Trump administration officials are perplexed, as many people are, by House Speaker Mike Johnson’s claims that Donald Trump was an FBI informant in the case against Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused and trafficked scores of underage girls. The president and Epstein had a well-documented friendship.
Back in the 90s, and beyond, I always assumed that Trump was an FBI informant, and that was how he stayed out of prison for his corruption and Russian money laundering. His criminal activity was well-documented, and stories of his crimes appeared often in the media, especially when Deutsche Bank was being investigated as the world’s dirtiest bank, and it came out that Trump was a major client, along with Mafia Families, drug cartels, terrorist organizations, brutal dictators, etc.
Which was why the FBI was investigating him during his first campaign. He characterized it as spying, but they were simply investigating a well-known organized crime figure who was getting close to the presidency. The FBI wasn’t “spying,” they were literally doing their jobs.