Responding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton, according to the original source.
Bondi shared on X that she was putting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in charge of the investigation. It capped off a chaotic week in Washington as congressional Republicans released nearly twenty three thousand pages of documents from Epstein’s estate while House Democrats jumped on emails that mentioned Trump.
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Trump, who had been friends with Epstein for years, didn’t spell out what crimes he thought the Justice Department should look into. None of the men he named in his social media posts have been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein’s victims.
Just hours before Bondi made her announcement, Trump posted on Truth Social that he planned to ask her, the Justice Department and the FBI to dig into Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman. Trump called it “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans” and said the investigation should also include JPMorgan Chase, which handled Epstein’s banking, along with “many other people and institutions.”
“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” he wrote, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into alleged Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton.
The newly released documents were a mix of emails, news articles, book excerpts and legal materials.
Trump, Clinton, Summers and Hoffman all appeared in various messages Epstein sent over the years. Some emails showed Epstein keeping in touch with Summers and Hoffman. Others referenced Trump and Clinton spending time in Epstein’s company at different moments, although none of the messages suggested wrongdoing by any of them.
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Clinton has acknowledged traveling on Epstein’s private jet but has said through a spokesperson that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Neither Clinton nor Trump have been accused of wrongdoing by any of the women who say Epstein abused them.
Summers, who served in Clinton’s cabinet and is a former Harvard president, has said that he has “great regrets in my life” and that “my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgement.”
Attempts to reach Hoffman through his investment firm Greylock and a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson were unsuccessful.
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After Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking arrest, Hoffman said he had only been around Epstein a few times while fundraising for MIT’s Media Lab. He apologized, saying that “by agreeing to participate in any fundraising activity where Epstein was present, I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice.” None of Epstein’s victims have accused Hoffman of misconduct.
Bondi praised Clayton as “one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country” and said the Justice Department “will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.” Clayton, who chaired the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term, took over as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in April, the same office that charged Epstein and secured the 2021 conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Trump has long questioned Epstein’s death in jail and even suggested last year that he wanted to open the government’s case files. Recently, though, he has shifted his message and now frames the matter as a Democrat driven “hoax” as questions about his own relationship with Epstein continue to surface.
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On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three Epstein email exchanges referencing Trump. One 2019 email said the president “knew about the girls” and another from 2011 said Trump had “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a sex trafficking victim. The messages did not specify what Trump knew or describe what he did during those visits. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of “selectively leaked emails” meant to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”
Republicans responded by releasing what they said were another twenty thousand pages of documents from Epstein’s estate. Many included Epstein’s comments about Trump, often critical, as well as emails showing him keeping up friendly relationships with academic and business leaders including Summers and Hoffman long after his 2008 guilty plea and thirteen month jail sentence.
Some of Epstein’s emails revealed surprisingly intimate conversations with Summers, including one in which Epstein advised him, “You care very much for this person. you might want to demonstrate that.”
Epstein exchanged only a handful of messages with Hoffman. In one 2015 email, Epstein wrote to him, “heyy it looks like your diet program has worked.” Hoffman replied, “slow progress. planning to see you in August. Hope your well.”