Lying is his only course of action, he is literally backed into a corner, trying to make it seem like he isn’t. If he makes it out of this, it benefits him the more people who didn’t know how dire it was. If he doesn’t make it out, then it doesn’t matter what he said or did while he was backed into a corner, the result will be the same since this isn’t even close to the same scale as what he is up against if the government resumes with the ability to successfully release the Epstein files.

From his perspective, literally any cost is justified if it has any chance of the Epstein files not getting out.