Washington — Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene mentioned Friday that President Trump’s opposition to releasing information from the federal investigation into convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein is a “big miscalculation.” In an unique interview on “CBS Mornings,” Greene mentioned she does not consider the president has something to cover, noting that a few of Epstein’s victims have mentioned Mr. Trump “has completed nothing flawed.”
Greene, of Georgia, was among the many 4 Home Republicans who joined all Democrats in signing on to a discharge petition that forces a vote within the Home on a measure compelling the Justice Division to launch supplies associated to its probe into Epstein. The vote is anticipated subsequent week.
Mr. Trump has slammed the deal with Epstein as a “hoax” pushed by Democrats to deflect the blame for the authorities shutdown, which was the longest in U.S. historical past and ended Wednesday.
“Some Weak Republicans have fallen into their clutches as a result of they’re smooth and silly,” he wrote on Fact Social on Friday. “Epstein was a Democrat, and he’s the Democrat’s downside, not the Republican’s downside! Ask Invoice Clinton, Reid Hoffman, and Larry Sommers about Epstein, they know all about him, do not waste your time with Trump. I’ve a Nation to run!”
A couple of hours later, he posted once more, calling for the Justice Division and FBI to examine Epstein’s ties to outstanding Democrats and monetary establishments.
However Greene informed “CBS Mornings” she does not perceive Mr. Trump’s opposition to releasing the fabric associated to Epstein.
“I believe it is an enormous miscalculation, and I really simply stand with the ladies, and I believe they need to be those that we’re combating for,” she mentioned.
Greene mentioned she has spoken with a lot of Epstein’s victims, and the president has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
“I consider the ladies and the ladies have mentioned again and again that Donald Trump did nothing flawed,” she mentioned. “Even Virginia Giuffre mentioned it underneath oath and she or he wrote it in her guide. And so if we take heed to the ladies, they are saying Donald Trump has completed nothing flawed.”
Giuffre, probably the most high-profile of Epstein’s accusers, died by suicide in April. She mentioned she was approached by Epstein affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell and employed to offer Epstein massages in 2000, simply earlier than she turned 17. On the time, Giuffre was working on the spa at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s South Florida membership. Giuffre wrote in her memoir that she met Mr. Trump as soon as at Mar-a-Lago, and mentioned he “could not have been friendlier.”
Separate from the hassle to push the Justice Division to launch its information on Epstein, the GOP-led Home Oversight and Reform Committee has been investigating the federal authorities’s dealing with of the investigation into Epstein and Maxwell.
This week the panel launched greater than 20,000 pages of information it obtained from Epstein’s property, which embody textual content and e mail exchanges with the disgraced financier that reference Mr. Trump.
In a single e mail from Epstein to creator Michael Wolff in January 2019, Epstein wrote, “After all he knew concerning the ladies as he requested ghislaine to cease,” referencing Mr. Trump.
In one other e mail from Epstein to Maxwell in April 2011, he wrote, “I need you to understand that that canine that hasn’t barked is trump.. virginia spent hours at my home with him ,, he has by no means as soon as been talked about.”
The emails and textual content messages launched by the Oversight panel, on which Greene sits, present a glance into Epstein’s contacts with high-profile folks. Amongst them are Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Mr. Trump; Kathryn Ruemmler, a prime government at Goldman Sachs who served as White Home counsel to former President Barack Obama; and an array of figures in enterprise, leisure and academia.
Inexperienced mentioned the paperwork supply the general public a “very attention-grabbing view right into a world that almost all of us have by no means seen.”
“It is sort of like an internet of world affairs, enterprise connections, very excessive and highly effective folks, international leaders,” she mentioned. “And it is simply an attention-grabbing world. And even the Intel neighborhood.”
Mr. Trump and Epstein ran in the identical social circles in New York and Florida from the late Eighties to the early 2000s. However the president mentioned they’d a falling out round 2004.
State and federal authorities investigated Epstein between 2005 and 2006. In late 2007, federal prosecutors reached a take care of Epstein that allowed him to keep away from federal fees in change for pleading responsible to 2 state prostitution fees and serving an 18-month jail sentence. He ended up serving lower than 13 months and was launched in 2009.
Epstein was later indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in 2019 on intercourse trafficking fees. He died by suicide in a Manhattan correctional facility whereas awaiting trial.
