The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY) will hear testimony from former President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton later this month regarding the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, but Comer has made it clear he’s not interested in pursuing ties between GOP Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio, who is facing an uncertain bid for reelection in the November midterm elections.
Republicans didn’t even attend a deposition this week’s investigation of Husted’s acceptance of campaign contributions from Epstein-linked billionaire Les Wexner, British journalist Katty Kay noted today on “Morning Joe.”
“Didn’t turn up for the deposition, and I’m so glad you brought that up,” said host Joe Scarborough. “Could it be that it’s because he gave $250,000 to the Republican National Committee in October? Could it be that there’s an Ohio senator that’s going to be running for re-election or for election this year, an Ohio senator that got $100,000 in campaign contributions from Les Wexner over his career? And he voted on the Senate floor to suppress the Epstein files and not release them?”
What this suggests, Scarborough continued, is that “it’s not rich and powerful people” getting a pass on Epstein — “the Trump administration’s protecting its rich and powerful Republicans.”
“And to draw a line under what Katty said about how outrageous it is that [Oversight Chair James] Comer, who’s calling Bill Clinton to testify but not Donald Trump,” said Scarborough. “Let’s look at the mentions in the Epstein files, and you tell me if that makes sense. Also, does it make sense to be calling former presidents? Donald Trump doesn’t think so, because he knows when he’s a former president, that will happen to him. But think about that … They’re calling Bill Clinton, but they’re not calling, they’re not calling Donald Trump. It’s absolutely extraordinary.”
As for Wexner, Scarborough added, “This is a guy The New York Times profiled in 2019. And in 2019, they had they talked about how everybody around Wexner had no idea how this guy who launched Victoria’s Secret and all these other brands had this unknown guy coming in, taking, taking control of his money, taking control of of large swaths of his life. I mean, Les Wexner created Jeffrey Epstein, and yet no Republicans showed up yesterday at the hearing to ask about Les Wexner. And all he said was, oh, he had these bland denials that nobody believes.”
Funny how Republicans and the Trump administration are eager to try and slag Democrats with ties to Epstein, but they suddenly clam up and look the other way when the evidence points to GOPers who also had extensive dealings with him. Two of those, by the way, were Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. Neither of them has been subpoenaed for testimony on the Epstein matter.
If Republicans want to point the finger at others, they’d better get used to a dozen other fingers pointing back at them on the subject of Jeffrey Epstein.
