CNN’s Jake Tapper has flatly debunked President Donald Trump’s claim that his enemies may have planted damaging material about him in the the Jeffrey Epstein files, calling it “one of the most bizarre conspiracy theories I’ve ever heard.”
As part of his ongoing effort to sow doubt about the Epstein files, Trump on Monday dismissed them as “fake” to reporters in Scotland and said they were “run by the worst scum on Earth.”
Naming former President Joe Biden, former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney General Merrick Garland, Trump argued, “They can easily put something in the files that’s a phony.”
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Tapper called the president’s theory “madness” during his conversation with former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara: “The idea that [Trump’s opponents] would do this and then just walk away instead of—”
“Not act on it,” Bharara chimed in.
“Yeah! Like, do it in 2016 or do it in 2020, or 2024 when they’re trying to defeat Donald Trump,” Tapper continued, expressing doubt that Trump’s foes would “just put it there and hope somebody finds it.”
Trump has doubled down on his attempts to discredit the files on the late convicted sex offender after it was reported last week that his name appears in the documents multiple times. According to The Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in a May meeting that his name is included in the files.
On Monday, he said “It’s a hoax that’s been built up way beyond proportion.”
But even Trump himself briefly debunked his own conspiracy theory by noting, “If they had something, they would have released [sic].”
Trump’s assertion that the files may have been tampered with has been seen by some as preemptive damage control if the files ever implicate him.
The MAGA uproar over how Trump has handled the files, which were long hyped up by members of his own administration, has thrown renewed attention on the president’s personal ties to Epstein.
Trump was friends with the disgraced financier for over a decade starting in the 1980s, though he says they had a falling out before Epstein was exposed as a pedophile.
