A Democratic lawmaker kept insisting Donald Trump may be guilty of wrongdoing during his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and CNN anchor John Berman kept replying with disclaimers on Tuesday. (Watch the video below.)
Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, and Berman were discussing Monday’s release of Epstein records that included a photo of Epstein and a Mar-a-Lago club member with an oversize check that had an obviously fake Trump signature on it. The caption joked that Trump bought a “fully depreciated” woman. The entry was part of the “birthday book” made for Epstein in 2003 that Epstein’s estate handed over to the committee.
The committee has been investigating the Justice Department’s handling of the human sex-trafficking case against Epstein (which was dropped after he died in prison in 2019), while Trump has backed off from his promise to release documents connected to his former friend.
Min noted how Epstein’s victims, ranging in age from 12 to 22, said in testimony to the committee that they felt “commodified” and “disrespected.” He also asserted that Trump was part of Epstein’s inner circle.
Berman offered one of many statements to clarify matters and perhaps steer CNN clear of legal exposure. “Again, I do want to say we have no reason to think that he was in any way involved with that check itself, ” the journalist said. “Also, no reason to think he’s conducted any wrongdoing involving Jeffrey Epstein.”
“I would say we have lots of reasons to think he was involved in wrongdoing,” Min interrupted. “I mean, at this point, there’s a lot of smoke. There may be some fire, but I would just push back and say I think there’s a lot of reasons to think Donald Trump was involved.”
“Involved with what?” a defensive Berman shot back. “What proof do you have that he was involved with wrongdoing in regards to Jeffrey Epstein? And if that’s the case, why have there been no prosecutions over 20 years here? Because there haven’t really been any allegations that he was involved as a wrongdoer.”
Min, a former federal prosecutor, didn’t back down.
“There are a lot of connections where Donald Trump was named, right?” he said. “We had a 14-year-old claiming that she was raped by him, then withdrew that claim after she was apparently threatened.” (The alleged victim was a 13-year-old model who said she was tied to a bed and raped by the future president and Epstein, but she withdrew her lawsuit because she was threatened, her lawyer said.)
“His name appears a lot,” Min added. “Our job is to find justice for these survivors, and that means that we need to continue digging, knowing that there is a cover-up taking place right now. And I didn’t say that we have proof. At this point we have like a lot of smoke. But Donald Trump’s name is clearly mentioned multiple times. We’ve seen him lie over and over about things that we now know to be true.”
“Again, Donald Trump has not been named in any connection or charged with any wrongdoing there,” Berman corrected. The anchor then brought up the testimony of Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, prompting another round of debate.
Berman’s constant pushing of the brakes on any whiff of implied guilt regarding Trump may merely be a product of the times. The media-hating president recently squeezed settlements out of CBS and ABC after suing them, and has sued The Wall Street Journal for defamation in its reporting of a sexually crude message and drawing he allegedly sent to Epstein for that same birthday book.
That note was also made public on Monday. The White House denied it was Trump’s actual signature; Trump’s estranged niece Mary Trump insisted it was.