Rep. James Comer, who heads the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and loves nothing better than opening sham investigations into ostensible Democratic malfeasance, is suddenly not all that into the whole “oversight” thing. Why not? Because now it involves President Donald Trump’s relationship with his onetime buddy and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and who wants to investigate that, right?
Comer went on CNN on Tuesday to say that he has no interest in investigating Trump’s Epstein connection. And he has several reasons, none of which are remotely valid excuses for not looking into the sitting president’s extremely cozy relationship with a man notoriously accused of being a human trafficker and pedophile.
First, Comer can’t investigate this because it all happened too long ago, and “I don’t think the Oversight Committee is going to invest in looking up something that was 22 years ago.” So much for a promise to seek justice for the victims, as apparently Comer’s interest has a date cutoff that he just made up.
Related | Republicans frantically try to change the subject from the Epstein files
Next, since Trump claims he didn’t sign the lewd letter that appears in Epstein’s repulsive 50th birthday book, that’s good enough for Comer.
“The president says he did not sign it. So I take the president [at] his word,” he said.
Huh. Who knew that all one had to do to dodge a Comer investigation was just to say you didn’t do it? Oh wait. Trump is apparently the only person Comer takes at his word. Everyone else targeted by one of Comer’s unhinged, conspiracy-fueled “investigations” does not receive that special treatment.
No amount of explaining that the use of an autopen is perfectly fine and legal, for example, has stopped Comer’s harassment of former President Joe Biden and his staff, because, per Comer, Biden’s use of an autopen is “the biggest scandal in the history of American politics.”
The problem for Comer is that he was exceedingly hyped to investigate the Epstein matter when he thought he could pin the whole thing on Democrats. In August, he subpoenaed a raft of people, demanding they appear before his committee to answer questions about Epstein. He dropped subpoenas on Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as former FBI Director James Comey and onetime special counsel Robert Mueller, which looks a lot more like a list of Democrats Trump and Comer hate than a logical choice for an Epstein investigation.
He also subpoenaed six past attorneys general, going all the way back to the George W. Bush administration. Notably absent from this subpoenapalooza was Trump’s former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, who gave Epstein his sweetheart plea deal in 2007, back when Acosta was the U.S. Attorney for Florida.
Comer’s other problem is that he subpoenaed the Epstein birthday book that contained Trump’s lewd drawing, along with some genuinely Y I K E S things from other big-name Epstein friends like Bill Clinton and Alan Dershowitz. Comer yelled at Democrats for “cherry-picking” things like Trump’s letter, which might have made for a great soundbite. But now Comer is stuck claiming that the disgusting letters from other people are totally real, but the Trump letter is some sort of forgery or hoax that was somehow undertaken 22 years ago and bound into a book for Epstein.
Now, in his continuing quest to avoid asking Trump anything about his cozy friendship with Epstein, Comer’s next step is to talk to “potential associates” of Epstein, saying some of Epstein’s victims gave him the names. Meanwhile, he’s also still whining about how the Democrats are the real problem and only he, James Comer, is prioritizing justice for the survivors.
Like all leading Republicans at the moment, Comer is going to protect Trump at all costs—even if that means being the most credulous person around.
