Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told reporters that he doesn't buy the Trump Justice Department's narrative on the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case — but was swiftly called out by a colleague for voting against getting any answers on the matter.
In a video that was clipped to X on Tuesday afternoon, CNN's Manu Raju asked Burchett, "You don't believe what the DOJ is saying about Epstein?"
Burchett replied, "No, I don't. I don't trust them."
In response, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) posted, "Then why did you vote against releasing the files???"
A vote was held in the House on Tuesday morning to force the Justice Department to release any outstanding files they have on the case, which was blocked by Republicans.
Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have been under fire from the MAGA base for days, following the announcement of the Justice Department that their review of the Epstein case — long a source of conspiracy theories for both the left and right — had concluded, finding that Epstein's death in a Manhattan jail was indeed by suicide and that he did not have a long-fabled "client list" of rich and powerful people who were in on his child trafficking schemes.
Trump himself, who was known to have been friends with Epstein decades ago but doesn't have any direct evidence tying him to Epstein's criminal acts, has sought to cool down the temperature by issuing statements in support of Bondi and begging his followers to drop the issue.
"Why didn’t these Radical Left Lunatics release the Epstein Files?' Trump said in a recent post to Truth Social. "If there was ANYTHING in there that could have hurt the MAGA Movement, why didn’t they use it? LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT!"
