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Why do Trump’s MAGA followers care so much about the Epstein files?

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Even after President Donald Trump called some of his followers “stupid” and “foolish” for their persistent calls for his administration to divulge the details of the Jeffrey Epstein files, many of his most prominent MAGA supporters and congressional Republicans continue to demand answers.

Their calls stemmed from years of media prompts from prominent right wing figures, including Trump himself, who have pushed accusations about the convicted sex offender and alleged human trafficker and the “deep state” that’s protecting the elites that were purportedly his clients.

Right-wing influencers such as Michael Flynn have been pushing for the the list that they believe is in the hands of the Justice Department of Epstein’s clients , who they allege, without evidence, are powerful liberals. Flynn, one of Trump’s staunchest supporters who has pushed QAnon conspiracies related to sex trafficking, went on X Wednesday imploring Trump to reconsider his claim that the Epstein controversy was a “hoax,” contending that the allegations against Epstein were too serious to ignore.

“All we want at this stage is for a modicum of trust to be reestablished between our federal government and the people it is designed to serve,” he said in his post.

“With my strongest recommendation, please gather your team and figure out a way to move past this. The roll out of this was terrible, no way around that. Americans want America to be successful, therefore, WE NEED YOU TO BE SUCCESSFUL,” Flynn added.

Some congressional Republicans who are among Trump’s strongest supporters have bucked the president’s wishes to drop the subject.

Speaker Mike Johnson said told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson that he’s for releasing the files.

“I’m for transparency,” Johnson said. “It’s a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, one of Trump’s fiercest supporters in Congress, told the New York Times, “It’s definitely a full reversal on what was all said beforehand, and people are just not willing to accept it.”

GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters Tuesday, “I think it’s reasonable for the American people to ask who [Epstein] sex trafficked these young women to — if anybody besides himself. And if there were others involved, why haven’t they been prosecuted? That’s a perfectly understandable question, and I think the Justice Department is going to have to answer it.”

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said, “This is the worst one, the worst human trafficking rings in American history, run by this scumbag. And I think the more we know about it, the more we get out there, the better it is,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Tuesday.

The MAGA base’s arguments about the Epstein files grew among podcasters, social media posts and other influencers after Trump’s first term ended

For years, Kash Patel, now Trump’s FBI director, pushed conspiracies related to the Epstein investigation and made baseless allegations about the “deep state.”

Patel called for the public disclosure of the Epstein documents and those of other investigations, arguing in November that Trump “can expose the documents that these folks have written for decades, allowing [their] corrupt activities.”

Dan Bongino, a former Fox News host and now deputy director of the FBI, repeatedly brought up Epstein on his podcast, in interviews and on his social media pages, alleging that the Democrats were covering up the investigation.

“Listen, that Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal, please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on this,” Bongino said in a 2023 episode of his podcast.

On Wednesday, some of those influencers sounded off on the matter.

Key Trump ally Steve Bannon put pressure on the administration to release more details.

“I’ve argued with the Epstein situation. People want accountability. Even people that are late to this story and don’t know much about Epstein, they think something’s murky here,” he said.

Podcaster Johnson responded to Trump comparing the Epstein case to the other “hoaxes” he frequently cites, arguing that Trump should want all the information on Epstein out there.

“But my point to the president, respectfully, is the only way we know that all those are fake and that that’s all garbage is that the federal is that eventually we got all of the information … So, like, by Trump’s own logic, here, we should be releasing everything, which I think would be a great pressure release valve for all this,” he said.

Maurene Comey, federal prosecutor in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, fired: Sources

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday fired Maurene Comey from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she most recently led the prosecution of Sean “Diddy” Combs, multiple sources told ABC News.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan declined to comment. A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a call for comment

Comey was a highly regarded assistant U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and multiple gang members before the split verdict earlier this month in the trial of Combs, who was convicted of a prostitution-related charge but acquitted of more serious charges.

Comey was also involved in the office’s case against Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 at New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Comey is the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, who President Donald Trump fired during his first term in office because he initiated the Russia investigation.

According to sources, Trump privately vented about having a Comey work in his administration.

This marks the latest shake-up for the nation’s most prominent federal prosecutor’s office.

