. It also evokes a line from President John F Kennedy's 1961 inaugural address: 'Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.' Having spent years embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only saviour who can demolish the 'deep state', Trump is now seen as co-opted by its corrupt bureaucracy. Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman who ran against Trump for president in 2020, said: 'I talk to the base every day and nothing animates the base more than the deep state. This Epstein thing was Trump's promise. This was going to finally expose the deep state. Now Trump says nothing there? It ain't going to stand.' Epstein was first charged with sex offences in 2006 after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police that he had molested their daughter at his Florida home. He avoided federal charges due to a controversial plea deal that saw him jailed for just under 13 months. In 2019 he was arrested again in New York and charged with trafficking dozens of teenage girls and engaging in sex acts with them in exchange for money. A separate case against Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for helping him abuse girls, detailed Epstein's connections with high-profile figures such as Britain's Prince Andrew and the former US president Bill Clinton. Both have denied any wrongdoing. In 2019 – during Trump's first term as president – Epstein was found dead in his prison cell after hanging himself, according to the authorities. Sceptics point to suspicious circumstances such as the security cameras around his cell apparently malfunctioning on the night he died, along with other irregularities. They also speculate that the government is concealing details about the Epstein case to protect wealthy and influential clients, including Trump, a longtime associate who in 2002 told New York magazine: 'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' On Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump sent a letter featuring a sketch of a naked woman to Epstein in 2003. The president denied writing the letter or drawing the figure, and sued Rupert Murdoch and two Wall Street Journal newspaper reporters on Friday. When he was running for president, Trump said he would release files related to the case. But a bundle put out in February contained little new information. Then in June the spotlight turned back on the president when his former adviser Elon Musk claimed – in a now-deleted X post – that Trump is 'in the Epstein files'. Just a month later, a memo from the justice department and FBI said the Epstein files did not contain evidence that would justify further investigation. An almost 11-hour video published to dispel theories Epstein was murdered showed a section of the New York prison on the night Epstein died but appeared to be missing a minute of footage. The Maga faithful erupted in fury. Media personality Tucker Carlson, activist Laura Loomer and Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon claim the government's handling of the case lacks transparency. The far-right commentator Jack Posobiec said he would not rest 'until we go full Jan 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files'. Baffled, flailing and unusually out of step, Trump used his Truth Social platform to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, over the issue. 'What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals'?' Trump wrote. 'They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening.' He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration – 'all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein'. Yet while Trump has defeated many political foes, he has never had to take on his own base. Taking a scattergun approach, he said he supported the release of any 'credible' files related to Epstein while downplaying the case as 'pretty boring stuff'. He suggested without citing evidence they were 'made up' by former FBI director James Comey and former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The president even lashed out at his own supporters, calling them 'weaklings' for falling for what he called a 'radical left' hoax by the opposition to discredit him. 'I don't want their support anymore!' he wrote. Some responded by burning their Maga caps in protest. Still the pressure continued to build. Mike Pence, his former vice-president, said in an interview with CBS News that 'the time has come for the administration to release all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein's investigation and prosecution'. Even Mike Johnson, the loyal Republican speaker of the House, broke from Trump on the issue and urged the justice department to make public any documents linked to Epstein. A small but growing band of House Republicans followed suit. Musk put dozens of posts on X accusing Trump of a 'cover-up'. On Thursday the president made a concession by announcing that he will ask a court to allow the release of grand jury testimony in the case. It was the latest effort to defuse a crisis of his own making. His political career gained traction with the help of the 'birther' movement, pushing the racist idea that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore an illegitimate president. He was content to accept support from followers of QAnon, an antisemitic theory involving Satan-worshipping cannibals and a child sex-trafficking ring. Trump also cultivated the ultimate political conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by Joe Biden, a 'big lie' that culminated in the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. Now he is finding that the nothing-to-see-here approach does not work for those who learned from him they must not give up until the government's secrets are exposed. Charlie Sykes, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind, said: 'He's being eaten by the very sort of conspiracy theory that propelled him into office in the first place. Donald Trump is a product of as well as a purveyor of conspiracy theories. He has marinated in conspiracy theories and used them to put him into the presidency so you do have what appears to be a giant irony that this particular conspiracy theory is the one that is haunting him. 