Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to flip the script on a Democratic senator who has doggedly investigated Jeffrey Epstein's financial network, but an analyst questioned his strategy.
President Donald Trump's Treasury secretary used his opening statement to accuse Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who has been leading a congressional probe into Epstein's finances, of slandering the Treasury Department to cover up his own son's association with the late sex offender as revealed in Justice Department files.
"Sen. Wyden has mendaciously slandered the Treasury building in an attempt to cover up his son having an investment meeting with Jeffrey Epstein to ask for funding, thank you,” Bessent said, smiling.
”Nobody is interested in the ramblings of a capo in the most corrupt regime in American history," Wyden replied. "We want to get some facts about this deal, that’s what we’re here for.”
Brian Tyler Cohen, host of the popular "No Lie" podcast, was surprised by Bessent's line of attack and questioned his strategy.
"Can someone out there please send Scott Bessent their login for literally any news outlet in America so that he can be made aware that this is probably not the hill he wants to die on?" Cohen said. "Look, I frankly don't know what he's talking about with regard to Sen. Widen's son. But I've been clear since day one: If anyone left, right or center has done something wrong with regard to their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, they should be held to account, period."
Emails released in the Epstein files show Adam Wyden, who founded the investment firm ADW Capital in 2010, scheduled a meeting in 2016 with the disgraced financier at his Manhattan home, and the senator told Fox News in March, when the meeting was first reported, that he does not talk to his children about their business activities and learned of his son's contacts months before on social media.
"I supported the Clintons coming in to testify just as I support any and all Republicans coming in to testify," Cohen said. "But the reality is that that standard is only applied one way because, as Scott Bessent seems blissfully unaware of, Trump himself is implicated in the Epstein files 38,000 times. The current Republican attorney general refuses to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act and is right now withholding 3 million documents. The previous Republican attorney general, Pam Bondi, also refused to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, suppressing 3 million files."
"Todd Blanche quite literally moved the only living co-conspirator of Epstein's pedophile ring out of her prison cell and into a minimum security prison cell in exchange for, well, we don't know," Cohen added. "So maybe, just maybe, Scott Bessent might want to make sure that his own house is in order before hurling accusations related to Jeffrey Epstein at anyone else."