JD Vance defends Trump on Epstein case during Ohio steel mill visit

CANTON – Hundreds of miles away from nation’s capital, Vice President JD Vance couldn’t escape the topic that has dominated Washington for months.

As Vance visited Ohio to tout the Trump administration’s economic agenda on Monday at a steel mill, a small group of protesters assembled across the street from those gathered, holding a sign that read: “JD protects pedophiles,” in a nod to the president’s association with accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Vance’s official reason for his visit to Ohio on Monday was to tout the “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” tax and spending legislation approved by Republicans in Congress. He spoke to steelworkers at Metallus Inc.

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But the protesters’ presence prompted a question from the media about a reputed Epstein client list, and why the federal government was hesitant to release files on Epstein compiled by the FBI and Justice Department.

Epstein, a wealthy financier who at one-time was a friend of the president, was accused in July 2019 of federal charges involving sex trafficking of minors. Weeks later, he was found dead in his New York jail cell — ruled a suicide by hanging.

Conspiracy theories have since flourished, with calls for full disclosure of sealed court documents and FBI files. Democrats in Congress have also pressed for release of thousands of records.

The Washington Post noted that the focus on the Epstein files has become a great source of frustration to Trump as it overshadows his agenda.

Vance wasted no time in defending Trump, insisting that he wants “full transparency” in the case.

“First of all, the president has been very clear. We’re not shielding anything,” Vance said. “The president has directed the attorney general to release all credible information and, frankly, to go and find additional credible information related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi has been at the center of the Epstein drama. She made releasing the FBI’s files one of her key initiatives.

For months, both Bondi and other Justice Department officials suggested that they were on the cusp on exposing new truths about Epstein. This included a previously undisclosed “client list,” and new revelations about his death. But earlier this month, Trump’s Justice Department and FBI concluded that no such client list exists and that Epstein’s death was a suicide.

Now, in the absence of any significant new information in the case, the Trump administrations’ focus on the matter has riled up right-wing conspiracies and has caused a rift among the president’s own base.

Bondi is working on Trump’s directive to release credible information in the case, but it might “take time,” Vance insisted Monday.

“Some of that stuff takes time. You’ve got to assemble that stuff. You’ve got to compile that stuff. You’ve got to redact some victim’s names so that you protect the victims. But the president has been very clear. He wants full transparency. He’s asked that from the attorney general.”

The vice president also took the opportunity to throw blame at the feet of the Obama and George W. Bush administrations for going “easy” on Epstein.

“If you want to criticize the people who aren’t showing full transparency, you ought to go after the administrations that went easy on Jeffrey Epstein, the administrations that concealed this case for 20 years, and the administrations that failed to show full transparency,” Vance said.

A Justice Department report released during Trump’s first term in 2020 found that Alex Acosta, who was a U.S. attorney in Florida during Bush’s administration, exercised “poor judgment” in handling an investigation into Epstein in 2008. Acosta was Trump’s secretary of labor at the time of the report, which also said he did not engage in professional misconduct.

Vance also went to bat for the President.

“Donald J. Trump, I’m telling you, he’s got nothing to hide. His administration has got nothing to hide. And that’s why he’s been an advocate for full transparency in this case,” Vance said.