Scott Bessent Fires Off Epstein Accusation Against Senate Dem in Wild Hearing Brawl

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) exchanged Epstein accusations during a tense confrontation at a Wednesday budget hearing.

During his opening remarks, Wyden accused President Donald Trump’s administration of widespread corruption and accused Bessent of being involved in said corruption while not prioritizing rising costs fueled by the Iran war. Wyden’s sharpest comments though came when he brought up convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. Wyden directly accused Bessent of not cooperating with investigations into Epstein’s financial records. This led to Bessent accusing Wyden of having his own Epstein connection he wanted hidden.

Epstein died in 2019 of an apparent suicide while facing sex trafficking charges. Various files related to his case were released to the public after congressional legislation, but critics have largely dismissed this effort, noting the numerous redactions in the files released and the fact that no charges were brought against anyone connected to Epstein.

Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years for sex trafficking, which the Department of Justice said she did in coordination with Epstein. Administration officials have now insisted that Epstein was only trafficking girls for himself.

Wyden said during his opening remarks:

Even outside of economic measures, the Treasury Secretary is simply out of step with the American people. There’s no better example than the fact that there has been a coverup of the massive file of Epstein’s financial records for a year and a half. This is part of the effort I’ve made, it’s the only one, to follow the money in the Epstein situation. And yet there’s been a denial of access to committee investigators and lying in public about their significance. That subject alone deserves its own hearing. Senate investigators are trying to figure out who paid Epstein for girls and unfortunately Secretary Bessent is involved in preventing that from happening.

Bessent did not take the digs well, personally calling out Wyden at the end of his own opening statement.

“I had hoped to keep this in terms of the economy — Senator Wyden has mendaciously slandered the Treasury building in an attempt to cover up his son having an investment meeting with Jeffrey Epstein to ask for funding,” Bessent said.

Recently-unsealed DOJ documents showed that Wyden’s son, Adam Wyden, met Epstein through a mutual fund and later sought to pitch him an investment opportunity.

“I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and hope my passion and dedication for my business came through in the meeting,” Adam Wyden told Epstein in a 2016 email.

“Let’s be clear here. Nobody is interested in the ramblings of a capo in the most corrupt regime in American history. We want to get some facts about this deal. That’s what we’re here for,” Sen. Wyden shot back at Bessent.

“And we would like to hear what Adam Wyden and Jeffrey Epstein talked about. Your son’s largest investment position was Rick’s Cabaret. So did your son and Jeffrey Epstein talk about pole dancing as he begged him for money using your limited credibility?” Bessent threw back.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (D-ID) turned to Wyden to make sure he didn’t have another response before he launched into the first questions of the hearing.

Watch above via CSPAN.

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