Norms Impact
GOP Senator Refuses to Admit Bush, Not Obama, Was President During Epstein’s Plea Deal
A sitting U.S. senator publicly rewrote a basic presidential timeline to redirect responsibility for the Epstein plea deal, turning accountability into partisan misdirection on national television.
Jul 27, 2025
Sources
Summary
Sen. Markwayne Mullin falsely insisted on CNN that Barack Obama was president when Jeffrey Epstein’s Florida plea deal was struck, even after being corrected that it occurred in 2008 under George W. Bush. The exchange folded a demonstrably wrong claim into a broader effort to shift accountability over federal transparency and prosecutorial decisions onto political opponents. The practical consequence is a normalization of fact-free blame that corrodes oversight of the Justice Department’s disclosure powers and the public’s ability to demand truthful answers.
Reality Check
This kind of brazen factual inversion by an elected federal official trains our institutions to tolerate disinformation as a substitute for oversight, leaving citizens less able to demand lawful transparency from the Justice Department. On these facts, the conduct is not likely criminal—false statements to the public, even on television, generally do not trigger 18 U.S.C. § 1001 because they are not made to federal investigators in a matter within federal jurisdiction. But it is a profound abuse of public trust: it weaponizes misinformation to shift blame and muddies the public’s understanding of who exercised federal power, weakening democratic accountability and our ability to insist on honest governance.
Detail
<p>Sen. Markwayne Mullin appeared on CNN’s <em>State of the Union</em> with Jake Tapper and argued over the release of records related to the Epstein investigation. Mullin claimed that only judges can make information public, while Tapper said Attorney General Pam Bondi could release additional information she has promised to release but has not.</p><p>During the discussion, Mullin asserted that a “sweetheart plea deal” for Jeffrey Epstein was made in 2009 “underneath the Obama administration.” Tapper responded that the plea deal took place in 2008 and identified the U.S. attorney as Alex Acosta, a Bush appointee who later became President Donald Trump’s secretary of labor. Tapper stated that George W. Bush was president in 2008.</p><p>Mullin repeatedly disputed that timeline, continuing to insist Obama was in office. Later, Mullin revised the claim by saying the case was heard in 2008 but sealed in 2009, while maintaining that sealing date as central to his argument.</p>