Gov. DeSantis Urges Trump To Release Epstein Files: ‘No One's Been Brought To Justice'
DeSantis made his remarks Sunday on Fox News' One Nation with Brian Kilmeade, days after the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation sent a letter claiming there was no Epstein client list and that they would not release any further information about the investigation. Trump, who had a friendship with the late sex offender and previously promised that he would release the files, has since demanded that people stop drawing attention to the matter.
'What I would say is just release it, let people see. But I do think there's a desire for justice because Jeffrey Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell didn't just do this amongst themselves. I mean, there were obviously other people involved, and yet no one's been brought to justice,' DeSantis, who notably signed legislation authorizing the release of public grand jury documents last year, told Fox News.
(A grand jury in Florida indicted Epstein on a felony charge of soliciting prostitution in 2006, but it wasn't until nearly two decades later that DeSantis' legislation allowed the documents to be publicly released. In a statement at the time, DeSantis said, 'The public deserves to know who participated in Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking.')
DeSantis, who has had a rocky relationshipwith Trump, joined a growing chorus of concerned politicians who have called on the Trump administration to release more information about Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting a trial on sex trafficking charges.
Epstein's death, crimes and alleged sex trafficking operations have been at the center of right-wing conspiracies for years. As such, the Trump administration's recent decision to stop looking into it has been the subject of conversation for weeks. Trump has angrily tried to shut the conversation down.
Earlier this month, Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked Attorney General Pam Bondi about the latest Epstein news.
'Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years,' the president abruptly said before Bondi was able to respond. 'I mean, I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.'
Trump has also slammed his own fan base over the topic, calling them 'weaklings.'
'Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker,' Trump said in a post on Truth Social. 'They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.'
Multiple people, including billionaire Elon Musk and another former Trump administration official, have since speculated that Trump could be incriminated by the Epstein files.
'Time to drop the really big bomb,' Musk said. '[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.'
Miles Taylor, who served as Homeland Security chief of staff in 2019, told MSNBC's Alex Witt that it 'reeks of a cover-up.'
'It doesn't have to be criminal,' he cautioned. 'It could just be embarrassing.'
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