President Donald Trump on Friday requested the Division of Justice to research relationships between infamous intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and former President Invoice Clinton, JPMorgan Chase, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, billionaire tech investor Reid Hoffman, and others.
Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi mentioned later Friday that she had appointed Jay Clayton, the U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of New York, to steer the investigation.
Trump’s assertion comes as he faces renewed stress over his personal previous friendship with Epstein, who killed himself in August 2019 after being arrested on baby intercourse trafficking expenses.
In a Fact Social publish, Trump claimed that “Democrats are utilizing the Epstein Hoax … to attempt to deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their different failures.
Due to that, he wrote, “I will likely be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Division of Justice, along with our nice patriots on the FBI, to research Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Invoice Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and plenty of different folks and establishments, to find out what was happening with them, and him,.
“That is one other Russia, Russia, Russia Rip-off, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” Trump wrote “Information present that these males, and plenty of others, spent massive parts of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Keep tuned!!!”
Bondi, the legal professional normal, in a publish on X, wrote, “Thanks, Mr. President.”
“SDNY U.S. Lawyer Jay Clayton is among the most succesful and trusted prosecutors within the nation, and I’ve requested him to take the lead,” Bondi wrote. “As with all issues, the Division will pursue this with urgency and integrity to ship solutions to the American folks.”
“Trump ought to launch the entire Epstein information: each particular person and each doc within the information,” Hoffman posted late on X on Friday. I would like this whole launch as a result of it’s going to deliver justice for the victims.”
“I would like this whole launch as a result of it’s going to present that the requires baseless investigations of me are nothing greater than political persecution and slander. I used to be by no means a shopper of Epstein’s and by no means had any engagement with him aside from fundraising for MIT,” he continued on X. “The decision for an investigation is an apparent ploy to keep away from releasing the information. Merely launch all of the information, and expose the individuals who had each deep and ongoing relationships with Epstein.”
“I’ll do the whole lot in my energy going ahead to advocate for the discharge of the information, to get justice for Epstein’s victims, and to advertise the values of reality our nice nation was based on,” Hoffman mentioned. “I refuse to bend the knee to Donald Trump and his slanderous lies.”
Trump’s publish comes two days after he hosted enterprise leaders, together with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, at a White Home dinner.
A spokesman for JPMorgan, in an announcement to CNBC on Friday, mentioned, “The federal government had damning details about [Epstein’s] crimes and did not share it with us or different banks.”
“We remorse any affiliation we had with the person, however didn’t assist him commit his heinous acts,” mentioned the spokeswoman, Patricia Wexler. “We ended our relationship with him years earlier than his arrest on intercourse trafficking expenses.”
Epstein had been a longtime buyer of JPMorgan and likewise had been mates with former JPMorgan govt Jes Staley.
In 2023, JPMorgan, with out admitting wrongdoing, settled separate lawsuits by victims of Epstein and the federal government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, who had accused the financial institution of facilitating and benefiting from Epstein’s intercourse trafficking of younger ladies. The financial institution agreed to pay the group of victims $290 million, and to pay the USVI $75 million.
CNBC has requested remark from Clinton, Summers in addition to from the White Home and the DOJ, about Trump’s publish.
In a 1997 picture, Jeffrey Epstein, left, and Donald Trump pose collectively on the Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Seashore, Florida.
Davidoff Studios Images | Archive Pictures | Getty Photographs
Emails launched by the Home Oversight Committee this week present Epstein and others speaking about Trump.
In a 2018 e mail thread about Trump’s former private lawyer Michael Cohen pleading responsible expenses associated to hush cash funds on behalf of Trump, Epstein wrote, “I understand how soiled donald is.”
In one other thread that very same yr, Epstein wrote of Trump: “its wild. as a result of I’m the one in a position to take him down.”
Trump additionally faces a looming vote by the complete Home of Representatives on a petition demanding the discharge of prison investigative information about Epstein that the DOJ refuses to make public regardless of prior guarantees to take action by Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi and different Trump administration officers.
Trump has denied having recognized about Epstein’s decades-long abuse of underage ladies and younger ladies.
The 2 males had a falling out within the early 2000s.
Among the many e mail threads launched Wednesday by the Home Oversight Committee is one written in April wherein Epstein advised creator Michael Wolff that Trump “knew in regards to the ladies.” The e-mail doesn’t clarify what Epstein meant by that
In one other e mail, written in April 2011, Epstein advised his confederate Ghislaine Maxwell: “I would like you to appreciate that the canine that hasn’t barked is trump.”
Epstein, in the identical thread, mentioned that an individual whose identify was redacted within the e mail however whom lawmakers recognized as a sufferer of his “spent hours at my home with” Trump.
“He has by no means as soon as been talked about,” Epstein added.
