Just days after Democrats published emails from the late Jeffrey Epstein mentioning US President Donald Trump, he announced on Friday that he will ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the convicted sex offender’s connections to numerous other prominent individuals.
In a Truth Social post announcing the directive, Trump claimed that Democrats were “using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures” to draw attention back to his earlier relationship with Epstein.
“I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” Trump wrote.
Later, on Friday, Bondi announced that she would begin the federal inquiry on Trump’s orders, designating Jay Clayton, the chief prosecutor in the southern district of New York, to lead it.
She posted a screenshot of Trump’s request on X along with the words, “Thank you, Mr. President.”
According to law enforcement officials, Justice Department and FBI officials conducted a second evaluation earlier this year after Bondi asked the FBI to review Epstein files for release. They concluded that no further prosecutions could be pursued based on the available evidence.
However, Trump’s action on Friday marks his biggest attempt to undermine the demand from Democrats and some Republicans to make all the Epstein case files public. And despite growing concerns among friends that his efforts are just intensifying the problem and undermining his own credibility, it is the most recent example of the president’s conviction that he can resolve it by sheer willpower.
“Why doesn’t he just release these? Just release them! Now he’s in a position of being, like, singled out as the only one, allegedly, as opposed to one of a slew of names,” said Megyn Kelly, conservative podcast host during her show on Wednesday.
Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn, criticised Trump’s order in a long post on X and demanded that the government make all the Epstein data public.
“The call for an investigation is an obvious ploy to avoid releasing the files.
“Simply release all the files, and expose the people who had both deep and ongoing relationships with Epstein.
“I refuse to bend the knee to Donald Trump and his slanderous lies. Just release all the files and expose the people who had both deep and ongoing relationships with Epstein,” he said in his posts.
“These emails prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing. The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else,” Clinton’s spokesman said.
Summers has been contacted by CNN for comment about Trump’s requests for an inquiry.
Patricia Wexler, a representative for JPMorgan Chase, said in a statement that the bank “ended our relationship with (Epstein) years before his arrest on sex trafficking charges.”
Wexler stated, “The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks. We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”
Earlier this week, Trump made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade Republicans to block a discharge petition in the US House that would have required a vote on the release of the Justice Department’s Epstein files. The White House even met in the Situation Room with a significant GOP lawmaker who had signed before the petition received its crucial 218th signature.