CNN's John Berman tried to pin down a Republican lawmaker on President Donald Trump's denials of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump denied reports about a bawdy birthday message he'd written to the late sex offender, and even sued the Wall Street Journal over it, but once Epstein's estate handed over the scrawled message to House Oversight Democrats, the president declared the topic "a dead issue," and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) was asked about the matter.
"What do I think about it?" Sessions said. "I think that what we've got to do is to continue our investigation. We want the truth. I want to be able to answer questions, and we're going to get there."
Sessions said he did not consider the matter a dead issue, and he said lawmakers are continuing to examine data and information, although he conceded the president might prefer to turn the page on the Epstein birthday book – which prompted another question from Berman.
"Well, okay, so it's not a dead issue for you, I mean, it is a dead issue for the president," Berman said. "What does that tell you about his level of curiosity about the Epstein investigation?"
Sessions tried to pin some of the blame on previous presidents.
"It's hard for me to know what the last four presidents have looked at in this whole issue," Sessions said. "It is brand new to Congress to begin its review of the documents and ask questions. The presidents probably worked through this a long time ago. They had the knowledge, they had the data, they had the information. He can draw a conclusion after six months. I have not drawn that conclusion yet."
Trump has denied signing the birthday note on a crude drawing of a female figure, along with an imagined conversation between him and Epstein about the secrets they share together, but Berman asked the congressman what he thought.
"Does it look like his signature to you on the bottom of that letter?" Berman said.
"You know, we're looking at that," Sessions replied. "We're also looking at people who are gathering together his signature at the time, and that's what we need to pay attention to. We've been provided the information, now what we need to do is draw our own conclusion."
"So to you, it's an open question about whether that's his signature on this document," Berman added.
"Well, evidently the president, who was not under oath, stated it was not his," Sessions answered. "The White House has stated that, so we will start from that perspective unless proven otherwise. But this is simply a small part of the entire questions. We need to we need to put together this information. Why did the last, in essence, for presidents not move forward on this? Where is the evidence? What is the scope of the entire matter, and we're still looking at that."
