CNN’s Jake Tapper repeatedly fact-checked a Republican senator on air Sunday as the lawmaker insisted that Democrats and Barack Obama’s administration were at fault for a “sweetheart” deal that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to escape his 2008 conviction on child sex charges virtually unscathed.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and repeatedly claimed that a plea agreement to keep Epstein from being charged federally for child sex crimes was signed in 2009, under the Obama administration. But Epstein’s plea agreement was drafted in 2007 and signed in 2008, when he pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for sex, before Obama was even president.
“It was 2008,” Tapper corrected him, chuckling.
Tapper noted that the U.S. attorney who oversaw the non-prosecution agreement was Alex Acosta, who went on become Donald Trump’s secretary of labor during his first administration.
“It all took place in 2008,” Tapper said.
Mullin then shot back, asking “who was in office at the time?” — seemingly making the error of assuming that Obama was the president. Obama won the presidential election that year but was inaugurated in January 2009.
“In 2008, George W. Bush was the president,” Tapper said, as he was cut off by Mullin repeating his question. “George W. Bush.”
Mullin went on to insist that because the case was “sealed in 2009” that Democrats were somehow involved.
A clearly exasperated Tapper responded that “the point is, the ‘sweetheart deal’, which was completed in 2008, was under the Bush administration.”
The plea agreement inked between Acosta and Epstein’s attorney, Alan Dershowitz, was staggering in its leniency.
Epstein was allowed to leave the prison facility for hours at a time for “work release” to the headquarters of a nebulous enterprise called the “Florida Science Foundation” he founded shortly before beginning his sentence and shut down when it concluded.
Inside the prison, Epstein was allowed to maintain his own office, just as he’d done at Harvard University for years, while watching television and was watched by guards who wore suits and were partially on his payroll.
Mullin and other Republicans closely aligned with the president are treading a careful line on the issue of the Epstein investigation.
The Trump administration ignited a firestorm early in July when the Department of Justice and FBI announced that the agencies would not release any more documents related to the Epstein investigation despite having promised to do so. The agencies cited a refusal to release identifying information about victims and graphic sexual imagery involving children.
Most glaringly, the agencies also declared in that early July announcement that a so-called “client list” of Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators had not been found.
Having latched on to the issue long before Trump was elected to a second term, his MAGA base descended into chaos.
Many of the president’s 2024 supporters called the reversal a betrayal by the administration, while some questioned whether Trump himself was involved in a cover-up to protect himself or other powerful men named as Epstein’s accomplices in the files. Some Democrats latched on to the issue at the same time, joining calls for transparency.
Then, a pair of articles in The Wall Street Journal purported to outline Trump’s own connections to the investigation.
The newspaper reported the contents of a message allegedly penned by Trump to Epstein as part of a 50th birthday celebration in 2003, including allusions to a “secret.” Trump firmly denied authoring the note, and sued the newspaper and its reporters in response.
A second article from the WSJ days later reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in May that he was mentioned in the Epstein investigation multiple times, thought it was not clear in what context
The White House called that story “fake” and has repeatedly insinuated that Democrats including Joe Biden tampered with the Epstein files in response.
Being mentioned in the files does not mean wrongdoing, and hundreds of names are reportedly included.
Republicans on Capitol Hill are caught in the middle. Some are joining on to a bipartisan effort led by Thomas Massie — a Republican who clashed with the president over the GOP budget reconciliation package earlier this year — and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to force the Justice Department to release the entirety of its document trove, with redactions for child sexual assault material and the names or identifying information of victims.
Others more aligned with leadership, including House Speaker Mike Johnson.
But Johnson and others have been careful not to label the Epstein story a distraction, to the White House’s annoyance.
Johnson called the August recess early this past week, sending lawmakers home for the month to avoid a vote legislation from Massie and Khanna.
