US Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly informed President Donald Trump in May this year that his name appeared in Justice Department’s files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Wall Street Journal reported. This is in contradiction to Trump’s recent denials about being briefed on Epstein files.
“No, no. She’s given us just a very quick briefing,” Trump had said.
What’s more is that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was also a part of this briefing, CNN reported, adding that it didn’t solely focus on Trump’s name appearing in the files. It was just a “routine briefing”.
The outlet further reported that Bondi also made Trump aware that the Justice Department and the FBI were unable to find a “client list” and that his death was anything but suicide. The department added that several claims related to the Epstein case were not backed by credible evidence. This, the publication said, includes claims related to the President.
WSJ also reported that Trump had once sent Epstein a risqué birthday message in 2003, which ended with the line, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump has, however, denied its authenticity and filed a lawsuit against WSJ and its parent company.
Trump did have social and business connections with Jeffrey Epstein, who often built relationships with powerful people to increase his influence. However, there is no new information about their relationship.
How did the White House react to this?
“The White House is not surprised by this – Trump’s name was present in the binders that Bondi produced and handed out… The White House does not view this as groundbreaking or new or surprising at all,” CNN quoted a White House official as saying. The official added that there is no mounting evidence that suggests Trump’s involvement in any wrongdoing.
White House Communications director Steven Cheung told CNN that Epstein was “kicked out” of the club because he was a “creep”.
“The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep. This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about,” Cheung was quoted by the publication as saying.
A White House official added that Trump’s name already appeared in a batch of materials prepared by Bondi back in February for conservative media figures, Reuters reported.
Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a joint statement, said, “Nothing in the records warranted additional investigation or prosecution. We have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts. As part of standard procedure, the President was briefed on the findings.”
Trump-Epstein and their fallout
Trump and Epstein were publicly seen together during the 1990s and early 2000s, including Epstein attending Trump’s wedding in 1993 to Marla Maples, and Victoria’s Secret fashion show in New York in 1999. This is because both Trump and Epstein were part of the same Palm Beach and Manhattan social circles.
However, there was a fallout between the two in the mid-2000s, and criminal charges against Epstein were brought in later.
Trump and members of his family were also named in Epstein’s contact book, along with hundreds of others, Reuters reported, adding that he had flown on Epstein’s private jet multiple times, which Trump has denied.
But, this material evidence is not new as it was already made public during the criminal proceedings against Ghislaine Maxwell, who is Epstein’s associate. She was later convicted of child sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Earlier, Trump promised to release the Epstein files in his campaign publicly. However, he walked back his stance and said that there is nothing in those files and that they were written by “Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the losers and criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the world with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 ‘Intelligence’ agents, ‘The laptop from hell’ and more”.
The Justice Department and FBI jointly issued a memo stating there was no justification to continue its investigation into Epstein’s case and denied the existence of a “client list”. The administration even released a video from Epstein’s prison cell to prove their point that he indeed died by suicide. However, there was a missing minute in the video, which many figured out quickly and raised more questions.
Even Trump loyalists are angry with his handling of the files.
Following this, Trump instructed Bondi to release the sealed grand jury records related to Epstein. However, US District Judge Robin Rosenberg on Wednesday denied one such request, ruling that it didn’t meet the legal criteria for making grand jury materials public.
House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed Congress for summer recess a day early on Tuesday, apparently to avoid a contentious floor vote on the matter. This paused efforts, led by Democrats and some Republicans, to pass a bipartisan resolution demanding that the Justice Department release all documents related to Epstein.