Former CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta has said that President Donald Trump has “twisted himself into a pretzel” over the ongoing blowback relating to the Epstein files.
Appearing on MSNBC’s Velshi on Sunday (July 13), Acosta was asked for his thoughts on the Jeffrey Epstein case and Trump’s reaction to the situation. “You know, I’ve been around Donald Trump. I’ve been up close with him. I think I know when he’s worried, and he is freaking out right now over these Epstein files,” Acosta said.
“It raises the question, what is going on with Trump and these Epstein files?” he continued. “You know, Donald Trump, he’s all for releasing the JFK files, the MLK files, all these other files, but not the Epstein files, and it begs the question, what gives?… He’s twisted himself into a pretzel on this.”
Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a statement claiming their investigation determined that there was “no incriminating ‘client list’” and that Epstein “committed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019” while awaiting sex trafficking charges.
This report led to backlash online, even among Trump’s MAGA supporters, many of whom have been demanding the release of the so-called “client list” for years. There have also been calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to resign after she said in February that Epstein’s “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino blasted Bondi for overpromising and failing to deliver on the Epstein files and has threatened to resign over the controversy.
Trump shared his thoughts on Saturday (July 12), posting on Truth Social, “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”
Acosta said the key issue here is whether or not Trump pushed for the DOJ and FBI to close the Epstein case.
“When the Justice Department put out that memo that tried to sweep the whole thing under the rug—did some kind of directive come out of the White House, come from Susie Wiles, Stephen Miller, or Donald Trump to put out that memo?” he stated. “The age-old Watergate question is operative here: what did the president know—and when did he know it?”