Republicans seem to have already abandoned their latest tactic in Donald Trump's fight to keep America in the dark about Jeffrey Epstein. Trump's MAGA base was shocked a few weeks back when the FBI and DOJ made clear they were not going to be releasing anything else from the Epstein files. Not a single man who victimized the underage girls would be exposed, despite Kash Patel and Pam Bondi supposedly being champions of transparency... before getting into office and actually seeing the files. Then Trump started lashing out at everyone for even asking about the Epstein documents. He called the whole thing "a Democrat hoax" invented to hurt him. He seemingly made a deal with Epstein's partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who was moved from an awful prison to a cushy Club Fed after meeting with Trump's lawyer. It was the most nakedly suspicious the POTUS had come across about the whole thing. Even many of his supporters became convinced he was trying to hide his own culpability. Related: Trump Nightmare! Ghislaine Maxwell Said Some Of Epstein's Pals 'Are In Your Cabinet'! It seemed over the weekend that someone decided to try a new tactic to protect the Donald: claim he was actually the one responsible for Epstein getting charged in the first place! Huh?? Contents [hide] 1 How It Started 2 It Could Actually Be Bad For Trump 3 How Johnson Got Confused 4 Did Trump Actually Help How It Started House Speaker Mike Johnson was confronted by reporters on Friday about Trump's insistence the Epstein sex trafficking ring was just a "hoax" and a "witch hunt" - even after the victims came to Capitol Hill to share their stories. He shocked everyone by saying: "He's not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It's a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down. The president knows and has great sympathy for the women who have suffered these unspeakable harms." Sorry, WHAT?! Now suddenly Trump "was an FBI informant" trying to take Epstein down? Since WHEN??? Some of Trump's most ardent supporters ran with that rap - shocker. But the rest of us were trying to figure out why the hell, if Trump was actually some kind of crusader to save these girls, did he not say that from the start? And more importantly, once he got in power, why did he do nothing to expose the men who abused these girls? At any point he could have declassified these files and brought it all out into the light. Hell, he's bragged about being able to declassify things with his mind. If he's the hero, why not prove it?? It Could Actually Be Bad For Trump Well, that's the thing... even if he did inform on Epstein... that might not be exculpatory. Informants are most commonly members of the criminal organizations they're ratting on. Mob hitmen who turn on their bosses, that kind of thing. Sometimes even higher-ups who know enough to spill on everyone to keep themselves out of prison. Meaning... Trump could only rat if he was part of the ring to some extent, right? We mean, anyone who saw The Departed had to be thinking about that, right?? We guess Speaker Johnson isn't allowed to watch R-rated films because he apparently didn't consider for a moment that he was outing Trump as having been involved in the underage sex trafficking. On Monday he backpedaled HARD when asked about his claim that Trump was an FBI informant: "I don't know if I used the right word. I said FBI informant. I'm not sure - I wasn't there." WTF? Johnson now claims total ignorance to everything involving this, saying he was just parroting "common knowledge" (aka right-wing talking points he heard people repeating behind closed doors?). He claimed: "I was repeating what has been common knowledge for a long time. The president was helpful in trying to get Epstein for the law enforcement to go after Epstein. That's always been my understanding. That's common knowledge. It's the public's understanding. I didn't - I was not breaking news there, OK? What I'm trying to emphasize is that the president is as disgusted about this as everyone is." LOLz! No, that is not common knowledge, Michael. The public's understanding is that Trump and Epstein were friends for a long time, including when a lot of the allegations took place. Very close friends, reportedly. And there's video, photos, and magazines from that era to prove it. Anyone who thinks he carried on a 15+ year relationship with a sex trafficker because he was some kind of saint? That the same Donald Trump we've all witnessed did that?? Hell, if you believe that, you might even believe tariffs will help the economy. Oh god... Maybe some people do really believe that about Trump. Though even they still have to be asking the same question as us now - why on earth wouldn't Trump just tell everyone he was undercover helping to put Epstein away? Instead of denying he wrote the man birthday notes, he could just tell everyone it all could have been p