MAGA Mike Issues Retraction after Throwing Trump Under Bus

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1:00Ben Meiselas:So after we reported on MAGA Mike Johnson accidentally incriminating Donald Trump in connection with his very deep, dark past, saying that Donald Trump was actually the confidential informant who worked with the FBI and local law enforcement to tip them off about everything that Epstein was involved with. Maga Mike said, oh crap, I may be incriminating Donald Trump because there's a distinction between a CIA confidential informant and like an undercover cop. Confidential informants are often informants because they're involved in the underlying conduct and they're trading favors, quid pro quos, to get out of things.

1:41Ben Meiselas:What I explained is that Maga Mike may have been telling on Donald Trump's very suspicious relationship with a Russian oligarch who engaged in a real estate transaction with Donald Trump after Trump stole said real estate transaction from Jeffrey Epstein when Epstein and Trump were best friends. And Epstein asked for advice about this real estate deal in Palm Beach. We'll talk about all of that. We'll connect the dots. But Maga Mike Johnson's office had to put out a formal statement saying we misspoke. Maga Mike made a mistake. Donald Trump's not actually a confidential informant. He didn't mean to say that.

2:21Ben Meiselas:Also, a bit odd to say that he's a confidential informant. What? Of a Democratic hoax because Trump's been saying that nothing relating to the Epstein files are real. that Epstein's pedo sex trafficking ring was one gigantic hoax. Trump saying the victim shouldn't be believed, that none of what happened actually happened, and it's just the Democrats conspiring because they don't like Donald Trump. What the hell are you talking about? Very odd to center yourself in the story, unless, of course, you're trying to hide a lot of things. And indeed you are, because we know that the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, told you in May that your name appears repeatedly in the Epstein files and you put thousands of FBI agents and DOJ lawyers who should be helping with areas like Homeland Security, stopping acts of terrorism, stopping sex trafficking rings.

3:15Ben Meiselas:Instead, they were going through the Epstein files not to help release them, but to find your name and destroy, delete, spoliate, or just redact and make sure that your name doesn't appear. So here from the Washington Post, we learn that Mike Johnson has backed off his claims that Donald Trump was an FBI informant. House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday on Sunday says, oopsies, I misspoke. His office is coming out with a statement saying, no, what the speaker was really doing was just reiterating what the victim's attorney said, which is that Donald Trump, who kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, was the only one more than a decade ago willing to help prosecutors expose Epstein for being a disgusting child predator.

4:03Ben Meiselas:The statement from Johnson's office reads, Well, if that's the case, then why wouldn't you still want to release the files? If you were the only one who you're saying was heroic here and released and was one of the people ensuring that Epstein was accountable, Why wouldn't you want those files released? But, Maga Mike, that's not what you said. That's not what you said. We have the tape of what you said, where you said Trump was the FBI informant. Here, play this clip. He's not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It's a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago.

4:41He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down. The president knows and has great sympathy for the women who have suffered these unspeakable harms. It's detestable to him. He and I have spoken about this as recently as 24 hours ago.

4:52Ben Meiselas:Now, Donald Trump, after you said he was the informant, posted the following. Remember, Trump posted right after Maga Mike said that the following. The confused and badly failing Democrat Party did nothing about Jeffrey Epstein while he was alive, except befriend him, socialize with him, travel to his island and take his money. They knew everything there was to know about Epstein. but now years after his death, they out of nowhere are seeming to show such love and heartfelt concern for his victims. Does anybody really believe that? Where were they during his very public trials? And for all those years before his death, the answer is nowhere to be found.

5:32Ben Meiselas:Then it goes on to say the now dying after the DOJ gave thousands of pages of documents in full compliance with a very comprehensive and exacting subpoena from Congress Epstein case, was only brought back to life by the radical left Democrats because they're doing so poorly? You and your FBI director and deputy FBI director and vice president, you all said you were going to release the files. What? This is a democratic thing or a democratic hoax. By the way, during Ghislaine Maxwell's trial, you wished her well. You were the president then, not the Democrat party. And when Epstein allegedly died by suicide, which not many people actually believe, You were also in office then.

