President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is doing him no favors when it comes to getting rid of the Jeffrey Epstein story, according to one lawyer.
Trump has been seeking a way to shed the Epstein saga for almost a month after the DOJ released a two-page, unsigned memo outlining their conclusions in the case. According to the DOJ, Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell, and he never kept a list of his clients. Those two conclusions contradicted the narrative that Trump and his surrogates spun about the case for several years.
The MAGA base largely did not buy the DOJ’s story and has since put immense public pressure on Trump to release the full Epstein files, as he promised to do during the campaign.
Since then, Trump has sought to “redefine” the Epstein files as only the grand jury testimony, which he has also promised to release, according to lawyer Michael Popok, host of the “Legal AF” podcast on Medias+.
In a recent court filing, the DOJ further kneecapped Trump’s efforts to redefine the files by admitting two important facts that Trump isn’t telling the public, Popok said.
First, the DOJ admitted there is a public desire for the files to be released, which Attorney General Pam Bondi admitted she helped create while she stumped for Trump.
Second, the administration admitted there is nothing in the grand jury files that is of substantial value concerning the case.
“There’s nothing in the grand jury [files], which they’ve now admitted!” Popok exclaimed.
Popok said this strategy is largely to prevent the administration from releasing the “gigabytes” of information about Epstein collected by the F.B.I., including search warrant results and financial records. All of which could further implicate Trump, Popok said.