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The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Bondi told Trump
his name was among many high-profile figures mentioned in the
files, which the Justice Department this month said it would not
be releasing despite a clamor from online sleuths, conspiracy
theorists and members of Trump's base.
Trump’s personal ties to Epstein are well-established and his
name is already known to have been included in records related
to the wealthy financier, who killed himself in jail in 2019 as
he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, responded to the report
by calling on Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to appear before
the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“We need to bring Bondi and Patel into the Judiciary Committee
to testify about this now,” Schiff said in a video posted on X.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the report but
issued a joint statement from Bondi and Deputy Attorney General
Todd Blanche saying that investigators had reviewed the records
and “nothing in the files warranted further investigation or
prosecution.”
“As par of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of
the findings,” the statement said.
The mere inclusion of a person's name in Epstein's files does
not imply wrongdoing and he was known to have been associated
with multiple prominent figures, including Trump.
Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released
through lawsuits, Epstein’s criminal dockets, public disclosures
and Freedom of Information Act requests.
They include a 2016 deposition in which an accuser recounted she
spent several hours with Epstein at Trump’s Atlantic City casino
but didn’t say if she met Trump and did not accuse him of any
wrongdoing.
Trump has also said he once thought Epstein was a “terrific guy”
but they later had a falling-out.
White House spokesman Steven Cheung on Wednesday said the
reports were “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news
stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”
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