President Donald Trump has baselessly suggested that any mentions of his name in criminal case files related to deceased paedophile Jeffrey Epstein would be the result of Democratic efforts to ensnare him in a “hoax.” Speaking alongside British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a media availability in Scotland, Trump called the ongoing furor over the Epstein case “a hoax that's been built up way beyond proportion” and accused his predecessor of tampering with the files.
“Those files were run by the worst scum on Earth. They were run by Comey, they were run by Garland, they were run by Biden, and all of the people that actually ran the government, including the auto pen. Those files were run for four years by those people. If they had anything, I assume they would have released it,” Trump said on Monday. His comments came about a week after a Wall Street Journal report stated that officials told him his name was in the files. Being mentioned does not imply wrongdoing, and hundreds of names are reportedly included.
Trump’s administration has stirred controversy among his base after a July memo from the Department of Justice stated that Epstein had no so-called “client list” and that no more information would be released. This followed months of claims by Attorney General Pam Bondi that officials were reviewing documents. The decision not to release more information has angered both Democrats and Republicans, who have called on Trump to release further details from the investigation.
On Monday, Trump also suggested that his adversaries could have “easily put something in the files that’s a phony” and compared this to the infamous, unverified dossier on his alleged links to Russia compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele. “Christopher Steele, as an example, wrote a book a dossier. We call it the fake news dossier. And the whole thing was a fake. They could put things in the file that are fake, but those files were run by bad, sick people,” he said.
The president mused about why the previous Democratic administration did not release damaging information about him during last year’s election. “If they had anything, why didn't they use it when I was killing Joe?” Trump asked. For years, his supporters have pushed for the release of what they believe is a list of powerful people linked to Epstein. Trump indicated during his 2024 campaign that his administration would release the documents, but after the DOJ and FBI stated there was no such client list, many of his fervent backers have cried foul, leading to a rare split between the president and a significant segment of his political base.
