‘I spoke to him at present. 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 at present. Dan Bongino is an excellent man. I’ve identified him a very long time,” Trump advised reporters exterior Air Drive 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 demise and operation—skipped work on July 11 due to disagreements with Legal professional 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 advised his supporters to not proceed wanting into the circumstances surrounding the billionaire’s demise.
“What’s happening with my ‘boys’ and, in some circumstances, ‘gals?’” Trump stated in a July 12 put up on social media platform Reality Social. “They’re all going after Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi, who’s doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Crew, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s taking place.
“We’ve got a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘egocentric folks’ 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 wherever within the World. Let’s maintain it that means, and never waste Time and Power on Jeffrey Epstein, any individual 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 prices 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, a lot 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 resulting from a routine technical artifact within the digicam system, because the video is reset each night time at 12 a.m.
Trump recommended that nothing within the Epstein information “might 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 “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 performed an exhaustive evaluation of investigative holdings referring to Jeffrey Epstein,” the companies said 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 performed 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 maintain an inventory of purchasers as a part of his intercourse trafficking actions. Moreover, there isn’t any proof that Epstein blackmailed people, in accordance with the memo.
Nonetheless, in accordance 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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