ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
There's a new development today in the political drama over the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department says it plans to meet with his longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, in the coming days. That's in response to a push from President Trump's supporters to uncover more details about the disgraced financier and his contacts. So of course, Trump faced questions about it today. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is with us. Hi, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Let's start with the news in the Justice Department's plans to meet with Maxwell, who's in prison for sex trafficking. What is the significance?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, I mean, it's the first time that the Department of Justice is reaching out to Maxwell to ask, you know, basically, what do you know? That's actually according to Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, who asked Maxwell's attorneys about a meeting. And this is a bit of a turnaround, considering the Trump administration's previous conclusion, at least earlier this month, that there was no further evidence to release on the case.
As you know, as we all know, Epstein died in prison by suicide in 2019, and there are a lot of conspiracy theories involving him and Trump, who was once friends with him, though he has distanced himself from Epstein a long time ago. Trump has been under increasing pressure to release more information on the Epstein investigation. Now, some of it's from Democrats, but a lot of it is actually from inside the MAGA universe, and this seems to be an attempt at least to respond to some of that pressure.
SHAPIRO: So what did the president say about it today?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was unaware of the plan to meet Maxwell, but he said he thinks it sounds appropriate. But then he quickly and repeatedly sought to change the subject.
SHAPIRO: How did he do that?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, he attacked a whole bunch of his political rivals and focused a lot of his ire specifically on former President Barack Obama. You know, this Epstein case has really been derailing Trump's efforts to focus on his own priorities. And Trump got a bit defensive when he was asked today about whether he had concerns that Todd Blanche would be the one interviewing Maxwell. And that's because Trump - pardon me, Blanche was Trump's former personal attorney and would presumably know more about Trump's personal relationships.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: He's a very talented person. He's very smart. I didn't know that they were going to do it. I don't really follow that too much. It's sort of a witch hunt, just a continuation of the witch hunt. The witch hunt that you should be talking about is, they caught President Obama absolutely cold.
ORDOÑEZ: Now, Ari, that was Trump shifting the subject to Obama, of course. And what he's talking about is his long-held claims that Democrats tried to use Russian interference in the 2016 election against him. Trump went on a lengthy tangent about this today, and his top intelligence aide, Tulsi Gabbard, recently published materials about that claim that Obama officials were involved. And Obama actually issued a rare response to this, saying that the claims were outrageous, bizarre and a, quote, "weak attempt at distraction."
SHAPIRO: Franco, can you explain why a man who died six years ago is dominating Washington and Republican politics right now?
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, it's really amazing. And think about it. Trump is kind of the king of controlling the media narrative, but he has not been able to shift the subject from Epstein, despite really valiant efforts. And you saw that today. Trump announced after the meeting with the Philippines president that the Philippines would face a 19% tariff, but it got very little media traction. I mean, this Epstein case has brought Washington basically to a standstill or at least Republican leadership to a standstill. House Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly canceled the last day of votes, starting the summer break early amid a fight on Capitol Hill about the release of these government files on the Epstein case. And again, these are measures being supported by some Republicans, backers of Trump. And it really just goes to illustrate how problematic this issue really has been for Trump.
SHAPIRO: That's White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Thank you.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