In April, the office’s top prosecutor, Matthew Podolsky, agreed to step aside, clearing the way for Trump to install Jay Clayton, his nominee for interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York,

Podolsky had taken over for Danielle Sassoon, who in February resigned in protest of the Justice Department’s order to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Sassoon had been named interim U.S. attorney by Trump when the president fired Edward Kim, who assumed the role during the change in administrations.

What we know and don’t know about Jeffrey Epstein, according to key victims’ attorney

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(PALM BEACH, FL) — Brad Edwards knows that what you are about to read may be difficult for some to accept.

A victims’ rights lawyer from Florida, Edwards has been in pursuit of the truth about financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s life and crimes for nearly two decades. He would be the first to say that Epstein caused incalculable damage and trauma to hundreds of women and girls.

In fact, long before Epstein became known worldwide for his crimes, Edwards presciently told a federal judge, “Because of [Epstein’s] deviant appetite for young girls, combined with his extraordinary wealth and power, he may just be the most dangerous sexual predator in U.S. history.”

That was 17 years ago.

Back then, hardly anyone listened.

In the years since, Edwards and his co-counsel — on behalf of Epstein’s victims — have sued Epstein, his estate, the federal government and several financial institutions, recovering hundreds of millions of dollars for more than 200 survivors of Epstein’s sex abuse and trafficking. He knows the victims’ stories as well as anyone and, in the course of all the litigation, he has reviewed an expansive amount of non-public documents and evidence related to the late Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of minors.

Now, as the Trump administration finds itself in the midst of a firestorm over its decision not to release any additional investigative files on Epstein — after promising to produce a so-called “client list” of people connected to Epstein who may have participated in illegal acts — Edwards has decided it’s important to share what he’s learned about Epstein, much of which contradicts what many have come to believe about the case.

“Jeffrey Epstein was the pimp and the john. He was his own No. 1 client,” Edwards told ABC News. “Nearly all of the exploitation and abuse of all of the women was intended to benefit only Jeffrey Epstein and Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual desires.”

Edwards describes the enigmatic Epstein as living, essentially, two separate lives: one in which he was sexually abusing women and girls “on a daily basis,” and another in which he associated with politicians, royalty, and titans of business, academia, and science.

“For the most part, those two worlds did not overlap. And where they overlapped, in the instances they overlapped, it seems to be a very small percentage,” Edwards said. “There were occasions where a select few of these men engaged in sexual acts with a select few of the girls that Jeffrey Epstein was exploiting or abusing — primarily girls who were over the age of 18.”

“That conduct was coercive, it was exploitative, and it was bad. But it’s a small fraction of the men he was associated with,” Edwards said. “And he was abusing hundreds of women, if not a thousand. And it’s a very small fraction of those women that he was sending to men. That conduct was secondary to his abusive conduct. [Epstein] abused all of these women.”

Edwards said he is bound by attorney-client privilege and cannot ethically reveal the names of any of Epstein’s alleged associates without permission from his clients. But he said he has seen no indication that Epstein kept a list of those men, or that he made it a practice to use those instances to blackmail or extort the men, even though those men may have been legitimately concerned that Epstein had compromising information that he could use against them.

“It’s difficult to even discern, when he would send a woman to one of his friends, whether that was even a motivation. What he was not is a person on the top of a sex trafficking operation that was sending women to powerful people around the world so that he could make money. It was not a business,” Edwards said. “And I think the few examples that we have, the known examples, have led to this belief that he must have been doing that with all of the women that he was abusing. That must have just been his gig. But that wasn’t what he was doing on a daily basis. He’s a sexual abuser and predator himself.”

If Epstein kept a list of those men, Edwards said he’s not seen it.

“Did Jeffrey write the names of these people down? I’ve never seen that. I only know of certain of these individuals because of representing clients,” Edwards said. “I’ve never seen a list of people that Jeffrey Epstein kept that would say, ‘Here’s a list of men that I’ve sent women to,’ or a mix-and-match where it’s like, ‘I sent this woman to this man.'”

“That’s just not something that he was keeping,” Edwards said. “And it would be highly, highly unlikely that Jeffrey Epstein would keep a list of the people that he sent these women to. I’d imagine he would just remember it. It isn’t that many women, and it isn’t that many men.”

