'How the hell did that happen?': Bill Barr reveals Trump's reaction to learning about Epstein's death
Source: The Independent
Wednesday 17 September 2025 16:40 EDT
President Donald Trump was baffled when he learned that Jeffrey Epstein died while in federal custody in 2019, former Attorney General Bill Barr recounted in his recent deposition to the House Oversight Committee. Barr, who served as Trump’s attorney general for less than two years during his first administration, said he informed the president that Epstein died by suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York after being arrested on child sex-trafficking charges.
“I called him up and said, ‘You better brace for this,’ and I told him words to that effect and I told him about it, and told him we were going to be investigating it very vigorously,” Barr testified in a deposition to members of the House Oversight Committee in August, and his testimony was released this week.
“He had the same reaction I did, which was ‘How the hell did that happen? He’s in federal custody,’” Barr said, describing the essence of the conversation.
The revelation is part of Barr’s recently released deposition to the committee. Barr, alongside others, including former president Bill Clinton, has been subpoenaed for testimony related to Epstein after public interest in the government’s investigation surged over the past few months. Much of it stemmed from Trump’s campaign promise to release the full extent Epstein Files, which he has since walked back. That decision sparked massive backlash on both sides of the political aisle.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/bill-barr-trump-epstein-death-b2828590.html
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Is really an exaggeration. Such a promise was in no way a centerpiece of his campaign, or part of his platform.
In fact, he was always mealy-mouthed about his commitment to doing so. The most famous time was an interview on Faux where they asked if he'd "declassify" the Epstein files (along with those for JFK and MLK who were discussed immediately before), and he said "Yeah. Yeah, I would" but then immediately proceeded to walk it back.
Donald Trump: “Yeah, I would.”
(At this point, the original TV airing ended. The full answer, later broadcast and published, continued)
Donald Trump: “I guess I would. I think that less so because, you don’t know, you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s phony stuff in there, because it’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.”
Campos-Duffy: “Do you think it would help restore trust?”
Trump: “I don’t know about Epstein so much as I do the others. Certainly about the way he died. It’d be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn’t happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I’d go a long way toward that one.”
So, his answer was qualified—he initially agreed, then immediately hedged about "phony stuff" and seemed ambivalent by the end of the exchange. Fox’s initial on-air version only included “Yeah, I would,” but later acknowledged and aired the fuller exchange
Here's literally THE other time, in September on a Lex Fridman podcast:
Donald Trump: "Yeah, it’s—It’s very interesting isn’t it? Probably will be, by the way, probably."
Lex Fridman: "So if you are able to, you’ll be—"
Donald Trump: "I’d certainly take a look at it. I’d have no problem with it."
That is what the media have turned into "Trump’s campaign promise to release the full extent Epstein Files".
If this sounds like I'm defending IQ47, I'm really not. Fact is, he's ALWAYS hedged when asked, and never brought it up on his own. This is NOT exculpatory, in fact, it's only *slightly* less guilty-seeming as "promising you will", then later saying you won't.
However, I'm always annoyed by lies. And framing it in this way ... is a lie. He didn't "promise" any "full release", and it was never framed by him like "Vote for Me and I'll Release The Files". Its more accurate to say that "Trump always declined to commit to releasing the full files when pressed whether he would".
Again, not at all an indicator of innocence, rather it's an indicator that he's actually been frightened to release them all along. It's not just as of this year. Nor is his fake news angle new
Just like you say, he never actually made a REAL PROMISE to do anything at all, except he'd "take a look at it."
Well what does that mean? Exactly nothing.
Nice country ya got there. It'd be a shame if something happened to it....
