‘I spoke to him immediately. Dan Bongino is an excellent man,’ Trump mentioned of the deputy FBI director on July 13.
President Donald Trump mentioned 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 immediately. Dan Bongino is an excellent man. I’ve identified him a very long time,” Trump informed reporters outdoors Air Pressure 1. “He’s in good condition.”
The feedback come after Axios reported that Bongino—beforehand a conservative commentator who had lengthy pressed for solutions about Epstein’s 2019 demise and operation—skipped work on July 11 due to disagreements with Lawyer Basic 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 informed his supporters to not proceed trying into the circumstances surrounding the billionaire’s demise.
“What’s happening with my ‘boys’ and, in some instances, ‘gals?’” Trump mentioned in a July 12 submit on social media platform Fact Social. “They’re all going after Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi, who’s doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Group, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s taking place.
“Now we have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘egocentric individuals’ try to harm it, throughout a man who by no means dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
He added: “One yr in the past our Nation was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Nation anyplace within the World. Let’s hold it that method, and never waste Time and Vitality on Jeffrey Epstein, anyone that no one cares about.”
Epstein’s case has been intensely scrutinized on-line for years following his 2019 demise in federal custody whereas awaiting prosecution on expenses of partaking in a multiyear conspiracy to intercourse site 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 data about that,” she mentioned. “We will get again to you on that.”
Throughout that Cupboard assembly, Bondi additionally mentioned a lacking minute from a jail surveillance tape on the evening Epstein died was a traditional circumstance as a result of a routine technical artifact within the digicam system, because the video is reset each evening at 12 a.m.
Trump recommended that nothing within the Epstein recordsdata “may have damage the MAGA Motion.”
On July 7, the Division of Justice and FBI launched a memo stating that Jeffrey Epstein dedicated suicide and had no “consumer listing,” and that the companies 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 evaluation of investigative holdings regarding Jeffrey Epstein,” the companies acknowledged within the memo.
The evaluation 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 frequent space of the Particular Housing Unit (SHU) the place Epstein was housed on the time of his demise,” the memo reads.
The evaluation discovered that Epstein didn’t hold a listing of purchasers as a part of his intercourse trafficking actions. Moreover, there isn’t any proof that Epstein blackmailed people, in line with the memo.
Nonetheless, in line with the evaluation, Epstein “harmed over one thousand victims” as “every suffered distinctive trauma.”
Jackson Richman and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.
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