Donald Trump was an 'FBI informant' on Jeffrey Epstein, a senior Republican figure has alleged. Mike Johnson, the party's leader in the House of Representatives, made the bombshell claim while defending the US President against accusations of his inclusion on Epstein's "client list". Mr Johnson said Mr Trump's frustration over the "Democrat-invented hoax" didn't imply a denial of Epstein's crimes, and was instead about the politicisation of his relationship with the disgraced financier and sex offender.

"What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try and attack him," Mr Johnson told CNN. "I've talked to him about this many, many times. He is horrified. It's been misrepresented. He's not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax," the senior Republican added. "It's a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself. When he first heard the rumour, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down."

Controversy over the president's ties to Epstein came to a head when the department of justice denied the existence of the "client list", supposedly containing the names of high-ranking people connected to the paedophile, despite Attorney General Pam Bondi's confirmation that it was sitting on her desk in February.

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that Ms Bondi told Mr Trump his name appeared in the files belonging to Epstein, who died in a New York correctional facility in August 2019.

Mr Trump had a well-documented friendship with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s but claims to have cut ties after the sex offender poached staff from his Florida resort. He also appeared on Epstein's flight logs alongside other influential figures including Bill Clinton.

The president claimed that "the whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax" during a tense press conference in the Oval Office last month, suggesting the renewed scrutiny over his links to Epstein were a bid to overshadow "the significance of what we've done over the past seven months".

Criticism about a lack of transparency hasn't just come from his political opponents, however. Parts of the MAGA base have broken ranks to demand that the White House release the files, as promised during last year's election campaign.

Mr Trump called for a full investigation into Epstein's death in 2019, and suggested that the financier had been murdered as recently as 2023. However, the department of justice and FBI jointly announced that no further disclosures would be made regarding the case in July – compelling some MAGA faithfuls to call for Ms Bondi's resignation.

The president made a plea for party unity in a post on Truth Social shortly afterwards. He wrote: "What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals'? They're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We're on one team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening."