Energy of Epstein conspiracy movement 'almost religious'

DW (English)

The Epstein case does not reflect well on US President Donald Trump, says Glenn Thrush of the New York Times, but apparently, other than business connections, no larger connections between Trump and the sex offender have been uncovered.

Transcript

00:00Glenn Thrush reports on the U.S. Justice Department for the New York Times.

00:04He's been covering this case extensively.

00:06Welcome to DW, Glenn.

00:08The Trump administration claims there's nothing to see here.

00:12What do you think?

00:14Well, from everything that we know, and there have been a series of investigations into

00:20the Epstein case, starting under the Biden administration.

00:24Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in New York City in 2019.

00:28There have been several investigations.

00:31There was a coroner's investigation in New York.

00:33There was an Office of the Inspector General investigation that determined he had died

00:37of a suicide and there was no foul play involved.

00:40And then there was this longer FBI and Justice Department investigation, which also uncovered

00:45no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

00:47But look, this is a complicated case.

00:51There are many unknowns that remain.

00:55All we can say is we have done interviews with investigators over the years.

01:02We have done a fairly extensive review in various reporters in our newsroom and other newsrooms.

01:12And no one has uncovered any specific connections between Trump and Epstein other than business

01:18connections and some fairly superficial social interactions that are well documented on video and in photographs.

01:25So the problem here is Epstein is a truly is one of the true villains of our age.

01:32He is a child sex abuser.

01:34He was secretive.

01:35He had all kinds of relationships with the rich and powerful.

01:39So that so what we know is from the from what we've heard from the investigative material is

01:44that apparently there are no larger connections to Trump.

01:48But again, you know, there are perhaps unknowns.

01:52What then do you think is prompting all this flip flopping, not just of the president, but also

01:58his attorney general and FBI director?

02:00So what people don't understand necessarily who are who aren't in this fever swamp of Washington,

02:08D.C.

02:08and American politics right now is that the energy of the Epstein conspiracy movement is almost

02:15religious.

02:17And while the Epstein the Epstein case does not reflect positively on President Trump, the

02:24the underlying assumptions of the conspiracists that there is a shady government cabal of rich and

02:33powerful people who are covering up these these monstrous crimes is very much the stock and trade of the Trump

02:40movement.

02:41And all of these officials, we have three key officials who are involved in this, the attorney

02:46general of the United States, Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, who's sort of a

02:50conventional Trump aligned law enforcement official.

02:54And then you have these two men who are running the FBI, Kash Patel, the director, and Dan Bongino, his

03:01number two, who are both creatures of this Trump outsider movement.

03:06Both of those individuals do not have conventional credentials to be occupying the top positions at the FBI.

03:13And prior to being there, there are both podcasters and social media personalities who who promoted

03:20conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein.

03:23So you have this instance in which they are being called upon to slam the door, essentially, on a door they

03:30themselves kicked open.

03:31So what then should we expect from this administration regarding this case?

03:36Does Pam Bondi open the doors and hand over the documents, or is there likely to be more flip-flopping?

03:46Two-part answer.

03:48Number one, who knows?

03:51Number two, the question is, what is there to hand over?

03:56Part of the question here is whether or not this treasure trove that people presume exists, exists.

04:02The main thing that's become the talisman, the totem of this case, is the so-called Jeffrey Epstein client list.

04:10Well, we've been told from investigators in both administrations, the Biden administration and Trump

04:15administration, that such a list doesn't exist.

04:18There were Jeffrey Epstein associates.

04:19Many of them were powerful and rich.

04:21Most of those names are out there in public already.

04:23But we have been told both now and before that such a client list doesn't exist.

04:29The other issue is there are tens of thousands of hours of video evidence that the FBI and DOJ have

04:35reviewed.

04:36Some of it involved Epstein's death and the surveillance video, which has some gaps in it

04:42from the federal prison in New York City where he died.

04:46But most of it are videos and photographic evidence that include child pornography,

04:52surveillance tapes that would continue to harm victims and potential witnesses in cases.

05:01So the question is, what is it that we're looking for?

05:04What we have reported, what I have been able to surface, is that dozens and dozens of FBI

05:08agents, dozens and dozens of Department of Justice prosecutors have spent six weeks or so

05:15in a facility just outside of Washington, D.C. over the past six months, going through every

05:20scrap of evidence that the government has, and they found insufficient evidence to warrant

05:27a prosecution.

05:28And that's what prompted the memo we saw the week before last closing the case.

05:33All right.

05:33Thanks for joining us, Glenn, and talking us through that.

05:35Glenn Thrush from The New York Times.

05:38For more information, D.C.

05:38Thank you for joining us.

05:43Bye.

05:45amazed by your口.

05:54I have a message.

05:56Game on.

05:56Let's see.

05:59Bye.

06:00Bye.

06:01Bye.

06:02Bye.

06:03Bye.

06:04Bye.

06:05Bye.

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