‘I spoke to him right now. 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 right now. Dan Bongino is an excellent man. I’ve identified him a very long time,” Trump informed reporters exterior Air Drive 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 loss of life 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 informed his supporters to not proceed wanting into the circumstances surrounding the billionaire’s loss of life.
“What’s happening with my ‘boys’ and, in some circumstances, ‘gals?’” Trump mentioned in a July 12 post 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 now 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 12 months in the past our Nation was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Nation wherever within the World. Let’s maintain it that approach, and never waste Time and Vitality on Jeffrey Epstein, someone 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 partaking 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, a lot of whom had 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 group asset.
“I’ve no data about that,” she mentioned. “We are able to 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 resulting from a routine technical artifact within the digital camera system, because the video is reset each evening at 12 a.m.
Trump advised that nothing within the Epstein recordsdata “might 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 “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 performed an exhaustive overview of investigative holdings referring to Jeffrey Epstein,” the businesses said within the memo.
The overview 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 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 overview discovered that Epstein didn’t maintain a listing of purchasers as a part of his intercourse trafficking actions. Moreover, there is no such thing as a proof that Epstein blackmailed people, in line with the memo.
Nonetheless, in line with the overview, Epstein “harmed over one thousand victims” as “every suffered distinctive trauma.”
Jackson Richman and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.
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