Scott Jennings tussles with CNN’s Abby Phillip over Trump-Epstein report

CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings clashed with “CNN NewsNight” host Abby Phillip on Wednesday over reports about President Donald Trump being named in files associated with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump was told in May that his name was one of many in files tied to the disgraced financier, The Wall Street Journal reported, a report which the White House denied. Phillip questioned why Trump wouldn’t “own up” to knowing Epstein.

“Own up to what? What The Wall Street Journal calls unverified hearsay, which is a redundant term that an editor should strike? Unverified hearsay. That is how —” Jennings said before Phillip interrupted with, “It’s actually not redundant. It’s —”

“What is hearsay?” Jennings asked, with Phillip admitting, “Well, hearsay is a legal term.”

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The White House pushed back against the report, with White House Communications Director Steve Cheung calling it “fake news.”

“This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal,” the article quoted Cheung as saying.

After going back-and-forth with Phillip over the term hearsay, Jennings explained the situation to Phillip.

“Here’s the deal: Why should he go out there and have to own up to anything?” Jennings asked the CNN host. “He’s not ever been credibly accused. The Washington Post ran a fact-check on this the other day and said, ‘We’re confident there’s nothing about the president. If there were, we would know about it.’ Unverified hearsay is what he’s dealing with, and you want him to go out and fight this ghost? It’s ridiculous.”

Trump announced he filed suit against The Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, Friday over an article that claimed he sent the disgraced financier a bawdy letter celebrating his birthday. Trump hinted in 2019 that he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, with an attorney for some of Epstein’s victims claiming the ban occurred after Epstein assaulted an underage girl at the Florida property.

The attorney who represented some of Epstein’s victims, Bradley Edwards, described Trump as someone who aided his efforts in a 2018 video.

“The only thing that I can say about President Trump is that he is the only person who in 2009, when I served a lot of subpoenas against a lot of people … he is the only person that picked up the phone and said, ‘let’s just talk, I’ll give ya as much time as you want, I’ll tell ya what you need to know,’” Edwards said in the 2018 video.

“And [Trump] was very helpful in the information that he gave, and gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever,” Edwards continued.

Epstein had extensive ties to celebrities, politicians, and executives, even after he was a convicted sex offender. Among those who were known to have been close were L Brands founder Lex Wexner, director Woody Allen and Prince Andrew.

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