Vice President JD Vance supplied up an sudden scapegoat when requested about President Donald Trump’s refusal to launch recordsdata associated to his former buddy, the late convicted intercourse predator Jeffrey Epstein.
He blamed former President Joe Biden.
“We now have to recollect this whole factor occurred, this whole story blew up, in the course of the Biden administration,” Vance stated throughout an interview with USA As we speak.
Epstein died in jail of an obvious suicide in 2019. Biden took workplace in January 2021.
Trump and plenty of members of his interior circle ― including Vance ― had repeatedly promised to launch recordsdata associated to Epstein if elected, together with a supposed consumer listing.
Vance stated the Biden administration had 4 years to launch any such data and failed to take action.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration has solely launched beforehand identified particulars and, earlier this summer season, said that there was nothing else to release ― and no “consumer listing.”
The transfer angered many on each side of the aisle, together with longtime supporters of Trump.
However Vance, within the new interview, insisted that Trump was delivering “full transparency” on the difficulty.
“I feel the president has ordered the administration to be extra clear about this than some other concern,” he stated.
Story continues after video.
Trump and Epstein have been shut associates till they’d a falling out in 2004, reportedly over a real estate dispute. Epstein’s first arrest was in 2006, resulting in his eventual conviction for intercourse crimes, but in addition a broadly criticized cope with a prosecutor permitting him to keep away from federal prosecution and a potential life sentence.
That prosecutor, Alex Acosta, would later serve in the Cabinet within the first Trump administration.
Epstein was arrested once more in 2019 and died in custody of an obvious suicide whereas awaiting trial on allegations of trafficking underage women and different fees.
Regardless of Vance’s claims, the arrest, demise and outrage that adopted happened in the course of the first Trump administration — about 18 months earlier than Biden took workplace.
Vance cited a current jailhouse interview with longtime Epstein enabler Ghislaine Maxwell, during which she additionally insisted there was no “consumer listing.”
Maxwell, who’s in jail for intercourse trafficking, additionally vouched for Trump’s character.
“I by no means witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any manner,” she stated. “The president was by no means inappropriate with anyone.”
Shortly after the interview, Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison camp with fewer restrictions.