‘I spoke to him today. Dan Bongino is a very good guy,’ 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 today. Dan Bongino is a very good guy. I’ve known him a long time,” Trump instructed reporters outdoors Air Power 1. “He’s in good shape.”
The feedback come after Axios reported that Bongino—beforehand a conservative commentator who had lengthy pressed for solutions about Epstein’s 2019 dying and operation—skipped work on July 11 due to disagreements with Lawyer Common 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 wanting into the circumstances surrounding the billionaire’s dying.
“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’” Trump mentioned in a July 12 put up on social media platform Fact Social. “They’re all going after Lawyer Common Pam Bondi, who’s doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Group, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s taking place.
“We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
He added: “One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”
Epstein’s case has been intensely scrutinized on-line for years following his 2019 dying in federal custody whereas awaiting prosecution on costs of participating 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 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 neighborhood asset.
“I have no knowledge about that,” she mentioned. “We can get back to you on that.”
Throughout that Cupboard assembly, Bondi additionally mentioned a lacking minute from a jail surveillance tape on the night time Epstein died was a traditional circumstance because of a routine technical artifact within the digital camera system, because the video is reset each night time at 12 a.m.
Trump prompt that nothing within the Epstein information “could have hurt the MAGA Movement.”
On July 7, the Division of Justice and FBI launched a memo stating that Jeffrey Epstein dedicated suicide and had no “client list,” and that the companies wouldn’t launch any additional materials associated to the Epstein case.
“As part of our commitment to transparency, the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted an exhaustive review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein,” the companies acknowledged 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 further supported by video footage from the common area of the Special Housing Unit (SHU) where Epstein was housed at the time of his death,” 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 any proof that Epstein blackmailed people, in response to the memo.
Nonetheless, in response to the evaluate, Epstein “harmed over one thousand victims” as “each suffered unique trauma.”
Jackson Richman and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.
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