Johnson says “Trump was an FBI informant”, before backtracking

Mike Johnson, a Republican representing Louisiana and the Speaker of the House, backtracked on his bold statement claiming that Donald Trump appeared in the Epstein files because he would have been an “informant for the FBI” in the case.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) backed off his claim that President Trump was an FBI informant in the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) 2025-09-07T21:30:04.616129946Z

While appearing before the media on Capitol Hill, Mike Johnson asserted that Donald Trump would have been “an informant for the FBI in trying to bring down [Epstein]”, implying by his propositions that Trump had cooperated with the FBI, taking an active role in the investigation against Epstein.

These statements relayed certain conspiracy theories about Trump’s past with Epstein, particularly around the period when they parted ways. According to these theories, Trump stayed close to Epstein in order to gather information with the aim of bringing him down.

A few days later, a memo from Johnson’s office corrected his statements, denying that he had claimed Trump was an FBI informant.

The document clarified that the Speaker of the House was in fact merely echoing the words of victims’ attorney Brad Edwards, that Trump had been the only one, more than a decade ago, to agree to help prosecutors against Epstein.

This confusion only heightens questions about why Trump and his administration are suddenly opposed to the release of all files related to Jeffrey Epstein, when they have spent years campaigning among their supporters for the Epstein files to be posted.