Author Michael Wolff tells The Daily Beast that the reason President Donald Trump is attacking former FBI Director James Comey is not only because of what Trump calls the "Russia hoax," but because of conspiracy theories linking Comey to the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“It’s one of those Trump things, that he can’t let anything go,” Wolff said on The Daily Beast's "Inside Trump's Head" podcast.
“The Comey question, and the Comey family, has really haunted him from the earliest moments of his administration—even before the administration.”
After Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 over the president's anger over the investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel in May 2017 to investigate any potential links with the Trump campaign.
The appointment of Mueller, Wolff says, "then haunts Trump through the end of his term,” but wasn't Trump's only ghost.
“But he also believes that Comey, coming out of the FBI, has been involved with leaking Epstein material. This goes to 2019. So at that point, the Southern District of New York, which is the Justice Department office in Manhattan, has commenced an investigation, a separate investigation, of Donald Trump," Wolff explains.
After Epstein was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in July, 2019, Wolff says, “The senior lawyer in this investigation is Maurene Comey, James Comey’s daughter,” who was fired by Trump's Department of Justice in July 2025 from her position as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
“Maurene Comey is fired from her job with the Southern District. And then subsequently, not long after, her father is indicted," Wolff says.
Conspiracy theories in MAGA world swirl around Trump's alleged involvement with Epstein, but not in the way one would think, according to Wolff.
“Within Trump circles, there is the belief that Epstein is, in fact, arrested to squeeze him for information about Donald Trump,” Wolff explained. “And we don’t know what information that might be because conveniently, at least for Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein dies shortly thereafter. At any rate though, Donald Trump continues to hold this belief and this grudge.”
Wolff says the Democrats have the advantage of the government shutdown to focus on Epstein.
“I’m looking at this and I actually can’t for the life of me understand why they would not pick up the most obvious issue and say: ‘We will close down the government until the Trump White House releases the Epstein files,'" Wolff says.
“I hope the Democrats are watching. It’s the Epstein files. It’s Epstein. If they would have learned anything, there is only one obvious weakness for Donald Trump, one obvious threat. It’s Epstein... Why wouldn’t they use that?”