Fresh controversy is swirling in Washington as reports emerge that multiple documented interviews tied to a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump are missing from the Epstein files. The development has sparked renewed scrutiny of how the matter is being handled at the highest levels of government.
During a discussion on Morning Joe, MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire pointed to what he described as growing unease inside the administration and an unusual public absence from the president following his State of the Union address.
“There’s been frustration all along with how this has been handled. And that’s sort of counterintuitive, because so much of what the DOJ is doing is at the direction, at least unspoken direction, perhaps, of the White House,” Lemire said. He added that the president has privately expressed dissatisfaction in recent months, noting, “he’s been soured on how Attorney General Bondi has handled this. And then we see Bondi try to do a course correction to protect him, and that only seems to make it worse.”
According to Lemire, timing has only intensified the concern within political circles. “There’s no doubt that they were upset with the timing of these revelations. It drowned out the State of the Union,” he said. He also highlighted what he described as an unusual break from presidential norms.
“And as an aside, when was the last time a president delivered a State of the Union and then didn’t go toward the country, or to support those ideas or even appear in public?” Lemire asked. “We never saw President Trump at all yesterday; truly strange on the heels of a speech like that meant to reignite some momentum for his presidency.”
Lemire further suggested that the resurfacing of Epstein-related issues continues to be a source of frustration for the president. “But they understand,” he reported. “They understand that this Epstein matter is much to the president’s frustration. He has, since last summer, urged it to go away.
Remember when it first was percolating on the right with, you know, podcasts and stuff and he’s like, ‘No, stop talking about it. Stop talking about it.’” As questions persist over the handling of the Epstein files and the missing interviews, the issue appears to be reemerging as a political challenge at a moment when the administration had hoped to shift focus toward policy and messaging following the State of the Union.
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