President Donald Trump claimed to have been "exonerated" of any wrongdoing as it relates to his past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein no less than five times Monday when speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, a remark that comes amid mounting evidence to the contrary.
A reporter asked Trump about recent remarks from his longstanding political rival, Hillary Clinton, who accused the president of having “something to hide” regarding Epstein, the convicted child sex offender who once claimed to have been Trump’s “closest friend for 10 years.”
Trump insisted that he had “nothing to hide,” and went on to insist several times that he had been “totally exonerated” of the allegations leveled against him regarding his past ties to Epstein. This despite him being named more than 38,000 times in newly released Epstein files.
“I have nothing to hide, I've been exonerated! I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein! They went in hoping that they'd find it – they found just the opposite, I've been totally exonerated,” Trump insisted, speaking aboard Air Force One late Monday night.
“In fact, Jeffrey Epstein was fighting that I don't get elected with some author, a sleazebag by the way. I was totally exonerated. I've been totally exonerated on Epstein. And it's really interesting because they've been pulled in, Clinton and many other Democrats.”
Despite Trump’s claims, the Justice Department’s release of millions of files on Epstein has unearthed a number of allegations against him, among them claims that he abused at least two underage girls, which political reporter Roger Sollenberger reported Sunday were deemed credible by federal investigators.