Over the last few months, as the controversy surrounding the on-again, off-again plan to disclose Epstein-related documents has dominated the news cycle, Edwards said he has heard from dozens of survivors concerned about the circus-like atmosphere that is forcing them to relive traumatic experiences and threatens to expose their identities, even if inadvertently. Any public release of information, Edwards said, should redact identifying information about Epstein’s victims.

“They would benefit from the story eventually dying off. But the story is not going to die off as long as there’s this lack of transparency that is allowing for conspiracy theories to continue to fester and get out of hand,” Edwards said. “So the best thing would be: Protect the victims’ names, release everything else, so that the world can see what is real, versus what is total fiction, and then everybody can move on.”

But the recent decision by the Trump administration to rule out further disclosures would seem to impact categories of material known to be in the possession of federal authorities, including Epstein’s financial records, details of his international travel, logs of boat trips to his U.S. Virgin Islands estate, and inventories of what was found in searches of his mansions in New York and elsewhere. And it raises questions whether those records, if made public, could finally lead to a better understanding of how a college dropout from Coney Island managed to accumulate astounding wealth and proximity to power — a transformation that has long defied ready explanation.

“It’s very strange to me that somebody who rarely leaves his house is somehow able to get meetings with people. And they will travel from literally all over the world to meet with him on his time, at his place, under his circumstances. Which only just leaves more questions than answers,” Edwards said. “And the fact that they’re not releasing anything is, I think, just kind of fanning the flames of the conspiracy theory that everybody that he was meeting with had something to do with illegal sex. And I know that’s not true.”

“We are all for transparency,” said Edwards. “I think the world needs to know who Epstein was, what he was doing, how he made his money, who he was meeting with, and how he might have operated in other areas of business and politics. And all of that could be done through the release of documents and knowledge that is currently within the Justice Department, with what they have. But now there’s this about-face where they were going to release everything and now all of a sudden they’re releasing nothing. I think there is a middle ground there that the public deserves.”

Edwards notes that the government’s files could also shed light on those who assisted or enabled Epstein to abuse so many women, and could finally answer speculation that Epstein was an intelligence asset of the U.S. or a foreign nation.

“[The government] should know whether or not he was an intelligence asset, whether he’s ever done work with the government, whether he’s ever had a deal with the government before,” Edwards said. “I would assume that that is also within the Epstein files. I don’t know that information. I would like to know.”

But for Edwards, the primary concern should be for the survivors of Epstein’s abuse — and he worries that the victims are an afterthought in the ongoing Washington power struggle.

“I think some [victims] believe that the government protected him, and there’s this outrage because they believe that [Epstein] was always more important than they were, and that’s why this was allowed to go on for so long. So if there was evidence that his political or other connections assisted, I think that they would want to know it,” Edwards said. “But more so, they just want this to die off. And they see it’s not dying off because of the way that it’s being handled right now. In fact, somehow there’s more attention to it today than there was when he was abusing them.”

For the well-being of the survivors, Edwards is hopeful there will soon be a resolution that will allow the victims to move on.

“I just wish everybody would step back and remember real people were hurt here, and let’s try to do what’s in their best interest, as opposed to politicizing this whole thing and making it the right versus the left,” he said. “All of that is hurting the people who are already hurt.”

Handwritten notes help lead search crews to mom and son stranded in California forest

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(CALVERAS COUNTY, CA) — A mother and her 9-year-old son, who got stranded in a remote forest overnight on their way to a Boy Scout camp in California, were rescued after crews searching for the missing family found handwritten notes by the woman asking for help, authorities said.

Authorities credited the notes and other “breadcrumbs” left for search crews in helping find them within hours of being reported missing.

The two were traveling from Sacramento to Camp Wolfeboro in Calaveras County on Friday afternoon when they got lost in a remote area after losing the GPS signal, authorities said. The 49-year-old mother became disoriented trying to retrace their steps, and their vehicle got stuck in the dirt, stranding them in the dense forestry, according to Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lt. Greg Stark.

“It was a very remote location, with severe terrain, deep canyons, dense forestry,” Stark told ABC News. “That area is known for poor radio reception and poor cell service.”

Their family reported them missing early Saturday afternoon after the camp reported them overdue and they were not answering their cellphones, according to the sheriff’s office.

