{"id":269968,"date":"2025-07-17T18:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269968\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T18:18:09","slug":"trump-supporters-burn-maga-hats-after-he-dismisses-epstein-files-furor-as-hoax-jeffrey-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/269968\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump supporters burn Maga hats after he dismisses Epstein files furor as \u2018hoax\u2019 | Jeffrey Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s efforts to dismiss the criticism over his administration\u2019s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> files as a \u201choax\u201d showed no sign of working on Thursday as more prominent figures from across the political spectrum emerged to attack the US president and some of his supporters recorded videos burning their signature Make America Great Again hats.<\/p>\n

Days after the Republican speaker of the House, the Trump loyalist Mike Johnson<\/a>, called for the release of all documents relating to the late financier, a convicted sex offender and longtime former friend of Trump\u2019s, rebellion continued to simmer within the president\u2019s normally diehard base.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s former vice-president, Mike Pence, told CBS News<\/a> on Wednesday that \u201cI think the time has come for the administration to release all of the files regarding Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s investigation and prosecution\u201d, while the conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, a frequent close adviser to Trump, called for the appointment<\/a> of a special counsel to handle the Epstein files investigation. \u201cObviously, this is not a complete hoax given the fact that [Epstein associate] Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison in Florida for her crimes and activities with Jeffrey Epstein, who we know is a convicted sexual predator,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The podcast host Theo Von, who attended Trump\u2019s inauguration and told Fox News it was \u201cinspiring<\/a>\u201d, commented<\/a> \u201cyeah what changed\u201d on a video of the vice-president, JD Vance, appearing on Von\u2019s show in 2024 and calling for the full Epstein list to be released.<\/p>\n

Even some of Trump\u2019s most loyal allies in Congress say they are not satisfied by his decision to not release additional files from the Epstein case.<\/p>\n

Senator Josh Hawley questioned the justice department\u2019s claims about the files, saying: \u201cI think it is maybe a little difficult to believe the idea that DoJ and the FBI \u2026 don\u2019t have any idea who Epstein\u2019s clients were\u201d, and called for Maxwell to testify.<\/p>\n

In rare moment of friction between Trump and Johnson, meanwhile, the House speaker broke with the president on Tuesday, calling for the justice department to make more Epstein documents public, and urging Pam Bondi, the attorney general, to \u201ccome forward and explain\u201d the situation. Bondi has come under particular attack for appearing to claim earlier in the year that she had a client list of Epstein\u2019s, then declaring last week no such list existed.<\/p>\n

Maga hats burn in an online video. Photograph: X | @ExtremePapist<\/p>\n

Still, House Republicans voted twice this week<\/a> to block Democratic attempts to force the public release of all Epstein files within 30 days, with only one Republican<\/a>, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, voting in favor.<\/p>\n

The controversy deepened on Wednesday evening after news that the federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI director James Comey, who worked on the criminal cases of both Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, had been fired. The justice department provided no specific reason for her dismissal.<\/p>\n

As the backlash spirals out of his normally firm grasp on the Maga voter, Trump slammed \u201cfoolish Republicans\u201d on Wednesday who he said were helping Democrats by focusing on documents related to Epstein.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats\u2019 work,\u201d Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain. \u201cI call it the Epstein hoax. Takes a lot of time and effort. Instead of talking about the great achievements we\u2019ve had \u2026 they\u2019re wasting their time with a guy who obviously had some very serious problems, who died three, four years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Close to seven in 10 Americans in a recent Reuters\/Ipsos poll<\/a> said details around Epstein were being concealed. Sixty-nine per cent said they believed there had been concealment of facts on Epstein\u2019s clients by the federal government, with close to 25% unsure whether facts had been concealed, according to the poll.<\/p>\n

Epstein was arrested on sex-trafficking charges and is believed to have died by suicide in prison in 2019, according to authorities. His former associate Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and is serving a 20-year sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s efforts to dismiss the criticism over his administration\u2019s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-269968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114869954433509188","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}