Inside Trump’s Epstein Panic: Who Leaked the Situation Room?

Tara Palmeri is joined by attorney Michael Popok of Legal AF to break down the explosive new reporting from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan — an excerpt from their book "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" that pulls back the curtain on the White House's "summer of Epstein." While the administration publicly dismissed the Epstein story as a hoax and a "Democratic witch hunt," Haberman and Swan reveal that Trump's top officials were repeatedly huddling in the Situation Room — the SCIF normally reserved for major raids like the killing of Osama bin Laden — trying to contain the fallout. Tara and Michael walk through who was in the room (Todd Blanche, Susie Wiles, Kash Patel, JD Vance) and who wasn't (Trump himself; Bondi and Patel phoning in), and unpack the verbatim quotes that suggest someone was taking meticulous notes or recording — and the mole hunt that will follow. They get into Todd Blanche floating a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, JD Vance pushing to put her on the record with Tucker Carlson, Dan Bongino calling it Trump's "Iran-Contra" and threatening to quit, and Kash Patel blaming Pam Bondi. Tara explains how Washington really works — how operatives take notes, keep journals, and manage their images so history paints them as the heroes — and why the sworn FBI 302 alleging abuse by Trump made this a crisis the White House couldn't simply bury. As Haberman and Swan write: Trump could break institutions and bend the world's richest men to his will — "but he could not, it turned out, make Jeffrey Epstein disappear."

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Tara Palmeri is one of the most feared and fearless reporters covering power and politics. She has 15 years of experience covering national politics and foreign affairs. She was formerly a White House Correspondent for ABC News where she covered the first Trump administration. She was the chief National Correspondent for POLITICO during the Biden administration. She has been a political analyst for CNBC, CBS and CNN. She started her career as a columnist for the Washington Examiner and then went on to report for the New York Post. She was a foreign correspondent for POLITICO Europe, where she covered international affairs, including Brexit. She hosted the Ringer's political podcast "Somebody's Gotta Win" and wrote a column for Puck. Tara also hosted two acclaimed podcasts on Jeffrey Epstein, "Broken: Jeffrey Epstein" and "Power: The Maxwells." Tara currently hosts the Tara Palmeri Show.

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