A former spokesperson for the vice president and current Trump 2020 campaign aide defended President Trump’s spreading of far-right conspiracy theories surrounding the death of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
During an interview with Fox News on Monday, Marc Lotter said that Trump was, essentially, just saying what everyone else is thinking regarding the apparent suicide death of Epstein.
“I think the President was basically asking some of the questions that we saw millions of Americans probably asking themselves, whether it be on social media or just even in their own private conversations, about the very strange circumstances around this person’s death,” he said.
“You even had the attorney general of the United States today say that there are some serious irregularities with this case the need to be investigated,” he continued. “The President and his entire administration are very firm in the fact that we need to investigate, not only the circumstances around his death, but continue the investigation into the horrible actions he was accused of and those who may have helped him.”
Epstein was found dead and hanging in his jail cell on Saturday. Multiple publications reported over the weekend that guards did not check on Epstein’s cell for “several” hours before he was found dead. Epstein was supposed to be checked on every 30 minutes.
Epstein was also reportedly supposed to have a cellmate, but that person was transferred on Friday and was not replaced.
After Epstein’s death, Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory tying Epstein’s death to former President Bill Clinton.
Marc Lotter claims Trump's just askin' the tough questions by retweeting Epstein death conspiracy pic.twitter.com/fyBDRSfWT0
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 12, 2019