A volunteer search and rescue team that was already conducting training in the area was deployed, and authorities began working on a timeline and possible route based on their destination and last known location.

The search and rescue team “began assessing the terrain and the complex network of interconnecting, labyrinth-like roads to establish effective search parameters,” the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office said. The search involved four-wheel drive vehicles, and California Highway Patrol air assets were requested, the office said.

Amid the search, campers in the area reported seeing a vehicle matching the description of the missing persons around 4 p.m. on Friday — helping confirm that search crews were in the right area, the sheriff’s office said.

Helping to further narrow the search area: At approximately 5:40 p.m. Saturday, the search and rescue team located a handwritten note left by the mother asking for help, authorities said. It was posted at an intersection of a remote Forest Service Road. A second note was found nearby.

The sheriff’s office released images of the notes, which were both dated July 11 and both said “HELP.”

“Me and my son are stranded with no service and can’t call 911,” one of the notes stated. “We are ahead, up the road to the right. Please call 911 to get help for us. Thank you!”

The other note urged rescuers to “follow the strips of brown sheet,” which was made out of a paper bag, Stark said.

They also left a trail of rocks on the road to point in their direction in case the notes blew away, Stark said.

About a mile from the second note, at approximately 6:30 p.m. Saturday, the searchers found the mother and son and their vehicle, the sheriff’s office said.

Stark credited the notes with being “extremely helpful” in finding them so quickly.

“There’s hundreds of square miles of elaborate roadworks out there,” Stark said. “They were in the search area, but putting the handwritten notes posted at the intersections — that absolutely accelerated the timeline in which they were found.”

The search team was able to free the stuck vehicle and help bring the mother and son back to the command post, where their family was waiting for them, the sheriff’s office said.

“It was obviously a very emotional reunion,” Stark said.

The sheriff’s office highlighted other efforts by the woman and her son to assist in the search, including keeping the vehicle’s hazard lights on at night for searchers on the ground and in the air to see. The son also periodically used his whistle to deploy three short bursts, an international signal for help, the sheriff’s office said.

Staying with their vehicle was also a key move, Stark said.

“If you don’t know where you are, you don’t know where you’re going, the best course of action is to stay with your car — it’s the largest object out there, easily seen by aircraft or found by searchers,” Stark said.

“They did what they should have, and it certainly worked out well,” he said.

More than 900 former DOJ employees urge Senate to reject Bove appeals court nomination

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — More than 900 former Justice Department employees sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday urging lawmakers to vote down the nomination of Emil Bove, the controversial top DOJ official who formerly served as President Donald Trump’s defense attorney, to a seat on the powerful Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

“We are all alarmed by DOJ leadership’s recent deviations from constitutional principles and institutional guardrails. We also share a grave concern over the senseless attacks on the dedicated career employees who are the backbone of the Department,” the employees wrote in their letter. “Emil Bove has been a leader in this assault.”

The letter was organized by Justice Connection, a group that has sought to provide legal support for DOJ employees fired or otherwise targeted by the Trump administration.

It comes just one day before Bove’s nomination is set to be voted out of the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, where Republican members appear to be unanimous in their approval of him being confirmed for the lifetime appointment on the appeals court that oversees districts in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Bove has repeatedly drawn criticism from Democrats in the opening six months of Trump’s presidency for cultivating a reputation as one of President Trump’s chief enforcers at DOJ.

He has fired scores of one-time career officials at Main Justice and the FBI, including prosecutors who worked on former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations of Trump as well as the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Bove also was at the center of the department’s controversial decision to drop the federal corruption case against New York Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, which led to the resignations of multiple prosecutors who argued the effort appeared to be a ‘quid pro quo’ to secure Adams’ cooperation with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions.

Adams and Bove have both denied any such ‘quid pro quo’ arrangement, but in agreeing to drop the charges the federal judge overseeing Adams’ case dinged the Justice Department writing, “Everything here smacks of a bargain.”

“Mr. Bove’s trampling over institutional norms in this case, and in others, sent shockwaves through the ranks — cratering morale, triggering mass departures, and eroding the effectiveness of DOJ’s vital work,” the more than 900 prosecutors wrote of Bove’s actions. “Prosecutorial authority carries profound consequences on individuals’ lives and the integrity of our public institutions; wielding it without impartiality is a flagrant abuse of that power.”

