The White House pulled out all the stops Wednesday to promote claims that Barack Obama headed a "treasonous conspiracy" against Donald Trump, seeking to redirect public attention from uproar over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

There’s no pretending otherwise: disgraced and deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein has hijacked Washington. Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday announced he was starting the August recess a few days early to avoid the chamber having to vote on whether Congress should force the Justice Department to publish everything it has on Epstein,