Journalist and conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly was fact-checked on live TV after falsely claiming that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, was “convicted” by the Biden administration.
The former Fox News host’s mix up came while he was rallying against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies during a Monday appearance on NewsNation’s “On Balance.” Jeffries had questioned if the Trump administration was “hiding” something following the latest report on the Epstein files.
“Jeffries knew the Biden administration had exactly the same thing the Trump administration has on Epstein. Exactly, because Epstein was convicted during the Biden administration,” O’Reilly declared.
Moments after O’Reilly’s assertion, NewsNation anchor Leland Vittert jumped in and interrupted the journalist.
“Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on Bill,” the anchor started. “Bill, hold on, you said Epstein was convicted during the Biden administration. Epstein committed suicide during the Trump administration.”
“Yeah, so? Am I wrong on that?” O’Reilly questioned, leading Vittert to eagerly nod.
“He was arrested in 2019, and committed suicide in 2019. He died August 10, 2019. So, the Biden administration was not involved in a conviction or a trial of him. They were [with] Ghislaine Maxwell,” Vittert clarified.
O’Reilly went on to insist that Epstein was arrested and indicted under Merrick Garland, who served as U.S. attorney general during the Biden administration, which Vittert quickly declared was false.
“Epstein was arrested, indicted and committed suicide under Trump. In 2019, Trump was president. Merrick Garland was not the attorney general,” the anchor reiterated.
The Department of Justice and FBI have come under intense scrutiny over the last week after a memo released July 6 concluded that Epstein killed himself, had “no client list” and that there was no evidence of blackmail.
Critics on both sides of the aisle have called for continued review and increased clarity into how officials came to the conclusion. In addition to Jeffries, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and California Rep. Ro Khanna have also called for the full release of the files, questioning if the administration was “covering up” for anyone.
Originally published on Latin Times
