President Donald Trump on Friday angrily demanded that news outlets give their attention years-old allegations about one of his predecessors rather than continue covering his connections to dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump was addressing reporters as he departed the White House for a visit to Scotland, where he owns a trio of golf courses, when he was asked whether he’d consider a pardon for Epstein’s convicted sex trafficker associates, Ghislane Maxwell.
Maxwell, who is currently serving a prison sentence in Florida, has been meeting with Todd Blanche, the president’s ex-criminal defense attorney who now serves as the Deputy Attorney General, as Blanche has sought to diffuse anger among Trump’s supporters over the failure to release documents from Epstein’s case by interviewing his associate.
After Trump replied that he did not know much about Maxwell’s talks with Blanche and stated that he’s not currently considering a pardon, he was asked if the convicted criminal — who is alleged to have lied under oath on numerous occasions — could be trusted.
He told reporters that he trusts Blanche as a “professional lawyer” and quickly began ranting about what he believes the press should focus on instead of him and Epstein.
“You know, you should focus on Clinton. You should focus on the president of Harvard, the former president of Harvard. He should focus on some of the hedge fund guys — I’ll give you a list,” Trump said.
He later said that while he is “allowed” to pardon Maxwell, he hasn’t considered doing so.
“I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about,” Trump said.
Blanche is expected to continue interviewing Maxwell at a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, near the federal prison where she is serving her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
Pressed further on what he hopes Blanche will get from meeting with Maxwell, Trump again attempted to deflect with talk of former presidents and the same former higher education officials.
“People should really focus on how well the country is doing, or they should focus on the fact that Barack Hussein Obama led a coup. Or they should focus on the fact that Larry Summers from Harvard, that Bill Clinton, who you know very well, and lots of other friends, really close friends, of … Jeffrey Epstein should be spoken about and they should speak about them, because they don’t talk about them. They talk about me. I have nothing to do with the guy,” he said.
“Todd is a great attorney, but you want to be speaking about Larry Summers. You ought to be speaking about some of his friends that are hedge fund guys. They’re all over the place. You ought to be speaking about Bill Clinton, who went to the island 28 times. I never went to the island. I don’t even know what they’re talking about.”
The case of Epstein, a former math teacher turned financier who was arrested for alleged sex trafficking by federal authorities in 2019, has been a longtime fixation for many of Trump’s Maga supporters who believe they contain damaging information on prominent Democrats and other liberal celebrities.
For years, the president’s supporters have pushed for release of what they believe was a list of powerful people to whom Epstein is alleged to have trafficked young girls, as well as other information they believe would reflect negatively on members of the Democratic Party, various Hollywood celebrities, and other purported elites who they believe to be part of a sinister cabal controlling world events.
Trump has winked and nodded at such beliefs and had indicated during his 2024 campaign that his administration would release the documents in question if he were victorious in last year’s presidential election.
The president was once closely associated with and spoke highly of the disgraced financier and his proclivity for surrounding himself with young women, while Epstein at one point described himself as Trump’s “best friend,” leading to speculation that the president has been trying to prevent release of the files despite a campaign promise to do so because their content would reflect poorly on him.
He has become increasingly agitated about the negative coverage of his links to Epstein in the days since a recent Wall Street Journal article reported that the president sent Epstein a lewd birthday card referencing “secrets.” The president denied sending any card and filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Journal.
Reports from CNN and the Journal also claimed that Bondi alerted Trump, in early spring, that his name appeared in the Epstein Files. Being mentioned in the files does not suggest any wrongdoing, and hundreds of other people were also named.
The president denied to reporters earlier this month that his name was in the files. Trump has also claimed the Epstein Files were “made up” by former FBI director James Comey, former president Barack Obama, and former president Joe Biden.
