ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump renewed his pushback over the files on Jeffrey Epstein, claiming he was the only one to cut ties with the convicted sex offender before it was "fashionable," also accusing Democrats and major media outlets of orchestrating what he described as a political “witch hunt.”

Trump accused unnamed individuals he claimed had social ties to the financier, who died in jail in 2019, asserting they distanced themselves from Epstein only later, and tried to shift blame onto the president.

“Merry Christmas to all, including the many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein, gave him bundles of money, went to his Island, attended his parties, and thought he was the greatest guy on earth, only to ‘drop him like a dog’ when things got too HOT,” Trump wrote Thursday on his Truth Social platform.

Then, he added, these individuals went on to “blame, of course, President Donald J. Trump, who was actually the only one who did drop Epstein, and long before it became fashionable to do so.”

The comments came amid the Justice Department’s continued release of files relating to the Epstein case – piecemeal, rather than all at once, as had been stipulated in a law Trump signed in November, thus drawing protests that the administration is breaking the law.

Trump’s name has come up in the files, as well as Democrats such as former President Bill Clinton, but so far there has apparently been no clear evidence of crimes committed. Many of the files have been heavily redacted.

‘Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas!’

Trump went on to claim that any future disclosures tied to Epstein would implicate Democrats, adding that there would be “a lot of explaining to do” once names emerged in what he called an “ongoing Radical Left Witch Hunt.”

He also singled out Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, referring to him as “one lowlife ‘Republican’.”

The president continued his long-running criticism of the media, particularly The New York Times, accusing it of false reporting on past elections and alleging that such reporting had forced the newspaper to apologize and lose subscribers.

Without citing specific recent stories, Trump claimed the media was repeating the same behavior, warning that “mostly innocent” people would be “badly hurt and reputationally tarnished.”

Trump himself is known for repeated claims that elections that he lost were “stolen” from him, but without any convincing evidence, as over 80 courts turned back his claims in the wake of his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, who went on to serve one term as president.

Trump ended the post with an address to his critics: “Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas!”