'Is This The Hidden Part of the Trump-Epstein Drama?'

(TPM) "Yesterday Speaker Mike Johnson was on the Hill talking to reporters running standard Trump defense on the Epstein files. It sounds like pretty standard stuff and then he says this. 'When he first heard the rumor he kicked [Epstein] out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant who tried to take this stuff down.' It’s an odd moment. Because Johnson says it in this kind of offhanded way and without explanation like it’s just one in a litany of talking points. But he clearly suggests that Trump played some role bringing about Epstein’s downfall, that he was an FBI informant who presumably told the authorities about Epstein’s sex crimes. This clip got a lot of attention on social media, unsurprisingly. One of Trump’s top surrogates is suggesting that far from being implicated in Epstein’s crimes Trump is some secret good guy in the shadows, the guy who out of the limelight helped the authorities bring Epstein to justice."

"Total fantasy, right?"

"Well, this reminded me of something I saw in one of those recent interviews with journalist Michael Wolff, who has been out in the media letting everyone know that he has some large quantity of taped interviews with Epstein from during Trump’s first presidency but before his rearrest and eventual suicide."

"Wolff said that Epstein suspected that Trump was the guy who ratted him out to the authorities. So maybe some version of Johnson’s claim isn’t that far-fetched. But of course this isn’t actually exonerating at all. In fact, it implicates Trump about as badly as anything we’ve heard to date. You can’t tell what you don’t know. Trump was in a position to rat out Epstein because he knew all about his operation and had for years. They were close carousing buddies for years, partying and trying to one up each competing to bed young women. Whether that also included girls under 18 for Trump we don’t know for certain. But we have abundant evidence about their carousing and bro-one-upsmanship about women just over 18. Even if he never touched a girl under 18 Trump clearly knew Epstein was. If he’s the one who ratted Epstein out to the authorities leading to his 2008 plea deal that only confirms his knowledge more clearly."

Continued at link:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/is-this-the-hidden-part-of-the-trump-epstein-drama