The Hill reports Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) doesn’t believe the findings from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department concerning sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — particularly the DOJ’s dismissal of Epstein’s so-called “client list.”
“I’m over it. It disgusts me,” Burchett told CNN’s Manu Raju. “I’m big on clarity and transparency, and that’s a good reason people don’t trust government, either party.”
Burchett initially said “I don’t know” when asked by CNN if Trump’s DOJ was trustworthy. But his hesitation soon blossomed into outright denial.
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“No, I don’t. I think I don’t. I don’t trust them,” he added.
The renouncement is notable because Burchett had previously attempted to blame the Biden administration for Trump’s failure to release Epstein’s client list and the details surrounding Epstein’s suicide. Mere days ago, Burchett suggested Biden officials had somehow destroyed Epstein’s client list, even though Trump supporters admit Trump was president when Epstein died in prison.
Trump’s loyal MAGA base was recently shattered when his DOJ and FBI issued a joint memo concluding Epstein’s death to be a suicide and that his client list did not exist, in contradiction to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who previously claimed she had the client list “on my desk” for review.
Fueling the resentment is the fact that Trump’s own FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino called for the federal government to release Jeffrey Epstein's "list" before Trump installed them over the FBI.
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When Patel was asked in 2023 why the government had not released information about Epstein’s purported clients, Patel told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson: "Simple, because of who’s on that list."
"You don’t think that Bill Gates is lobbying Congress night and day to prevent the disclosure of that list?" Patel added. “… What the hell are the House Republicans doing? They have the majority. You can’t get the list? … We can’t even get basic documents out. This is why America hates Congress.”
Weeks ago, it fell to Patel and Bongino to tell their MAGA base that they could find no such list and that Epstein had, in fact, died of suicide rather than murder.
There is also plenty of suspicion in addition to boiling resentment. Fox News reminded readers that Trump told ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ that he would "declassify” the Epstein files if he were elected president last year. However, even then, Trump’s statement suggests he was conscious of hurting certain unknown people incriminated by the list.
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"Yeah, yeah I would. I guess I would [release it]," Trump told Fox. "I think less so because you don’t know, you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world, but I think I would.”
Read the full Hill report at this link.