BREAKING: CNN’s Jake Tapper says a trove of Epstein evidence is being hidden from the public. ‘You’re being played for fools’
CNN anchor Jake Tapper tore into Donald Trump for his sudden 180 on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, claiming that the public was being “played for fools” after the Justice Department released a memo essentially saying the case was closed and Epstein had no “client list.”
During Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper kicked off his segment by highlighting the amount of rage that the Epstein memo has provoked among MAGA supporters, specifically noting that former “first buddy” Elon Musk has been increasingly outspoken about the matter.
“How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won‘t release the Epstein files?” Tapper asked, quoting a tweet from Tuesday afternoon by Musk, who has reignited his feud with the president in recent days.
Pointing out that the Tesla CEO’s post “gets at a serious question prompted by MAGA fans,” Tapper added that this comes after the DOJ determined in its memo that Epstein did not blackmail high-profile clients, did not maintain a “client list,” and was not murdered in his jail cell in 2019.
“Despite the fact that the very same administration officials are now asserting there is no evidence there, many of them were the ones ginning up the controversy before President Trump was reelected and while they were in office,” the Lead host stated.
Tapper rolled back clips of ranking Trump officials pushing for the Epstein release. Among them, Attorney General Pam Bondi, who in February told Fox News the Epstein list was “sitting on my desk to be reviewed.” But pressed this week, she walked it back, saying she was referring not to any bombshell client list, but to a batch of historical case files.
The host then ran other receipts. Vice President JD Vance, then campaigning on the Trump 2024 ticket, Kash Patel, now FBI Director, previously blasting the agency he now runs for “protecting the greatest pedophile in human history.” FBI deputy director Dan Bongino declaring on air he’d “never let this go.” And Alina Habba, now U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, who promised the files would be “shocking.”
Tapper continued: “There might not be a list, but there are certainly files that can be released. There’s a trove of information that the Trump administration is right now refusing to share, information that could well point to the powerful folks who availed themselves of the sex trafficking victims of Jeffrey Epstein.”
“This isn’t going to go away,” he warned in closing. “The public – you – you’re being played for fools here.”