President Donald Trump was reportedly so hell-bent on trying to stop lawmakers from revealing the relationship he had with Jeffrey Epstein that he tried to poach a Republican enemy's staff.
Trump apparently wanted to stop Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and his team. Massie was pushing legislation to prompt the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files and the trove of documents connected to the late financier and convicted child sex offender, according to The Daily Beast.
The president reportedly aimed to disrupt Massie, who had co-sponsored the legislation with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).
"As the House moved toward a vote on releasing the Epstein files last summer and fall, the White House and top Trump allies launched an effort to forestall it that lawmakers told me was unprecedented in its intensity and scope," according to The Atlantic.
"Massie called it a '360-pressure campaign,' one felt not just by him and his staff but anyone associated with him," The Atlantic reported. "One tactic he had not experienced before: Some of his key staff members were suddenly offered more prestigious jobs in the Trump administration or more lucrative jobs in the private sector—the idea being that if Massie no longer had a full staff, he couldn’t pursue ambitious legislation."
Massie revealed several situations that caused him to pause.
"Massie recalled asking an employee who, a few weeks before the vote, had received an employment offer that would double his salary: 'Did it ever occur to you that they might be offering you this job to basically make me less effective?' He said the young man sheepishly replied: 'That’s what my mom said.' He turned down the offer and finished writing the bill," according to The Atlantic.
The Republican lawmaker has also signaled that he has felt unsafe during the process to release the files.
"I’ve p---ed off enough billionaires who are clearly amoral people that I might have shortened my expected lifespan,” he told The Atlantic.
