WorldNetDaily continued its pivot on the resurgent Jeffrey Epstein scandal toward protecting Donald Trump while still indulging its conspiratorial tendencies in a July 22 article by Bob Unruh:
There may, or may not, be a lot of new information coming out about convicted sex offender billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his activities.
Those are suspected to include providing teenage girls to high-profile personalities including celebrities and politicians.
It appears a lot of the details long have been hidden – at least over the last four years when Democrats were in charge of investigatory procedures. The Trump administration first promised to release all the details, then concluded there was nothing more available, then reversed again and now is promising to release what’s “credible.”
And Trump’s appointees just went a step further, promising a conversation with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her involvement as an aide to Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019, regarding sexually exploiting underage girls.
[…]House Democrats, who ignored their own party’s inaction on the issue for years under Joe Biden, suddenly have begun insisting that Epstein-related information be released.
[…] [“Noted opinion-writer” Victor Davis Hanson] said Trump himself has plausible explanations for the photographs that show him with Epstein, with his decision some years ago to disassociated from Epstein.“But for right now, I think he’s salvaged this problem and aborted a controversy by just saying, ‘Get this stuff out there and let the people decide.’ It’s the way it always should be in a democracy, in an open society,” he said.
Unruh helped the Trump camp on offense again in a July 28 article:
Vice President JD Vance went “scorched earth” on the legacy news media Monday for refusing to pursue the Jeffrey Epstein story during years while George W. Bush and Barack Obama were presidents.
Now, he explained, since President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to go “full transparency,” “that’s a criticism” of Trump.
Trump has ordered the DOJ to release all “credible” information about the sex offender who was convicted but given a light sentence, then died when he was jailed awaiting further charges.
Unruh didn’t mention that one of those involved in that “light sentence” for Epstein was Alex Acosta, who was Trump’s secretary in his first term and is now a member of the Newsmax board of directors.
Joe Kovacs took the damage-control route in a July 29 article:
Why did President Donald Trump end his friendship with fellow Palm Beacher Jeffrey Epstein years ago?
The commander in chief answered that question Tuesday, saying the convicted pedophile “stole” female staffers from his spa at Mar-a-Lago.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said Epstein hired away numerous spa workers despite being repeatedly told not to. He said some of the gals were young women, including then-17-year-old Virginia Giuffre.
“Everyone knows the people that were taken and it was the concept of taking people that work for me is bad,” Trump said.
“But that story has been pretty well out there, and yes, they were [young women] … People were taken out of the spa, hired by [Epstein]. In other words, gone. And other people would come and complain ‘this guy is taking people from the spa,’ I didn’t know that. And when I heard about it, I told him, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people, whether it was spa or not [the] spa.’ I don’t want him taking people, and he was fine. Then not too long after that, he did it again and I said, ‘[You’re] out of here.'”
When a reporter asked if Giuffre was one of the employees hired away from the spa, Trump responded: “I don’t know. I think she worked at the spa. I think so, I think that was one of the people, yeah.
“He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. None whatsoever.”
The president noted the hiring spree by the disgraced financier was “the end” of his time at Mar-a-Lago.
That seems like odd reasoning from Trump, but Kovacs doesn’t question it.