No surprise here.
President Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory Saturday evening alleging without evidence that former President Bill Clinton was in some way connected to the death of millionaire financier and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and his aides saw it coming from a mile away, The Daily Beast reports.
Epstein's death was ruled a suicide after he was found dead in his prison cell on Saturday morning, but it has sparked several conspiracy theories already, most centered on foul play, which the FBI has said it has no indication of.
But Trump's apparently on board. The president retweeted a post by comedian and conservative commentator Terrance K. Williams that contained a video of Williams arguing that "somebody got paid not to do" their job, deeming it incomprehensible as to how someone on suicide watch would be able to harm themselves. At the time of his death, however, Epstein was no longer on suicide watch.
Trump's advisers were reportedly expecting the president to dive into the conspiracy theories. One White House official told The Daily Beast that they assumed the president would say or tweet something about Clinton-centric conspiracies as soon as they started filtering out onto the internet, including from longtime Trump ally and Department of Housing and Urban Development official Lynne Patton. The general consensus among his advisers, however, is that there's nothing they can do about it until he grows bored and moves on to something else. Read more at The Daily Beast.