‘It’s Not a Hoax’: Speaker Mike Johnson Bluntly Breaks with Trump on Epstein Files
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told CBS News’s chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett on Thursday that the ongoing controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein “is not a hoax” – a stark break from President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on the issue.
Earlier in the week, Trump raged on Truth Social about the ongoing backlash from a joint DOJ-FBI memo claiming that the Epstein conspiracy theories were all false and the case was effectively closed. “My Poll Numbers within the Republican Party, and MAGA, have gone up, significantly, since the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax was exposed by the Radical Left Democrats and, just plain ‘troublemakers,’” Trump fumed on Sunday.
Garrett asked Johnson during an interview on his show The Takeout about the memo, “And to the point, when the Trump Justice Department said there were more than 1,000 victims, for people who knew this case very, very well—did a lot of investigative work on it—that number surprised them. High, high number.”
“Meaning that, to their minds, investigative reporters and others, there have to be accomplices—uncharged accomplices. And that aspect of justice is still missing,” Garrett added as Johnson replied:
Yes, and it’s a great concern to us. I mean, we want full transparency. We want everybody who is involved in any way with the Epstein evils—let’s call it what it was—to be brought to justice as quickly as possible. We want the full weight of the law on their heads.
“But when the Justice Department said in that same two-page memo there’s no reason to pursue further prosecutions, many said, ‘How can those two things be properly aligned?’” Garrett pushed.
Johnson replied, “These are good questions. I don’t know. I’ve never seen the Epstein evidence. It wasn’t in my lane, but I have the same concern and question that a lot of people do. And look, I think the president does as well.”
“This is not a hoax, in other words?” Garrett clarified.
“Oh, it’s not a hoax. Of course not,” Johnson replied immediately.
Watch the clip above via CBS News.