More recently, however, Bove’s actions have come under scruitny as the subject of a whistleblower complaint by fired DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, who has accused Bove and other top DOJ officials of repeatedly discussing how they could potentially disobey court orders that seek to restrict the Trump Administration’s immigration actions.

Reuveni’s complaint alleged that in one meeting Bove suggested saying ‘f— you’ to courts who may try to block deportations under the ‘Alien Enemies Act.’

During his confirmation hearing, Bove disputed much of Reuveni’s complaint — though he only said he could “not recall” using such an expletive to describe their response to a court order.

“Each one of the undersigned would testify, under oath, that we have never — and would never — tell a Justice Department attorney to consider defying a court order,” the letter said. “Moreover, the Justice Department’s later defiance of judicial mandates in the cases where Mr. Bove previewed doing so further suggests that disregarding court orders was Mr. Bove’s intent all along.”

Republicans on the committee rushed to Bove’s defense in the wake of the whistleblower complaint, and accused Reuveni of partnering with Democrats in seeking to tank Bove’s nomination by filing it with the committee just 24 hours before he was set to appear publicly before them.

Responding to the letter Wednesday, DOJ official Brian Nieves attacked Justice Connection as a “political hit squad masquerading as a support network” and said “they certainly don’t speak for DOJ.”

“They speak for a bitter faction angry they no longer call the shots,” said Nieves, a deputy chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Their attacks on Emil Bove are dishonest, coordinated, and disgraceful.”

7.3 magnitude earthquake rattles Alaskan island, prompting tsunami advisory

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(SAND POINT, ALASKA) — A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck near Sand Point, Alaska, on Wednesday, prompting a tsunami warning from the National Weather Service.

The warning was later downgraded to an advisory, according to the agency.

Sand Point is located on northwestern Popof Island, off the Alaska Peninsula. It’s approximately 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska.

The earthquake struck 54 miles south of Sand Point, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The tsunami advisory is in effect from South Alaska and the Alaska Peninsula to Kennedy Entrance and Unimak Pass, Alaska, on the Pacific Coast.

In addition to Sand Point, Alaskan cities Cold Bay and Kodiak are included in the advisory area.

Kodiak Police told ABC News sirens sounded in the city, which indicates to move to high ground. Any impacts in the area would be expected to arrive at approximately 2:40 p.m.

There have not been any reports of damage from the earthquake in Kodiak, according to police.

Michael Ashley of Cold Bay Lodge told ABC News he was working outside when he noticed things shaking, but says it “wasn’t very intense.”

Cold Bay was under the tsunami warning, but Ashley said “residents are not concerned since we are 100 feet above sea level.” He says these large quakes are common for the area in the summer.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Massive fire destroys Tomorrowland music festival main stage days before opening

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(BOOM, BELGIUM) — A massive fire severely damaged the main stage at Belgium’s Tomorrowland, one of the world’s largest electronic dance music festivals, just days before its scheduled opening.

The blaze erupted Wednesday at the festival grounds in Boom, Belgium, where thick plumes of black smoke could be seen rising into the air. Video footage shared on social media showed large flames engulfing the main stage, along with what sounded like fireworks going off.

The cause of the fire remains unknown. No injuries were reported in the incident, according to festival organizers.

“Due to a serious incident and fire, our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged,” Tomorrowland officials announced on Instagram. They added that the festival’s campsite, DreamVille, will still open as planned on Thursday, July 17.

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The festival, which attracts tens of thousands of music fans annually, is scheduled to run from Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20. Headline performers include top DJs David Guetta, Charlotte De Witte and Martin Garrix.

Festival organizers say they are “focused on finding solutions for the festival weekend” and will provide more updates soon. All pre-festival activities in Brussels and Antwerp will proceed as planned.

What Trump has said about Jeffrey Epstein over the years, including on 2024 campaign trail

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump continues to face backlash from his MAGA supporters over his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

The Justice Department and FBI said in a brief memo that a review found no Epstein “client list” and confirmed the disgraced financier died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

The president has tried to shift focus away from the case, urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “whatever she thinks is credible” before going on to claim without evidence the entire thing was what he calls a “Democratic hoax.”

Some Republicans have fueled the Epstein intrigue and conspiracies surrounding the case for years, with Trump himself weighing in several times.

