President Donald Trump has once again snubbed his MAGA base by rejecting pleas to appoint a special prosecutor to examine the Epstein files.
Despite Republicans’ growing frustration over the political firestorm engulfing the president for his handling of the issue, Trump ruled out recommending an independent counsel to review the matter and assuage concerns about a possible cover-up.
“The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a White House briefing on Thursday. “That’s how he feels.”
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Several of the president’s top loyalists, including former strategist Steve Bannon and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, had urged Trump to appoint a special counsel as a way of staving off the MAGA civil war that, in some cases, has led to former supporters burning their MAGA caps or vowing to never vote for Trump again.
Right wing provocateur Laura Loomer, who repeatedly called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to be sacked over the case, also argued that it would take the matter out of Bondi’s hands.
But Trump’s decision now risks inflaming the tensions that escalated ever since a Justice Department memo declared there was no evidence to suggest that Epstein was murdered or that he had a “client list”—something that many Trump supporters have long believed.
“No special counsel. No client list. No justice. He’s protecting the system because he’s a part of it,” said podcaster Brian Allen.
The issue has frustrated the president, who came to office promising transparency but now claims the files are a Democratic “hoax” taking oxygen away from other issues.
But Senate Democrat Ron Wyden, who has been probing Epstein’s financial networks and operations for years, rejected this.
In explosive revelations made on Thursday, Wyden, the ranking member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, said Treasury was currently sitting on a file that detailed 4,724 wire transfers adding up to nearly $1.1 billion that was flowing in and out of Epstein’s bank accounts.
“If you ask me, that is more than 4000 lines of investigation right there,” Wyden said.
“Hundreds of millions more flowed through to other accounts. That’s even a lot more to investigate. The files show that Mr Epstein used Russian bank accounts which are now under sanctions, to finance sex trafficking.”
In her briefing, Leavitt hit back at Democrats, saying they had control of the White House for four years “and they didn’t do a dang thing when it comes to transparency in regards to Jeffrey Epstein and his heinous crimes.”
Earlier on Thursday, Trump’s former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said he believed the president was named in the files as he was a known associate of Epstein years ago.
But he added that he didn’t think the files incriminated the president, and “my guess is that it’s particularly damning of people on both sides of the aisle, which is why Trump doesn’t want to release it and why Biden didn’t want to release it either.”
Leavitt also defended the Trump administration’s handling of the case, saying “some of the most trusted voices in the Republican Party movement”—including Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI deputy Dan Bongino—reviewed the files before the Justice Department decided not to release them publicly.
However, Bondi and Bongino clashed over the issue last week, in part, sources say, because he and Patel wanted to put out more information but were held back.
The push to appoint a special prosecutor was an option that had been war-gamed by Trump allies for days.
Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, who Trump had originally nominated to be attorney general, had been touted by many in MAGA world as the preferred candidate for the base.
But this would be a highly controversial choice more broadly, given a congressional ethics committee report released last year found he regularly paid women for sex; had sex with a 17-year-old; broke Florida’s statutory rape laws; and frequently used illegal drugs.
