The Irish Times view on Trump and Epstein: a story which still has a way to run
Trump's political enemies are happy to stoke the controversy. Some of this may be unfair, given the lack of evidence to date, but they will calculate that any link to Epstein will be damaging for the president, as it has been for so many others.
The Journal's story last week of a lewd letter allegedly sent by Trump to Epstein has
prompted the president to sue the paper
for defamation and to banish it from the presidential press pool. 'The Murdochs' bizarre assault on the president galvanised his base because of both content and process,' former adviser and key Maga leader Steve Bannon observes. 'Now we are united as Trump goes on offence – against the Murdochs, the courts and the deep state.'
Even Elon Musk, who had earlier this year claimed Trump was named in the FBI's files, said he did not believe the letter was real. 'It really doesn't sound like something Trump would say,' he said.
READ MORE
In response to weeks of uproar on social media at the administration's failure to release the files, Trump ordered his attorney general to seek a court order freeing up some of the secret grand jury testimony on Epstein.
Law enforcement agencies have not accused Trump of any Epstein-related wrongdoing, although reports
have emerged in recent days
that 1996 efforts to call law enforcement attention to him had implicated Trump.
The president's base, schooled in lurid conspiracy theory, is unlikely to accept his assurances 'that there's nothing to see here, please move on.' This one still has a way to run.
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Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
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