Vance says he’s worried about potential taping of Situation Room talks
Vice President JD Vance expressed concerns about the alleged tapping of highly sensitive conversations in the White House’s Situation Room, following a New York Times report discussing a meeting related to Jeffrey Epstein. the report revealed that top officials, including Vance, held meetings in the secure location to strategize on how to handle the Epstein case, which has been a topic of controversy due to Epstein’s connections with powerful figures and his death in 2019. Vance highlighted the possibility that recordings of these meetings might have been obtained illegally, which he warned could be a felony. He also criticized a recent story about Epstein as partly false and bizarre,noting his worries about tape recordings despite strict restrictions on such devices. The Epstein case continues to attract scrutiny,with questions about its links to Trump and other prominent individuals. The book excerpt indicates that officials considered public relations tactics, including possibly having epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell make statements to clear Trump of wrongdoing, and discussed objectives like transparency and strategic interviews, notably involving Tucker Carlson.
Vice President JD Vance said he is worried people are taping highly sensitive conversations in the White House’s Situation Room, after a New York Times report on a meeting held in the location discussing convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Last week, two New York Times reporters released an excerpt of their new book detailing meetings held in the highly secure Situation Room, which centered on conversations top officials, including Vance, had about how to approach the Epstein case.
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After its publication, Vance weighed in on the “very weird story,” warning that any leaking of taped audio from the Situation Room to the media would be considered a felony offense. His comments came after Axios reported that top White House officials believed New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan somehow obtained audio recordings of Situation Room meetings, despite independent recording devices in that location being forbidden.
“There was this story about Epstein that came out in the New York Times, and like half of it or so was BS, and about half of it … there’s always an element of truth, there’s always an element of non-truth,” the vice president said during an appearance Tuesday on The Megyn Kelly Show.
“But there were certain things in there that legitimately made me worried that people were, like, taping, which, by the way, is like a felony,” he said. “So that was weird. That story was very bizarre. It was sort of a nothing-burger of a story, in the sense that everybody sort of knew all those details anyway.”
The Epstein case has plagued the White House for months, since the Justice Department’s rollout of millions of files related to the deceased New York financier stoked controversy and accusations that it was hiding information.
Questions over Epstein’s connections to Trump and a slew of other famous and powerful figures have persisted ever since his death in a jail cell in 2019. Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide at the time, but questions have lingered over the circumstances of the night he died and the life he led.
In the excerpt of their book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, Haberman and Swan wrote that Vance and other administration leaders held meetings in the Situation Room last summer to strategize public relations for the Epstein case.
Vance pushed for supposed “maximum transparency” in releasing information and “also floated to colleagues an extraordinary P.R. gambit — that the White House enlist Tucker Carlson to interview Epstein’s longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, in prison,” according to the book.
“It might help the president if Maxwell was willing to state that Trump had not been part of any wrongdoing with Epstein,” the authors wrote, describing an encounter between top officials during a Situation Room meeting on July 17, 2025.
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