“The calls for a special counsel are odd more generally because the special counsel regulations require an investigation into a criminal matter,” he said. “Epstein is dead and Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted. There’s no indication that there is any active DOJ criminal investigation here.”

The Justice Department this week fired Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in New York who was involved in cases against Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

The persisting furor over files related to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has forced President Donald Trump into an unfamiliar role: trying to shut a conspiracy theory down.