‘I spoke to him in the present day. Dan Bongino is an excellent man,’ Trump stated of the deputy FBI director on July 13.
President Donald Trump stated he spoke to FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on July 13, indicating that the 2 stay shut regardless of reported friction over the discharge of the Jeffrey Epstein paperwork.
“I spoke to him in the present day. Dan Bongino is an excellent man. I’ve recognized him a very long time,” Trump instructed reporters outdoors Air Power 1. “He’s in fine condition.”
The feedback come after Axios reported that Bongino—beforehand a conservative commentator who had lengthy pressed for solutions about Epstein’s 2019 loss of life and operation—skipped work on July 11 due to disagreements with Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi’s dealing with of the matter.
Laura Loomer, a political commentator near the president, additionally reported on Bongino’s absence from work, equally referencing disagreements between Bongino and Bondi.
Trump on July 12 instructed his supporters to not proceed trying into the circumstances surrounding the billionaire’s loss of life.
“What’s happening with my ‘boys’ and, in some instances, ‘gals?’” Trump stated in a July 12 post on social media platform Reality Social. “They’re all going after Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi, who’s doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Workforce, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s taking place.
“We’ve got a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘egocentric folks’ are attempting to harm it, throughout a man who by no means dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
He added: “One 12 months in the past our Nation was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Nation wherever within the World. Let’s maintain it that means, and never waste Time and Vitality on Jeffrey Epstein, any person that no one cares about.”
Epstein’s case has been intensely scrutinized on-line for years following his 2019 loss of life in federal custody whereas awaiting prosecution on costs of participating in a multiyear conspiracy to intercourse visitors minors.
The billionaire was decided to have hanged himself in his cell, however given his connections with many high-ranking officers and celebrities, many have speculated that Epstein was murdered. The character of Epstein’s operation, involving the reported sexual exploitation of over one thousand victims, lots of whom have been minors, has additionally been scrutinized.
At a July 8 Cupboard assembly, a reporter requested Bondi to deal with a declare that Epstein had been some type of intelligence neighborhood asset.
“I’ve no information about that,” she stated. “We are able to get again to you on that.”
Throughout that Cupboard assembly, Bondi additionally stated a lacking minute from a jail surveillance tape on the night time Epstein died was a standard circumstance because of a routine technical artifact within the digicam system, because the video is reset each night time at 12 a.m.
Trump steered that nothing within the Epstein information “may have harm the MAGA Motion.”
On July 7, the Division of Justice and FBI launched a memo stating that Jeffrey Epstein dedicated suicide and had no “shopper checklist,” and that the businesses wouldn’t launch any additional materials associated to the Epstein case.
“As a part of our dedication to transparency, the Division of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have carried out an exhaustive evaluate of investigative holdings referring to Jeffrey Epstein,” the businesses said within the memo.
The evaluate discovered that Epstein dedicated suicide in his cell as he was awaiting trial in August 2019. The discovering was supported by an post-mortem carried out on the time.
“The conclusion that Epstein died by suicide is additional supported by video footage from the widespread space of the Particular Housing Unit (SHU) the place Epstein was housed on the time of his loss of life,” the memo reads.
The evaluate discovered that Epstein didn’t maintain an inventory of purchasers as a part of his intercourse trafficking actions. Moreover, there isn’t a proof that Epstein blackmailed people, in response to the memo.
Nonetheless, in response to the evaluate, Epstein “harmed over one thousand victims” as “every suffered distinctive trauma.”
Jackson Richman and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.
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