6:14Ben Meiselas:Also, Alex Acosta, your labor secretary, was the lead federal prosecutor who entered into the non-prosecution agreement, which was the sweetheart deal with Jeffrey Epstein at that time. So if you really want to talk about it, we can have that conversation. And clearly, my dogs want to talk about it as well right now. But let's go on to see what's also being said here. It goes on to say the Department of Justice has done its job. They have given everything requested of them. It's time to end the Democratic hoax and give the Republicans credit for the great, even legendary job that they are doing.

6:53Ben Meiselas:What the hell are they even talking about there? But let me tell you what's really going on here right now as well. because Michael Wolff, Donald Trump's biographer, who was also potentially going to be Epstein's biographer, he has about 100 hours of tape of Epstein before Epstein died by suicide. Epstein told Wolff something very interesting. Then Wolff told us exclusively here on the Midas Touch Network something very interesting, which was back in 2004, Epstein was asking his best friend, Donald Trump, for advice about a real estate deal in Palm Beach. A guy by the name of Abe Gossman was selling his beachfront property in Palm Beach for$36 million.

7:39Ben Meiselas:And Epstein wanted to maximize the potential resale value. He brought Donald Trump over to Abe Gossman's home and said, what do you think about this pool? Where should I move it? Should I keep the property as is? A few weeks later, Epstein finds out that Donald Trump has purchased that property for about$41.4 million and scooped it up from under Epstein. Now, Epstein at that time said that he knew a lot about Donald Trump's finances. Donald Trump was struggling and before had multiple bankruptcies. Epstein had helped Donald Trump out before and had bragged about helping Donald Trump out before.

8:20Ben Meiselas:And Epstein was pissed that this property got stolen from him, essentially by Donald Trump, as Epstein saw it, like, you screwed me over. But then the plot, think it, because Epstein's like, where did Trump even get that money from? But then a few years later, in 2008, a Russian fertilizer oligarch named Dmitry Rybolev purchases the 6.26 acre estate for a record-breaking$95 million. dollars. And then shortly thereafter, doubling the value or more than doubling the value from what Trump purchased it for a measly four years earlier. What did the Russian oligarch do? Destroyed the property, claimed it had mold and just demolished the property.

9:05Ben Meiselas:One of the things that Epstein told Wolf is he didn't know he was giving an opinion. And this I'm reflecting opinions though is could it have been? There's a lot of things that could have been. It could have been a fine transaction, let me be clear. But could it have been a money laundering thing as well, where Russians were cleaning their money by bringing it into the United States through these channels and then bringing in more money with the additional purchase price and then demolishing it because they didn't really care about it to begin with and then building another property there. I mean, Trump bragged that all he did was, I don't care about the house.

9:40Ben Meiselas:I bought it for 41 million. I just put$3 million worth of paint and I sold it for double. That's what Donald Trump said about it. So in other words, there was a potential for litigation taking place. Epstein was thinking about potentially suing Donald Trump is what he told Wolf. And then the FBI was tipped off about what Epstein was engaged in and what Epstein was doing. And Epstein thought maybe it was because someone who knew very closely and had a motive against me that tipped off the FBI and the police about me. Could that have been Donald? It was always in the back of Epstein's mind that the person who could have tipped him off was someone who was there with him and saw the things.

10:27Ben Meiselas:Not as a good guy, not as a benevolent figure, but as the bad guy, as confidential informants often are, who are trading deals, who are horse trading quid pro quos to help themselves and to go after other people. Look, starting a new business can be intimidating. I get it. Midas Touch Network was not built overnight. You need the tools to help you engage in the day-to-day tasks, the growth. And so that's why we use Shopify. It made things easy for us. And I think you should use Shopify too. So Shopify is a commerce platform. It is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all e-commerce in the United States.

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12:25Ben Meiselas:Now, just so you can see for yourself what MAGA Mike Johnson had also said last week, it echoed what Donald Trump said about how, why would we even need to pass resolutions to release the Epstein files when we've subpoenaed all the documents and they're being turned over, when we all know they're not being turned over. Here, play this clip right here. So the discharge petition from Thomas Massey and Ro Khanna, I hope I'm using the right word, will ripen soon? Well, no, I guess it would if they get the right signature. If they get the signature, it ripens soon. But it's now a moot point. It's not even necessary.

12:58You don't think it's going to happen? There may be a floor vote of one measure or another. We have our own resolutions to do all this, but it's sort of not necessary at the point because the administration is already doing this. So I don't think that Congressman Conor and Massey think that yet, at least from what I've heard. And I don't know that the 218 people that they think they have as signatories of that think that either if they do get the signatures, will you allow that to come to a vote on the floor? We might not even wait for that. We have our own resolutions to affect this same thing.

