Mick Mulvaney, who was President Donald Trump’s chief of staff in 2019, has made a surprising claim about the Jeffrey Epstein case. He believes President Trump’s claim that the Epstein scandal is “a hoax” is not true. In fact, Mulvaney thinks Trump’s name is included in the Epstein files.
“He’s in the files. A lot of people are in the files,” Mulvaney told Al Jazeera in an interview on Thursday.
However, Mulvaney does say that the files will directly link Trump to illegal activity with Epstein. He said that if there was clear proof against Trump, the Biden administration would have already released the files.
Mulvaney said, “If there was something in the files that was particularly damning about Donald Trump, the files would have been released by the Biden administration.”
He believes the information that has not been made public likely includes many important people from both political parties. “That’s why Trump doesn’t want to release it and why Biden didn’t release it either,” Mulvaney said.
Mulvaney added, “There’s photographs of them together. So if there’s a file somewhere, which I assume there is I have to imagine his name is on the list someplace.”
During the interview, Mulvaney was reminded that in 2019, when Epstein died in jail, Trump blamed former President Bill Clinton for Epstein’s death without evidence. Mulvaney seemed unsure about this and joked when asked if he thought it was baseless.
“Baselessly?” Mulvaney said with a shrug. “Eh, OK.”
Interviewer Mehdi Hasan pressed Mulvaney about Clinton’s connection to Epstein. Mulvaney did not deny it but said it wasn’t his job to correct the president. Hasan disagreed, saying it was part of Mulvaney’s responsibility as chief of staff.
Mulvaney also tried to defend Trump by mentioning Epstein was banned from Trump’s Mar-A-Lago club for “being too weird.” Hasan pointed out Trump had also called Epstein “a terrific guy who likes younger women.”
WHITE HOUSE REJECTS SPECIAL PROSECUTOR
Meanwhile, at a White House press briefing on Thursday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Trump does not support appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Epstein case.
Leavitt said, “The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case. That’s how he feels.”
She added that Trump has asked US Attorney General Pam Bondi to release any credible new evidence related to Epstein. “If the attorney general and the Department of Justice and the FBI have any more credible evidence in regards to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, they should put that forward. He has called on them to do that,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt also said Trump called the Democrats’ focus on the Epstein case a “hoax.”
Despite Trump’s denials and the White House’s refusal to open a new investigation, public pressure continues to grow for more transparency in the Epstein case.
Mulvaney’s comments suggest there may be information about Trump and many other powerful figures that remains hidden. For now, it remains unclear if the files will ever be fully released.
– Ends
With inputs from Reuters