(NewsNation) — While the Jeffrey Epstein saga continues to be a thorn in the side of President Trump and his MAGA base, Epstein’s former attorney says he doesn’t believe there is a client list.
“That wasn’t Jeffrey Epstein,” David Schoen told “CUOMO” in an appearance Tuesday. “Despite all of these rumors and stories and so on, he had no plan for blackmail.”
Schoen met with Epstein nine days before his trial and Epstein asked him to take over the defense for his case. Schoen said at that point, Epstein had every incentive to come forward with the names of rich and famous who were involved in this case.
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Schoen echoed another former Epstein lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who told “CUOMO” on Monday that judges are withholding any names in the case, not the Trump administration.
Dershowitz, who helped secure a plea deal for Epstein in 2008, said “there is no client list and never has been a client list” and that “there is a redacted FBI affidavit from accusers.”
Schoen expanded on why the affidavit has remained redacted, saying “You put the names out there, the fact that he knew Bill Richardson, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, etc., doesn’t mean that they did nefarious, illegal conduct with him. But people start drawing rumors and making claims.
“Also, the accusers demanded a certain level of privacy, so the judge balanced that when the parties came before him, and that’s why he kept some of those files private.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has dodged questions about Epstein, suggested in February that an Epstein client list was on her desk. She later said she was referring to the overall case file.
Trump has supported Bondi in her handling of the situation, saying, “She has done a really good job,” and that “credibility is very important.”
Schoen believes nobody in the Trump administration is withholding anything.
“I know that people want to see it as a certain period of interest in all of these things,” he said. “It’s tantalizing, but I don’t think that information is out there.”
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MAGA has splintered with the whole Epstein saga and it all comes back to following what Trump has been pushing for years, according to conservative journalist Scottie Nell Hughes.
“This could have been completely avoidable from a Trump perspective, and the PR crisis that is happening,” Hughes noted. “They’re not going to let it go, because they were told not to let it go.
“Everybody that is sitting here asking for transparency and agreeing with those on the Left and the Right, are usually the ones who have been following President Trump since 2016.”
House representatives on Tuesday introduced a bipartisan bill that would require the release of all files related to Epstein.
