Current Events > Speaker Johnson backs off from "FBI informant" Trump claim.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/07/trump-epstein-johnson-fbi

Since it's a WaPo article that requires a paid account, I'll give some snippets.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Sunday backed off his claim that President Donald Trump was an FBI informant in the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
While Trump has said that he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, his members-only club in Florida, he has also recently called the latest demands for the release of more information on the Epstein case a Democrat hoax that never ends.
Last week, Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill that Trump cares deeply about the crimes Epstein committed and said that Trump was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down.
On Sunday, his office released a statement modifying that claim.

The Speaker is reiterating what the victims attorney said, which is that Donald Trump who kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago was the only one more than a decade ago willing to help prosecutors expose Epstein for being a disgusting child predator, the statement from Johnsons office read.
Trump and Epstein were one-time friends who had a falling out, particularly after a fight between the two in 2004 over buying an oceanfront property in Palm Beach, Florida, which Trump went on to win.
...
Brad Edwards, an attorney who represents many of the victims, told reporters that Trump has done an about-face on Epstein since 2009.
Edwards said that when he spoke to Trump in 2009, Trump was friendly to the victims plight, and did not think that it was a hoax and was trying to help.
And now it seems like all of a sudden somebody is in his ear, and hes not, Edwards said. So Im hoping hell come back to where he was back in 2009, be on the side of the victims and stand with us.
Edwards on Wednesday did not say whether Trump cooperated with investigators in 2009, but he did note that Trump helped his efforts against Epstein at the time.
...
On Wednesday, many of the victims said that hearing Trump brush off their abuse as a hoaxwas devastating, and several repeatedly insisted the issue is not a partisan one.
This is not a hoax, Haley Robson, who noted she is a registered Republican, said Wednesday. This is real trauma.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), a Republican who is a co-sponsor of the proposed legislation, said Sunday that he didnt know whether Trump was an FBI informant.
The lawyers for the victim said that Donald Trump had been helpful in 2009 in their case by giving them information. But being an informant implies some formal connection and ongoing relationship with the FBI, Massie said on the ABCs This Week. I think the speaker needs to clarify that. And if its a hoax, why was Donald Trump an informant to a hoax?

The guy who was going "what Trump meant to say" in regards to his hoax claims ends up having to do the same thing to what he has to say! Sounds like they're all full of bullcrap.

Of course.

If Trump was an FBI informant on the Epstein case, then I'm the goddamned King of Spain. Nice change of pace to see that the general public aren't buying Donnie's bullshit all the time.

shut the fuck up Mikey, you're out of your element

What a dumb ass thing to suggest as a defense.

We have way too many stupid people in power, but that's a reflection of society in the US as a whole.

Mike Pedophile Defender Johnson

If you listened to the original clip, where he's caught in a hallway or something with questions, you can literally hear him begin to stumble as he says it because he realizes he just exaggerated / lied too hard.

Probably realized "informant" implies actively engaged in crimes until the FBI caught up with him and he flipped. Like Mafia "informants" weren't secret detectives infiltrating the Mafia, they were years long made men who flipped and started talking about what crimes they were doing and where for law enforcement.

So saying he's an informant implies he was actively part of the pedophile ring and then he flipped on Epstein.

For some reason though, conspiratorial Republicans hate certain kinds of informers like they're Snow and they wanna Lick He boom boom down.