President Donald Trump was reportedly told by his administration that his name appears in the Jeffrey Epstein files multiple times.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in a White House meeting in May that his name is in the Justice Department documents on the late sex offender, senior administration officials told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
Trump learned that the ‘files contained what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past’, according to the report.
‘Many other high-profile figures were also named.’
The meeting, which included Bondi’s deputy Todd Blanche, happened weeks before the Justice Department and FBI announced that ‘no incriminating “client list”‘ existed and that they would not be releasing the files they previously promised to disclose.
An administration official quickly shot down the report.
‘This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media,’ said White House spokesman Steven Cheung in an email.
Bondi and Blanche on Wednesday stated that ‘nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts’.
‘As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings,’ they said.
When asked last week if Bondi told him his name appears in the Epstein files, Trump told an ABC News reporter: ‘No, no.’
He claimed that the files were ‘made up by’ former FBI Director James Comey and the Obama and Biden administrations.
The Journal report comes a week after the newspaper published a story alleging that Trump sent Epstein a letter for his 50th birthday in 2003 with text framed by the outline of a naked woman, at the request of the disgraced financier’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Trump has vehemently denied penning the letter and on Friday filed a defamation lawsuit against The Journal, the two reporters who wrote the story, and the publisher.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee also ordered Maxwell, a convicted sex offender, to testify before them on August 11.
Maxwell is expected to provide her deposition at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, where she is serving a 20-year sentence her role in conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse and exploit underage girls.
‘While the department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to your and Mr. Epstein’s cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr. Epstein,’ states the cover letter of the subpoena to Maxwell.
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