Justice Department officials told President Donald Trump earlier this year that his name, among others, appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein documents, according to a report.
Attorney General Pam Bondi informed the president in May that his name appeared in the documents, senior officials told the Wall Street Journal. His name was one of many high-profile figures in the files, the outlet reported.
However, a mention in the file does not mean there was wrongdoing. One official told the outlet that hundreds of names are in the documents.
“This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told the paper.
Last week, the Journal published a report claiming that Trump gave Epstein a 50th birthday card containing a sexually suggestive drawing and a message suggesting the men shared “secrets.” The president vehemently denied the claims and sued the paper and its owners for $10 billion.
During the May meeting, Trump was told that DOJ officials didn’t plan to release any more documents related to investigation because the material contained child pornography and victims’ personal information, the outlet reported. The president then said he would defer to the Justice Department’s decision against making any further disclosures.
The revelation comes as the president tries to distance himself from the late financier and the fanfare surrounding the case.
Last month, Elon Musk, formerly known as Trump’s “first buddy” claimed that Trump’s name appeared in the files. The billionaire later deleted that tweet.
Trump has publicly denied that he was named in the files. Asked if he was briefed that his name appeared in any of the files, the president responded: “No, no.”
Attention around the case has bubbled up since the DOJ released a July 6 memo that said the department would make no further disclosures in the case. Even MAGA and prominent Republicans have since called for increased transparency around the handling of the case.
The July 6 memo stung to some, including Trump’s MAGA following, who had been anticipating more revelations in the case ever since Trump promised on the campaign trail to declassify the files.
Earlier this year, Bondi said she had a “truckload” of files to review from the FBI. In February, she even said the “client list” of high-profile associates linked to the sex offender’s trafficking scheme was sitting on her desk. That month, she also released “Phase 1” of the files, a tranche of documents that included mostly publicly available information.
Amid mounting public pressure, the president asked Bondi to make public any “pertinent” grand jury transcripts. Bondi then asked the judges overseeing the cases of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier’s former girlfriend who is now serving 20 years behind bars for her role in a scheme to abuse girls with Epstein. Experts have noted that releasing the transcripts would only account for a small portion of the files at play.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Florida rejected a request from the Trump administration to unseal the grand jury transcripts related to an investigation into Epstein in the state in the mid-2000s.
Justice Department officials are planning to meet with Maxwell “in the coming days,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Tuesday. Later that day, the House Oversight Committee approved a subpoena for Maxwell. Trump said that the subpoena for Maxwell “sounds appropriate” during questions from reporters at the White House.
Trump has been trying to keep an arm’s length from the case, but his frustration has shown through.
The president reportedly hung up on a reporter after 30-seconds on the phone Tuesday after he asked about unearthed archived photos showing Epstein attending the president’s 1993 to Marla Maples. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Trump said before hanging up, CNN reported.
Trump has also claimed the Epstein files were a “hoax” cooked up by the Democrats.
Last week, he went so far as to attack his “past supporters” in a Truth Social post for buying into “this ‘bulls***,’ hook, line and sinker.” He slammed: “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats’ work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”
