Vice President J.D. Vance tangled Tuesday with the hosts of the ABC daytime talk show “The View” over the Trump administration’s handling of the files of the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, saying federal officials are not hiding any documents.”We are not holding anything back,” Mr. Vance said during his appearance on the show.
Mr. Vance characterized himself as a “conspiracy theorist” about the Epstein files, saying he has been troubled by Epstein’s connections to wealthy and powerful people. But he pushed back on the hosts’ claims that the administration hasn’t been fully transparent about releasing thousands of documents in the government’s possession related to Epstein.
“What I disagree with is the idea that the White House wasn’t committed to full transparency,” he said. “I was inside the room when some of these decisions were made.”
He also pushed back on the hosts’ allegations that Mr. Trump was aware of Epstein’s crimes.
“One of the things you see in the Epstein emails is that Jeffrey Epstein emails is that Jeffrey Epstein hated Donald Trump and that Donald Trump literally reported Jeffrey Epstein to the police,” he said. “That’s one of the things that came out.”
The hosts said Mr. Trump only signed the law releasing the Epstein documents “under duress” from other Republican lawmakers. They noted that he was friends with Epstein for about a decade.
Mr. Vance acknowledged that the two knew each other in the 1980s, but said Mr. Trump threw Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for “being a creep.”
Co-host Anna Navarro said the president was pressured into releasing the Epstein documents.
“Remember, he signed that transparency act under duress, from some Republican women like Congresswoman Lauren Boebert [of Colorado], like [former Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene,” she said.
Mr. Vance rejected her assertion.
“The idea that Donald Trump runs around afraid of Republican [lawmakers] as opposed to the other way around is kind of crazy,” he said.
The president promised during the 2024 campaign to release all the files. But in office, he later discouraged GOP lawmakers from passing such a bill, calling the move a Democratic “hoax.” He ended up signing the measure after the House passed it with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Mr. Vance ventured into what has been unfriendly daytime talk-show territory for Republicans to promote his new book, “Communion,” which is about his Catholic faith.
While the vice president walked out to overwhelming applause, the six female hosts wasted no time pressing him on a New York Times report that he led the push to release the Epstein files.
The report also said Mr. Vance floated the idea that Epstein’s partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, should be interviewed by Tucker Carlson as a PR gambit to dispel accusations that Mr. Trump was aware of or complicit in Epstein’s crimes.
No evidence has emerged tying Mr. Trump to Epstein’s crimes, but Democrats have still pushed that narrative to weaken the president politically. Epstein died in an apparent suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, while Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence on sex trafficking charges.
Mr. Vance copped to being “a conspiracy theorist” when it comes to the Epstein files, but said much of what was in The New York Times report was untrue.
“I am, frankly, kind of a conspiracy theorist on the Epstein stuff and [The Times’] story says that,” Mr. Vance said. “That’s one of the things that’s true, is that people called me a conspiracy theorist.”
“I think it’s crazy that you had this guy who was clearly a sex predator who was hanging out with a lot of very wealthy and powerful people, like that really bothered me,” Mr. Vance said, acknowledging that he didn’t know “what was there.
Mr. Vance said the administration has released 6 million pages of documents and the remainder can’t be released without a court order. He said that the court order was currently being decided in the Southern District of New York.
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