The US Department of Justice has confirmed it will investigate pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein's alleged ties to major banks and several prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton.
President Donald Trump on Friday said he will ask Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI to look into Epstein's “involvement and relationships” with Clinton and others “to determine what is going on with them and with him.”
Bondi then said on social media that she had asked U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the investigation, adding that the office “will pursue this with urgency and integrity to provide answers to the American people.”
Clinton categorically denies knowing anything about Epstein's crimes.
Interest in Epstein's relationships was renewed this week after US lawmakers released more than 20,000 pages of documents from his estate, including some mentioning Trump.
In addition to Clinton, Trump said he has asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate banks JP Morgan and Chase, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder Reed Hoffman, who is also a prominent Democratic Party donor.
“Epstein was a Democrat and he is a Democrat’s problem, not a Republican’s problem!” he wrote on social networks.
“They know everything about him, don't waste your time on Trump. I need to run the country!”
A JPMorgan Chase spokesman said the firm regrets “any association” with Epstein and added that the firm “did not assist him in his heinous acts.”
It is unclear whether Trump has already submitted the request to the Justice Department. The Ministry of Justice has not yet commented on the situation.
Trump's request comes ahead of a House vote next week on whether the Justice Department should release all of its files related to the investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.
Democrat Adelita Grijalva's swearing-in to the House on Wednesday provided the impetus for the move after she immediately signed a petition exempting herself from calls for the files to be released.
Her signature was the 218th, the final signature needed to trigger the vote. Four Republicans joined Democrats to call for a vote.
Documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday appear to show correspondence between Epstein and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers from October 2017.
In one email, Summers gives Epstein his opinion of Trump early in his presidency, writing: “D.D.T. is the luckiest man in the world in terms of opposition, economics, etc. He still thinks his world is going to collapse.”
A spokesman for Summers told the Wall Street Journal in 2023 that the former Treasury official and former Harvard University president “deeply regrets contact with Epstein following his conviction.”
The documents also included email correspondence between Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
In one email sent in 2011, Epstein writes to Maxwell: “I want you to understand that the dog that didn't bark was Trump. [VICTIM] I spent hours with him in my house.”
Trump had been Epstein's friend for years, but the president said the two had a falling out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing against Epstein. Although he was discussed in some of the messages posted this week, he did not send or receive them.
Representative Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, accused Trump of trying to “deflect serious new questions we have about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”
On Friday, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said it would be a “huge miscalculation” for Trump to oppose the release of material related to Epstein.
Greene was among four other House Republicans – Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, Thomas Massie – who joined Democrats in signing a dismissal petition calling for the files to be released.
“I really just support women and think they deserve to be the ones we fight for,” she told the BBC's US partner, CBS News.
In a letter addressed to Congress, Epstein survivors and the family of Virginia Giuffre – his high-profile accuser – called on US lawmakers to vote to release the files.
“As you gather as a family this season, remember that your first duty is to your constituents. Look into the eyes of your children, sisters, mothers and aunts,” the letter says.
“Imagine if they were hunted. Imagine if you yourself had survived. What would you like for them? What would you like for yourself? When you vote, we will remember your decision at the ballot box.”