Here’s what Trump has said about Epstein during his first term, on the campaign trail and now as pressure builds on him to release the Epstein files.

2019: Trump distances himself from Epstein: ‘Not a fan’

After Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors in July 2019, Trump was asked about his 2002 comments in which he called Epstein “terrific” in a New York Magazine story.

In response, Trump repeatedly said he wasn’t a “fan” of Epstein.

“Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don’t think I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan. I was not, yeah, a long time ago, I’d say maybe 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you. I was not a fan of his.”

In August 2019, after Epstein’s death, Trump retweeted a post that alleged Bill Clinton was connected to Epstein’s death.

When asked about his retweet in an interview, Trump said “what we’re saying is we want an investigation. I want a full investigation, and that’s what I absolutely am demanding. That’s what our attorney general — our great attorney general — is doing.” The attorney general at the time was Bill Barr.

Pressed further on if he really believed the Clintons were involved, Trump didn’t shut it down.

“I have no idea,” he said, but encouraged further questions. “So you have to ask: Did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re going to know a lot,” Trump said at the time.

Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has denied ever visiting Epstein’s private island.

2020: Trump suggested Epstein may have been killed

In August 2020, during the thick of his reelection campaign, Trump suggested Epstein may have been killed while in federal custody.

The comments went against the findings of then-Attorney General Barr and the New York City medical examiner who ruled the death a suicide.

During an interview with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Epstein who at the time of the interview had just been arrested. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls.

“Her boyfriend died in jail. And people are still trying to figure out how did it happen,” Trump said. “Was it suicide? Was he killed? And I do wish her well. I’m not looking for anything bad for her.”

In August 2023, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Trump was pressed further on if he believed Epstein committed suicide or not.

“Do you think it’s possible that Epstein was killed?” Carlson asked.

“Oh, sure, it’s possible. I mean, I don’t really believe — I think he probably committed suicide,” Trump said.

2024: Trump asked about Epstein on the campaign trail

In June 2024, Trump was asked if he would release various files — including the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files and the Epstein files — during an interview with Fox News.

“Would you declassify the Epstein files?” Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy asked. Trump responded, “Yeah, yeah, I would.”

That clip was circulated widely online, including by the Trump War Room — the social media account of Trump’s campaign operation. The account posted it to X with the caption: “President Trump says he will DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Files, JFK Files, and Epstein Files.”

But Trump’s full answer to the question wasn’t shown until it played on Will Cain’s radio show.

Trump went on to say in the exchange with Campos-Duffy: “I don’t know about Epstein so much as I do the others. Certainly about the way he died. It’d be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn’t happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I’d go a long way toward that one.”

In September 2024, Trump made a more firm pledge to release Epstein files during a podcast with Lex Fridman.

Fridman, in conversation with Trump, said “it’s just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public.”

“It’s very interesting, isn’t it? It probably will be, by the way, probably,” Trump said.

“If you’re able to, you’ll be –” Fridman started before Trump jumped in.

“Yeah, I’d certainly take a look at it. Now, Kennedy’s interesting because it’s so many years ago,” Trump said. “They do that for danger too, because it endangers certain people, et cetera, et cetera, so Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing but I’d be inclined to do the Epstein. I’d have no problem with it.”

2025: Trump tries to dismiss Epstein files after DOJ, FBI memo prompts GOP backlash

For the first several months of his administration, talk of the Epstein files was mostly left to Trump officials, including Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. In April, Trump said he was unaware of when the files would be released.

Then, after the DOJ and FBI released their memo on July 7, Trump reacted to outrage from his MAGA base.

Trump tried to shut down a question about Epstein during a Cabinet meeting the next day, July 8, right after the deadly flash flooding of the Guadalupe River.

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump shot back to a reporter. “This guy’s been talked about for years. You’re asking. We have Texas, we have this. We have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”

Trump then turned to defend Bondi in a lengthy social media post on July 12, in which he said his administration and his supporters should prioritize their focus elsewhere.

“We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump wrote in the post.

The story, though, didn’t die down and Trump only appeared to grow more angered by the pushback from his supporters.

On July 15, Trump appeared to put the onus on Bondi for what comes next, saying she should release “whatever she thinks is credible” on Epstein. Later that day, Trump said he didn’t understand the interest in Epstein.

