ABA’s Martha Raddatz was forced to point out that President Donald Trump has never once been implicated in any of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activity when Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) referred to his leadership as the “Epstein administration.”
Massie has repeatedly attacked the administration over the Epstein files after a clumsy 2025 release. The Justice Department had stated that all documents related to the criminal probe had been released, with the exception of grand jury materials, the release of which have been blocked by federal judges.
Massie, along with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), then spearheaded the bipartisan Epstein Transparency Act, which was signed into law by President Trump. The legislation mandated the release of all available Epstein documents — with exceptions for redactions of victims and individuals not involved — within 60 days.
The files have led to the release of a number of new emails, flight logs and videos from Epstein, many of which detail that he maintained close contact with prominent Democrats and expressed disdain for President Donald Trump. It also mandated the release of any available documents in the investigation, which includes thousands of unverified claims, anonymous tips and emails that have nothing to do with the investigation.
For example. if Epstein received a spam political email that mentioned President Trump’s name, that would be logged as a mention in the files. Because of the language of Massie and Khanna’s own bill, Massie himself and other anti-Trump figures, such as U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), are mentioned in “the files.”
Massie was asked about his ongoing feud with the Trump Administration while speaking with ABC’s Martha Raddatz on Sunday’s installment of “This Week.”
Despite the fact that all requested documents have been released, Massie claimed that there is “work to be done” due to redaction errors that were quickly addressed by the DOJ. He was then asked about an innocent over the weekend, where Khanna read the names of innocent individuals who were used in a police lineup and described them as “powerful men” who were being “protected” by the administration.
This is blatantly false, meaning that Khanna essentially doxed innocent people and claimed they were involved in a notorious sex-trafficking case.
“Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche accused you and Congressman Khanna of unmasking those people, saying they had nothing to do with Epstein or Maxwell. They were from an FBI line-up years ago,” Raddatz noted.
“What’s your response to that?” she aded.
“Well, three hours before Todd Blanche himself unredacted those names, I told him in an X post, which I know he read because he reposted it, that those may be men in a line-up. And then I went on TV and said, those may be men in a line-up. And it was actually the DOJ who released those names, which is fine, but they omitted the context that I provided, which is these may be in a line-up,” Massie responded.
He did however, contend, that Bath and Body Works co-founder Les Wexner and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the CEO of the mega trade and logistics company DP World, needed to be unredacted.
Towards the end of the interview, Massie described the Trump Administration as the “Epstein administration” and insinuated that Trump is either involved in a criminal conspiracy, or a cover-up.
“Look, this is about the Epstein class, the people who are funding the attacks against me. They may or may not be implicated in these files, but they were certainly rubbing shoulders with the people who are in these files. They’re billionaires who are friends with these people. And that’s what I’m up against in Washington, DC,” the congressman claimed.
“Donald Trump told us that even though, you know, he had dinner with these kinds of people in New York City and West Palm Beach, that he would be transparent. But he’s not. He’s still in with the Epstein class. This is the Epstein administration, and they’re attacking me for trying to get these files released.”
Before ending the interview, Raddatz was forced to quickly note that there is no evidence of Massie’s claims despite years of investigations and publicly-released evidence in the case. “And again, I’m going to say, President Trump has not been accused of anything criminal here,” she said.
🚨JUST IN: Thomas Massie DEFAMES President Trump & his administration: “He’s still in with the Epstein class. This is the Epstein administration.”
Sue the HELL of out him, Mr. President!
Side note: Massie looks like he had a very rough night in this clip. 👀 pic.twitter.com/dTfsiCkO3x
— 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙤𝙡𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝘼𝙜𝙚 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 🇺🇸 (@GoldenAgeTimes2) February 15, 2026
While Trump and Epstein were occasional social acquaintances in the 1990s, animosity began between the two in 2004, and Epstein was ultimately banned from Trump’s Mar-A-Lago due to allegations of inappropriate conduct with minors.
The ban followed an incident where Epstein allegedly pressured an 18-year-old Mar-a-Lago spa worker for sex during a house call and harassed the teenage daughter of another club member. The girl’s father reportedly complained directly to Trump, who revoked Epstein’s access “in no uncertain terms.”
Epstein later expressed resentment in 2017-2019 emails and recordings, calling Trump a “horrible human being” who was “evil beyond belief” and “borderline insane.” The notorious sex trafficker also texted U.S. Delegate Stacey Plaskett on how to best attack Trump during a 2019 congressional hearing.
Trump also contacted the Palm Beach Police Department about Epstein’s activity’s after allegations about him became public in 2006.
