Epstein - Trump FBI Informant

...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. 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....

Total fantasy, right?...

...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.

Epstein was trying to buy a South Florida estate. He brought Trump along to see it one time. A short time later Epstein found out that Trump had gone behind his back and placed a higher and ultimately successful bid on the property. It made no sense where Trump was coming up with $41 million to buy this property. Epstein suspected that Trump was acting as a front for a Russian oligarch as a money-laundering scheme. And in fact Trump did purchase and flip the estate two years later to a Russian oligarch named Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million, or a profit over $50 million dollars.

Epstein was pissed for his own reasons (he wanted the estate). But he also suspected the money laundering scheme. So he threatened Trump that he would bring the whole thing out into the open through a series of lawsuits. Right about this same time authorities got a tip about Epstein’s activities which started the investigation that eventually led to his eventual 2008 plea deal...

I can’t stress this point enough: You can’t tell what you don’t know. This isn’t an accusation. It’s formal logic. So even if we accept the idea that Trump played a role in Epstein’s downfall, it’s not exonerating. It shows what we’ve long suspected: that Trump had known about Epstein’s operation for years and was fine with it. (That’s assuming for the moment he wasn’t a direct participant – it’s the weekend, I’m being generous.) He only made a call when Epstein was threatening to expose a money laundering scheme.

So why did Johnson say this?

Again, the best explanation is that it’s in those files the DOJ is sitting on. The White House fears it’s going to come out and so they’re putting the best spin on it they can. Trump was a real life Bruce Wayne type richie, wheeling and dealing by day, helping the authorities take down bad guys in the shadows. For Trump’s most ardent supporters they might get some traction with that. But again, as noted above, it’s actually super damning. Yeah I knew he was a big time pedophile and we were big pals and partied together all the time and I was fine with it. But then he tried to expose my money laundering scheme so I called my friends at the FBI. I don’t think that’s a great story.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/is-this-the-hidden-part-of-the-trum...