U.S. President Donald Trump is still dealing with fallout from his own supporters over his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. CBS News Department of Justice reporter Jake Rosen has more.

Washington

President Trump has publicly labeled the controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein files as a 'hoax' allegedly started and perpetuated by Democrats. He made these remarks during a Cabinet meeting, distancing himself from ongoing demands for transparency from his own supporters regarding the release of Epstein-related documents.

The situation has been fueled by conservative backlash over perceived gaps in information and the absence of a client list, which the Department of Justice says does not exist. Trump criticized both Democrats and some Republicans for spreading or believing in these conspiracy theories. He stated he has directed officials to release any further credible documents, although it remains unclear what additional materials may be available.

Trump says Epstein conspiracy theory is hoax started by Democrats

♪♪ President Trump continues to fall out or deal with the fallout from his own supporters who are demanding transparency regarding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But now there's a change in tune from the president. Trump, moments ago in a Cabinet meeting, referred to the so-called Epstein files as a hoax. Here's that. You said this was all a hoax. Has your attorney general told you this was a hoax? What evidence have you seen of that? No, it's not the attorney general. No, I know it's a hoax. It's started by Democrats. It's been run by the Democrats for four years. You had Christopher Wray and these characters and Comey before him. And it's a bad group. It started, actually, look at the Steele dossier. That turned out to be a total hoax. The 51 agents, the intelligence, so-called intelligence agents, it was a hoax. It's all been a big hoax. It's perpetrated by the Democrats. And some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. So, let's get to CBS News. Department of Justice reporter Jake Rosen. Jake, catch us up to speed here, because we remember, it's been attributed to Pam Bondi herself, that the files were on her desk. That's right, and while that feels like months ago, that's what really started all of this, is that, A, President Trump's pledge to be the most transparent administration in history by releasing documents of which have been in the public domain and talked about for a long time. Think about the RFK assassination files, potentially Martin Luther King's assassination files, things that we just haven't not had a comprehensive look at. The Epstein ones, by far, are kind of the biggest top-of-the-menu item for President Trump and his supporters. And we've seen this saga play out over the last eight or nine days or so. Since this memo was first released last week, there was a conservative blowback. As we know, Dan Bongino took a day off of work because he wasn't happy with how the Department of Justice and the FBI hadn't necessarily answered questions that potentially he had, but also just MAGA influencers and conservatives on social media had about some missing time in the tape that was released by the Department of Justice. In addition to that, what happened to this client list, which the Department of Justice says doesn't exist, but at the same time, people believe that because Epstein was in jail for all the terrible acts that he did, Glyzaine Maxwell is currently in prison for what she did, that there has to be some kind of underlying documents at the base of this that really would, that people believe would prove right. And whether Trump is in them or not, we're really seeing this push for this full release after Pam Bondi said that there would be no further releases. We saw Pam Bondi take some questions yesterday and say that she didn't want to talk about it. Then she engaged and said she wasn't going to talk about personnel matters, but said, and kind of threw President Trump under the bus, saying that she hadn't heard from him that he wanted her to release more documents. So, really where we stand today is President Trump kind of blames some past supporters, saying that they bought these conspiracy theories that he blames on Democrats' hook, line, and sinker. He calls it BS and said that, called his supporters weaklings for kind of buying into this narrative that potentially, A, there's more here than what the Department of Justice says, but also that there could be something credible. President Trump said he's directed her to release any more credible documents that could potentially be out there, and we're unsure what specifically those are.

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