'The ghost of Jeffrey Epstein is haunting Trump's presidency far more than any of the other issues that are out there now. Trump is finding out that, if you've pushed a conspiracy theory for years, it's very difficult to suddenly declare that it's non-existent or a hoax. He's doing this Jedi mind trick where he is trying to say, no this is not the conspiracy theory you actually care about.' Trump has already tested his base's loyalty in recent weeks by bombing Iran and pledging support for Ukraine, despite a pledge to avoid foreign entanglements, as well as signing a tax and spending bill that will strip health insurance from millions of people. But Epstein is different: a binary view of liberal elites as paedophiles, and Republicans as protectors of children, has become foundational. Sykes, a conservative author and broadcaster, commented: 'One of the reasons why the Maga base was so obsessed is that it gave them licence to genuinely hate and loathe their political opponents, to consider that the Democrats were not merely wrong on the issues, that they were part of this evil paedophile cabal. 'That is the justification for so much of what Trumpism has become and suddenly to pull the rug out from under the base was a radical and a risky move. For once Trump has overestimated his ability to shape reality to his own will.' It is a rare political gift for Democrats, who have been reeling since Trump's victory in November and struggling to thwart his expansion of presidential power. Several Democrats on Capitol Hill have called for the release of all Epstein files and suggested that Trump could be resisting because he or someone close to him is featured in them. Ro Khanna, a congressman from California whose measure that would have forced Bondi to publish all documents related to Epstein online was blocked by Republicans, said: 'The Republicans are basically protecting the rich and powerful. That's what the Epstein case is about: the rich and powerful men who were allegedly sleeping with underage girls and they should not have impunity. 'They're being protected, possibly because they're donors to people in Washington, because they play golf with people in Washington. So this is a question of whose side are you on? The Democratic party has a chance to have a rebirth of populism, to say we're on the side of the people, we get that this town hasn't worked for ordinary people for too long.' Some veterans of bareknuckle political fights of the past, however, warn that Democrats are still not rising to the moment. If the tables were turned and a Democratic president was suppressing such delicate information, it seems likely that Republicans would be aggressively flooding the airwaves demanding investigations and impeachment. Steve Schmidt, a political strategist and former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, said: 'It's just weak. From a leadership perspective, there's an inability to put the knife in and twist it. 'There is a reluctance because of the tawdriness of it all to appreciate that for Democrats, they lost an election to the most prolific liar because he was perceived as being more honest in the eyes of the American people. This is a prime example to strip him of that in the eyes of his most fervent supporters, and at least move them by some percentage to the sidelines and demotivate them.' Schmidt advocates a national advertising campaign and series of town halls in which Democrats demand an end to the cover-up and ask what Trump and Bondi are hiding. 'This is a moment where Trump is weak, he's perturbed, he's disturbed – and what you do is you hit him.' Public opinion is turning against the president. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 69% of respondents thought the federal government was hiding details about Epstein's clients, compared with 6% who disagreed and about one in four who said they were not sure. Tara Setmayer, a Trump critic and former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, believes the sense of betrayal could translate into a repudiation in next year's midterm elections for the House of Representatives and Senate. She said: 'Is there perhaps a political awakening happening with the most rabid of the Maga base? There may be some weakness here that could be exploited. Where it could hurt Trump in the midterms is by depressing the vote of Maga. They'll stay home and in these key swing districts where one or two percentage points difference can make all the difference in the House.' Walsh, the former congressman, agreed. He commented: 'It'll cause a lot of Trump supporters to not even vote because remember a lot of his supporters aren't Republicans; they are attached to him. If they're utterly disillusioned that the guy they thought was going to be the ultimate slayer of the deep state now is part of the deep state they're going to check out and that's going to hurt Republicans.' He added: 'Trump's legacy is the destruction of truth. He lies as he breathes and his lies to his supporters have made him popular among his supporters, so it's beautiful that he may actually be crucified on one of his lies.'