13:26But the process is playing out as it should. And very soon, the American people will have that information, and they should have had it all along. That's my view. But you can't guarantee there'll be a vote on the discharge petition. There probably will be a vote of some sense, but we've got to get everybody collected again and get build consensus around that.

13:43Ben Meiselas:So with all of that being said, let me just share with you what Michael Wolff told us. Again, he was going to be potentially Epstein's biographer. He was Trump's biographer. And here's what Epstein told him. I think this all starts to make a lot of sense right now. Here, play this clip. Now, Epstein's explanation for why this friendship ended is as follows. In 2004, Epstein believed himself to be the high bidder on a piece of real estate in Palm Beach, a house. $36 million was his bid. He took his friend Trump around to see the house to advise him on how to move the swimming pool. Trump, thereupon, went around Epstein's back and bid$40 million for the house and got the property.

14:45Epstein, who was well acquainted, in fact deeply involved with Trump's scattered finances, understood that he didn't have 40 million dollars to pay for this house. Now if that was the case, it was someone else's 40 million dollars. At the time, Epstein believed this to be the$40 million of a Russian oligarch by the name of Rybolev. Less than two years later, this same house that Trump had bought for$40 million was sold for$95 million. And it was, in fact, sold to Mr. Rybolev. This is all a red flag of money laundering. And what Epstein did, and he was furious about losing this house. I mean, there's something about these guys that nothing rouses them so much as a real estate betrayal.

15:58Epstein, after the sale of this house, after Trump went around his back, got this house, Epstein began to threaten him. He began to threaten him with lawsuits. He began to threaten him with going to the press and saying that Trump was a front man for a money laundering deal.

16:27Trump panicked at this point and Epstein believed and he believed to his dying day that it was Trump who went to the police. Trump who was fully acquainted with what was going on at Epstein's house. Fully acquainted for many years. Trump went to the police and as Epstein said, dropped the dime on him. That is to say, informed the police of what was going on and an investigation began and all of Epstein's legal problems for the next 15 years began to unfold. This story about this piece of real estate and their falling out was first published in June 2019. It was published actually in my book Siege, the second book I had written about the Trump White House.

17:35Epstein had recounted this story to me, I put it in this book. Epstein at that moment was in Paris. He read the book, he called me with some alarm and he said he was afraid that he might have said too much. Three weeks later he returned to the United States from Paris and was promptly arrested on the tarmac of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey when his plane landed.

18:13Ben Meiselas:And then one of the things that Wolf told me as well, and told others rather at Legal AF, was that there were these photographs that he saw of Donald Trump with girls who were young, he wasn't sure their age, that Epstein showed him. Again, this is what Wolf said. I haven't seen him, so I'm just saying what Wolf said and it looked like Trump had a stain in his pants in the photos and the girls were topless he wasn't sure what age they were he couldn't tell him the picture they looked young but he couldn't say so Wolf said that he told Epstein release the photos why wouldn't you release them and here's what he said Epstein said back to him here play this clue I urged Epstein I said I said these you should release these these pictures um um i mean if for no other reason i mean and epstein was already in trouble and already if of a figure of of um um which which which people were he was already demonized i said you know maybe this will even even even help you you can be on the side of on the side of right here and And I remember Epstein said, again, chilling at the time, he said, he said, I may be a pervert, but I'm not crazy.

19:42And then he said, Trump is a man without any scruples.

19:57Ben Meiselas:chill went up my back then so i think this again opens up a lot of additional avenues for questioning and now maga mike backtracking so you decide for yourself let me know what you think but i think this ties a lot together here and this is also why maga mike's got a backtrack when we think about what could be in the files could it actually be donald trump's role initially not as a good guy but as somebody who went to authorities or did the authorities suspect that he was involved because of his knowledge was he engaged in trading favors with you know with process i don't know i don't know one way or another um how is donald trump referenced you know in these files we know that he says epstein's a great guy we know that mar-a-lago was one of the grounds used for the sex trafficking of underage girls like virginia juferay who was found at the spa trump says stolen from him.

20:52Ben Meiselas:So these are things we need to find out. Anyway, hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million. Thanks for watching.