“It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring, and I don’t understand why it keeps going,” Trump said. He added, “I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.”

The next day, on July 16, Trump took to social media baselessly blaming Democrats for the files and those who he called “past supporters” of his for the fixation on Epstein.

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this “b——,” hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote on his own conservative social media platform.

“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” Trump added.

Trump doubled down on that claim in the Oval Office, calling it a Democratic “hoax.” When asked by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce if the attorney general told him it was a hoax or what evidence he’d seen of that, Trump replied:

“The attorney general, no. I know it’s a hoax. It’s started by Democrats,” Trump insisted. He added “some stupid” and “foolish” Republicans had fallen for it.

ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.

Ukraine targets Moscow as Russia reports shooting down more than 100 drones

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down at least 126 Ukrainian drones overnight into Thursday morning, with at least three craft intercepted over the capital Moscow region.

The attack was Ukraine’s largest drone barrage into Russia since it launched 167 craft into the country on July 11, according to data published by Russia’s Defense Ministry and analyzed by ABC News.

The latest attack saw drones downed over 11 Russian regions plus annexed Crimea, the ministry said on Thursday.

Temporary flight restrictions were introduced at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, Kaluga Grabtsevo Airport to the southwest of the capital and Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, according to Telegram posts by Artem Korenyako, a spokesperson for Russia’s federal aviation agency Rosaviatsiya.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that at least three drones were shot down on approach to the city. “Emergency services specialists are working at the site of the wreckage,” he wrote.

In the southwestern Voronezh region, a drone crashed into a residential building and injured three people, according to a statement published by local Gov. Alexander Gusev on Telegram.

In the western Belgorod region, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said three people were killed and 17 injured by drone attacks from Wednesday afternoon through into Thursday morning.

Another person was injured by a drone in the Smolensk region, which sits to the west of Moscow and borders Belarus, Gov. Vasily Anokhin said.

In the Kaluga region to Moscow’s southwest, a drone hit a two-story house and a 14-year-old girl was injured by glass fragments, local Gov. Vladislav Shapsha said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s air force, meanwhile, said Russia launched 64 drones into the country overnight, of which 41 were shot down or neutralized in flight. The air force said 23 drones impacted in five locations.

As of Thursday, the death toll from a Russian airstrike on the Donetsk city of Dobropillia rose to four, according to local Gov. Vadym Filashkin. Another 27 people were injured in the strike, Filashkin said, which targeted a shopping center in the eastern city.

July has marked an uptick in drone attacks launched by both Russia and Ukraine amid stalled U.S.-led efforts to secure a ceasefire deal to end Russia’s 3-year-old full-scale invasion of its neighbor. On Monday, President Donald Trump set Moscow a 50-day ultimatum to agree to a ceasefire, threatening sanctions if it failed to do so.

In June, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported downing a total of 2,368 Ukrainian drones, with an average of almost 79 drones per day across the month.

Thus far in July, the Defense Ministry said it has downed 1,516 Ukrainian drones, with a daily average of 89 drones.

The scale of Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine have been increasing since May, according to figures published by the Ukrainian air force and analyzed by ABC News.

In May, Russia launched a total of 3,835 drones and 117 missiles, for an average of around 124 drones and nearly four missiles each day.

June saw 5,438 drones and 239 missiles fired into Ukraine, with a daily average of 181 drones and nearly eight missiles.

Already in the first half of July, Ukraine has reported facing 4,067 drones and 89 missiles, for a daily average of 239 drones and more than five missiles.

Catholic church in Gaza damaged, priest injured, church says

July 17, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — The Holy Family Church, a Catholic church in Gaza, was damaged on Thursday and its priest was injured along with several others, the parish said.

“Currently there are no fatalities confirmed,” the parish said in a press release. “The church sustained damage.”

Father Gabriel Romanelli was injured, said the church, which is the only Catholic parish in Gaza.

“The IDF is aware of reports regarding damage caused to the Holy Family Church in Gaza City and casualties at the scene,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. “The circumstances of the incident are under review.”

The IDF statement added, “The IDF makes every feasible effort to mitigate harm to civilians and civilian structures, including religious sites, and regrets any damage caused to them.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.

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