House Speaker Mike Johnson found himself at the center of a political storm this week after attempting to clarify remarks that suggested former President Donald Trump had acted as an FBI informant in the notorious Jeffrey Epstein case. The controversy, which erupted after Johnson’s comments to reporters on Capitol Hill, highlights the ongoing tension between calls for transparency in the Epstein investigation and the fierce partisanship that continues to define U.S. politics.
It all began on September 5, 2025, when Johnson told the press that Trump had not dismissed Epstein’s crimes as a mere “hoax,” but instead recognized them as “a terrible, unspeakable evil.” According to CNN and The Independent, Johnson asserted, “When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an informant to try to take this stuff down.” Johnson went on to say, “The president knows and has great sympathy for the women who have suffered these unspeakable harms. It’s detestable to him.”
However, Johnson’s use of the term “informant” quickly drew scrutiny, both from political opponents and from members of the media. Social media lit up with claims that Trump was being painted as a hero in the Epstein saga, a narrative that some critics saw as an attempt to distract from more pressing questions about the case and Trump’s relationship to the disgraced financier.
Pressed by CNN on September 8, Johnson sought to walk back his statement. “What I was referring to in that long conversation was what the (Epstein) victims’ attorney said,” he explained. “More than a decade ago, President Trump kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, and he was one of the only people, one of the only prominent people, as everyone has reported… that he was willing to help law enforcement go after this guy who was a disgusting child abuser, sex trafficker, all the allegations. That’s what they heard. So the president was helpful in that.”
Johnson admitted uncertainty about his choice of words, saying, “I don’t know if I used the right terminology, but that’s common knowledge, and everybody knows that. So this is much ado about nothing.” He further clarified, “I was repeating what has been common knowledge for a long time. The president was helpful in trying to get Epstein for the law enforcement to go after Epstein. That’s always been my understanding. That’s common knowledge. It’s the public’s understanding. I didn’t — I was not breaking news there, OK? What I’m trying to emphasize is that the president is as disgusted about this as everyone is.”
Johnson also made clear that he had no information about whether Trump had ever been asked to wear a wire or had any direct involvement beyond being “helpful.” The White House, for its part, declined to comment directly on Johnson’s remarks.
In the wake of these statements, Johnson’s office released a further clarification, reiterating that he was “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,” as reported by The Independent.
That attorney, Brad Edwards, who represents numerous Epstein abuse victims, has played a key role in shaping the public narrative around Trump’s involvement. Edwards told reporters, “Back in 2009 and several times after that, he didn’t think that it was a hoax then. In fact, he helped me. He got on the phone, he told me things that were helping our investigation. Our investigation wasn’t looking into him, but he was helping us then.”
Edwards added, “So at this point in time, I would hope that he would revert back to what he was saying to get elected, which is, ‘I want transparency.’ This about-face that occurred, none of us understand it.” According to The Independent, Edwards has expressed disappointment that Trump’s stance appears to have shifted in recent years, saying, “And now it seems like all of a sudden somebody is in his ear, and he’s not. So I’m hoping he’ll come back to where he was back in 2009, be on the side of the victims and stand with us.”
The shifting rhetoric comes as Congress intensifies its own investigation into the Epstein case. Johnson indicated that House Oversight Chairman James Comer and committee members were planning to visit the Epstein estate in Florida to review visitor logs as part of their probe. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of House Oversight staffers was expected to travel to New York City to meet with lawyers representing Epstein’s estate and to review unredacted documents related to the case, according to CNN.
The renewed focus on the Epstein files has been fueled in part by emotional testimony from several of Epstein’s survivors. In early September, accusers spoke before Congress, detailing years of abuse at the hands of Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking offenses tied to Epstein’s crimes. One survivor, Chauntae Davies, said at a Capitol Hill press conference that Epstein had received “a free pass” and frequently “bragged about his powerful friends,” including Trump. Another survivor, Haley Robson, a self-identified Republican, publicly invited Trump to meet with her at the Capitol, saying, “I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax.”
The case remains a lightning rod for conspiracy theories, particularly after Epstein’s death in jail while awaiting trial on trafficking charges. The Department of Justice announced earlier this year that there was “no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials,” resisting calls for a full accounting of Epstein’s death and alleged connections to a broader child trafficking conspiracy. Officials concluded that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
Despite the Justice Department’s stance, Democratic lawmakers and a handful of Republicans have continued to push for legislation that would force the release of more documents related to Epstein and his crimes. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee recently released 30,000 pages of documents obtained from the Justice Department, but most of these were already publicly available, according to The Independent.
Trump, for his part, has consistently downplayed the significance of the ongoing investigations, referring to the case as a “Democrat hoax.” Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said, “From what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it’s really a Democrat hoax, because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we've had as a nation since I've been president.”
The White House, however, insists that Trump “has always been committed to justice and transparency for these victims” and points to the release of thousands of pages of documents to Congress as evidence of that commitment. The administration also accused Democrats of “ignoring Epstein’s victims for years and are now only interested in them as a way to attack President Trump.”
As the investigation grinds on, the political battle lines remain firmly drawn. While survivors and their advocates continue to demand more transparency and accountability, the debate over Trump’s role and the government’s response to the Epstein scandal shows no sign of fading from the national conversation.
The story of Jeffrey Epstein, and the powerful people whose names have been linked to him, continues to cast a long shadow over American politics—one that is unlikely to dissipate any time soon.
