New reporting indicates more disclosures may be on the way in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Benny Johnson, an influencer on the right who has been interviewing people on Epstein and knows Trump administration officials, reported Monday that powerful people inside the administration are now pushing for a special counsel and a full press briefing.
Additional Disclosures?
My own take on that is there is no way we are having a special counsel on Epstein. A special counsel is appointed by the attorney general when there is a conflict of interest by said attorney general. What is Pam Bondi’s conflict of interest? She can investigate Epstein and what happened. Just because she screwed up in her messaging on Epstein over the past few months doesn’t mean she has a conflict of interest. To the contrary, I think she would want to be as transparent as ever since her own reputation has been dinged up.
And even if they did appoint a special counsel, it would be kind of pointless because that person would obviously be under the control of Bondi and Trump. So that, to me, is a red herring. It’s a head fake.
Now, if they are actually thinking about having a presser or Pam Bondi sitting down for an extensive, no holds barred interview, she and/or anybody from the FBI and Department of Justice are welcome to come on this show and do that. It would be totally fair. I don’t dislike Pam Bondi. I don’t have it out for Pam Bondi. I just think she has botched this. And if there is sort of a ‘fall guy’ who has mishandled the Epstein messaging for the Trump administration, it is very clearly Pam Bondi.
In any event, one of those two things could happen, according to Benny Johnson. I don’t think they are not going to have any additional disclosures. I think they realize they have to. There are some right-wing pundits online who are saying no one cares about Jeffrey Epstein, and that is just not true. A Rasmussen poll recently showed only 21 percent of the American public believes that Epstein killed himself. The vast majority of Americans actually think that there is a cover up of some sort and would like more disclosure.
Why Epstein Matters
I get that this isn’t exactly what Trump ran on, but all of his surrogates – from his family members to the vice president – pushed this and was demanding more transparency. Anybody who says otherwise is misleading you.
With that said, it is important to keep in mind Trump has been out there racking up wins left and right. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize with good reason. In June, we saw an economic surplus here in the United States for the first time. Trump just recently said he is going to open back up the spigot for arms to Ukraine via NATO. That is a more of a victory for the neocon wing of the Republican Party, but they’ve had a couple of victories lately between the Iranian nuclear strikes and now this. He is winning court battle after court battle. The Supreme Court continues to step in to slap down these federal district court judges that are trying to enjoin the Trump agenda.
Trump is focused on a lot of important things, and I agree and accept that Epstein is nowhere near even the top 20. The problem for him is that this has been an ongoing issue for millions in the country – especially among the Republican base. And it has been a fire fanned by his top emissaries, including the two guys he has running the FBI in Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino.
Changing Their Tune
Yet now you have some MAGA influencers – clearly on the direction of the White House – saying, ‘Okay, I’m done.’ You saw Laura Ingraham on Fox News last night saying there was a pile on at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit over the weekend and then kind of suggesting she is moving on from Epstein. I like Laura, but she 100 percent stood up there in Tampa and fanned this flame.
I talked about Pam Bondi and Epstein there, too. I was on the receiving end of a Q&A with Charlie Kirk and he was asking those questions. The interviewer set the tone and chose the subject with which I was 100 percent fine. But let’s not pretend that some of the president’s most loyal advocates aren’t very, very interested in Epstein. They are.
Charlie Kirk got on his show yesterday and said he is “done talking about Epstein for the time being” and is going to “trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done to solve it.” So, Charlie says he is going to trust his friends inside the administration. You heard Ben Shapiro say that on this show on Monday as well.
Where Megyn Stands
I will state for the record: I have lots of friends inside the administration. I have nothing but respect and admiration for this president. But I am in a different business. I am in the journalism business. And my position is you can trust, but you must verify.
I refuse to be the CNN of Trump 2.0 where they just trusted the administration on Joe Biden’s mental acuity and willingly, by doing so, ignored the biggest crisis and controversy scandal in modern presidential history. That is not at all what is happening here, but people like me who consider themselves journalists have an obligation to not just trust. You have to kick the tires. That is your job.
You approach all stories and everything fed to you by an administration official – like them, love them, respect them, trust them or not – with a healthy dose of skepticism and you drill down until you think you have actually captured the story. That is what we are going to do.
I am not obsessed with Epstein. Everyone who listens to this show knows if you wanted to hear in-depth Epstein coverage over the past five or six years, this was not the place you came to. But we are going to try to get to the bottom of what is knowable now that they are telling us there is no there, there. For me, that is just a red cape in front of a bull.
I understand some people will say, ‘Don’t do it. You don’t want to hurt Trump.’ I don’t think this will hurt Trump. I think non-disclosure and non-transparency is hurting Trump. But I am also not in the business of protecting Donald Trump. That is what The New York Times does for a Democrat. That is not me. That is not any honest journalist. I am not going on some media tour in four years with Alex Thompson trying to explain how I am shocked, shocked! that there wasn’t full disclosure under Trump on Epstein.
This scandal is nowhere near what the Biden mental acuity scandal was, but it is a time for people who consider themselves honest journalists to choose. You don’t back off a story just because a politician asks you to. That is just a statement of core principles, at least here on The Megyn Kelly Show.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,108 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.