In trying to explain the latest comments by President Donald Trump about Jeffrey Epstein, Speaker Mike Johnson shocked the country on Friday by claiming that Trump was an "FBI informant" on Jeffrey Epstein.

After fielding press inquiries about his statement all weekend, Johnson clarified his statement to say that Trump helped authorities who were investigating Epstein, but backed off from his earlier "informant" statement, which implied a formal relationship between Trump and the FBI on the investigation.

What Johnson was trying to do with his original comment was explain an earlier comment by Trump that the Esptein saga was a "hoax."

The comment prompted cries of outrage by alleged victims of Epstein, but Johnson said Trump wasn't referring to Epstein's crimes as a hoax.

Slight adjustment

Instead, Trump was saying the narrative that he was involved in any of Epstein's illicit activities, which had been put forward by his political enemies, was a hoax.

To bolster his argument, Johnson said that Trump was an FBI informant.

But what he meant was that Trump had helped the FBI investigate Epstein when no one else was offering to do so.

“The Speaker is reiterating what the victims’ attorney said, which is that Donald Trump — who kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago — was the only one more than a decade ago willing to help prosecutors expose Epstein for being a disgusting child predator,” a statement from Johnson’s office read.

Democrats in Congress, and a few Republicans, are livid that Trump is backtracking on the release of the Epstein files, and speculation has been rampant for why.

Some say Trump is guilty of the same kind of conduct as Epstein and that he wants to hide his involvement, while others think he's covering up for some of his friends.

Has his reasons

For my part, I think he has his reasons for keeping it quiet. As Johnson and others have pointed out, Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-A-Lago and cut ties with him years before his first arrest for sex trafficking.

Why would he suddenly want to protect him?

But the public has the need to be titillated by the release of all the information on Epstein, so it will kick up a fuss.

Democrats want to force Trump's hands, but they should be careful about what they wish for. The information could hurt them a lot more than it would Trump, and then where will they point the finger?