By Steve Neavling
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday backed away from his claim that President Donald Trump was an FBI informant in the Jeffrey Epstein case, The Washington Post reports.
Last week, Johnson told reporters Trump “was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.” But his office later clarified that Johnson was echoing statements from a victims’ attorney.
“The Speaker is reiterating what the victims’ attorney said, which is that Donald Trump — who kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago — was the only one more than a decade ago willing to help prosecutors expose Epstein for being a disgusting child predator,” the statement read.
Brad Edwards, a lawyer for several victims, said Trump was cooperative in 2009.
“He got on the phone, he told me things that were helping our investigation,” Edwards said. “Our investigation wasn’t looking into him, but he was helping us then.”
But Edwards also accused Trump of an “about-face,” noting that Trump now dismisses calls for more transparency as a “Democrat hoax that never ends.”
“I’m hoping he’ll come back to where he was back in 2009, be on the side of the victims and stand with us,” Edwards said.
On Wednesday, victims told lawmakers that hearing Trump brush off their abuse as a hoax was devastating.
“This is not a hoax,” said Haley Robson, who identified herself as a Republican. “This is real trauma.”
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, said Johnson overstated Trump’s role.
“The lawyers for the victim said that Donald Trump had been helpful in 2009 in their case by giving them information. But being an informant implies some formal connection and ongoing relationship with the FBI,” Massie said on ABC’s This Week. “I think the speaker needs to clarify that. And if it’s a hoax, why was Donald Trump an informant to a hoax?”
