Facing persistent scrutiny over Epstein, the Trump administration rehashes 2016 probe
Consider This from NPR
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4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 July 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
The pressure on the Trump administration has continued to intensify over its handling of the Epstein files, and who-knew-what-when. Pressure that's also coming from within his party.
And as those calls have ramped up, so has messaging from the administration about a range of other issues, including a rehashing of the 2016 election, and Russia's involvement in it. Trump has lobbed serious claims, like treason, at former President Obama.
To get at why these two complicated and dated stories are intersecting and to understand what we can learn from it about the president's governing style, NPR's Scott Detrow speaks with NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro and cybersecurity correspondent Jenna McLaughlin.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | President Trump is in Scotland for a five-day trip, and it's been a busy one. |
| 0:04.4 | He says he's reached a trade deal with the European Union. |
| 0:07.3 | He's visited several of his golf clubs, and he's been the focus of protests. |
| 0:11.7 | One big story has followed him across the Atlantic, though. |
| 0:14.8 | As soon as he landed, Trump was asked once again about the Epstein files, documents tied to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, |
| 0:21.8 | who died six years ago in federal custody, and Trump had this to say. |
| 0:26.1 | Talk about all of his friends. Talk about the hedge fund guys that were with them all the time. |
| 0:31.9 | Don't talk about Trump. The pressure on the Trump administration has continued to intensify |
| 0:36.9 | over its handling of the documents, |
| 0:39.1 | which several key administration officials had once promised to fully release. |
| 0:44.2 | The pressure is coming from within his own party, people like Republican Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky. |
| 0:49.7 | Here's Massey on NBC's Meet the Press, responding to allegations from President Trump, |
| 0:55.2 | that Massey is trying to inflict pain on the Republican Party. I don't know why it should be politically painful to be |
| 1:00.4 | transparent. Is the pain he's talking about that somebody in our party will be embarrassed by |
| 1:06.4 | those files, then that's not a good excuse. Is the pain he's talking about, is that the legislators, when they vote, |
| 1:14.3 | have to pick between protecting embarrassment of the rich and powerful versus getting justice for |
| 1:19.5 | victims. And as those calls have ramped up, so has messaging from the president and the rest of |
| 1:24.2 | his administration about a range of other issues, including a rehashing of the |
| 1:27.7 | 2016 election, Russia's involvement in it, and what the outgoing Obama administration claimed |
| 1:33.1 | about what Russia's motivations were and why they made those claims. Trump has lobbed weighty |
| 1:38.6 | claims like treason and former President Obama over the episode. Here's Trump's Director of National |
| 1:44.0 | Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. |
... |
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