Sen. John Fetterman said it is "absolutely troubling" after new emails surfaced where the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein mentioned President Donald Trump by name, The Hill reported. The Pennsylvania Democrat has defended Trump on other issues but is now toeing the party line that the president was somehow involved in the disgraced financier's troubling behavior.
Fetterman has been surprisingly moderate, including at times defending Trump and other Republicans. However, during a CNN interview with Dana Bash on Wednesday, Fetterman took the familiar leftist position of associating Trump with Epstein and his perverse proclivities.
Bash asked Fetterman about emails that were supposedly sent from Epstein that mentioned Trump as the "dog that hasn't barked" as his alleged crimes were coming to light. Epstein also mentioned that Trump spent "hours" with one of the women who would later be identified as one of his victims. Fetterman took the bait and ran with his criticism of Trump.
Fetterman had strong words about the new revelations found in these unearthed emails as the senator appeared in his signature black hoodie. "I have followed it, of course," the 56-year-old lawmaker.
"Yeah, it’s absolutely troubling, you know, to see that. And I think we probably need more," Fetterman said.
Fetterman pointed out that the Epstein files need to be released through the FBI and Justice Department, and that Democrats and Republicans agree on this. They have gone so far as to initiate a discharge petition that would bring the issue to the floor of the House of Representatives.
"My understanding is that now that the House is back now, they have enough to activate that discharge petition — I think that’s the technical term — and then I think everything should come out. I think, you know, enough people agree that it should just come out and just see where this goes and follow … the evidence," Fetterman continued.
Unfortunately, Epstein killed himself while in prison in 2019, so he cannot confirm these suspicious claims one way or the other. Still, his alleged accomplice and romantic partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving 20 years in prison for her part in the conspiracy that facilitated his abuse of minors. She is in the process of requesting that her sentence be commuted.
The White House attempted to dismiss the claims in the emails, stating that Democrats were "selectively" releasing the documents to cause the most damage and "create a fake narrative" against Trump. "These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, according to NBC News.
However, some of the emails released Wednesday from the House Oversight Committee are damning to Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and others. Trump's name is mentioned in the emails from Epstein, including his claim that he was not thrown out of Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, as the president so often said.
"Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever," Epstein purportedly wrote. Other claims included that Clinton "never" went to Epstein's private island despite Trump's insistence that he had been.
Ironically, the sleezy financier also claimed that Trump's business practices were "dirty" and his methods underhanded. "He has no money when he buys the house. His biz model is putting his name on a real estate development and gets a fee for using his name. The hotel biz is just that," Epstein wrote in a February 2019 email.
The entire Epstein affair, including his island, has many layers, with many prominent individuals likely entangled in it. If Trump was doing something wrong, he deserves to be punished; however, it is suspect that this is only coming to light now despite years of legal pursuit from the left.
