President Donald Trump on Friday asked the Justice Department to investigate the relationship between notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and former President Bill Clinton.p morgan chaseformer Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, billionaire tech investor Reid Hoffman, and others.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced late Friday that she had appointed Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to lead the investigation.
Trump’s statement came as he faces new pressure over his past friendship with Epstein, who committed suicide in August 2019 after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges.
“Democrats are using the Epstein hoax to distract from the disastrous shutdown and all their other failures,” Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social.
To that end, he wrote, “I will be asking Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice, along with our great patriots the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationships with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, JPMorgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions to uncover what was going on with them and with him.”
“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia scam, with all arrows pointing toward the Democratic Party,” Trump said, adding, “The records show that these men and many others spent the majority of their lives with Mr. Epstein and on his ‘island.'” stay tuned! ! ! “
“Thank you Mr. President,” Attorney General Bondi wrote in a post to X.
“SDNY U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton is one of the most capable and reliable prosecutors in this country, and I have asked him to take the lead,” Bondi wrote. “As with all issues, the State Department will pursue this issue with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.”
“Mr. Trump should release the entire Epstein file – every person and every document in it,” Hoffman posted late Friday night. I want a full release because it will bring justice to the victims. ”
His post continued, “Because it shows that the baseless calls for an investigation against me are nothing more than political persecution and slander. I was not a client of Epstein, and I have never had anything to do with him other than to raise money for MIT.” “The call for an investigation is an obvious ploy to avoid releasing the files. Simply release all the files and expose those who had deep and ongoing ties to Epstein.”
“I will now do everything in my power to advocate for the release of the files, to ensure justice is served for Epstein’s victims, and to promote the values of truth on which our great nation was founded,” Hoffman said. “I will not bend the knee to Donald Trump and his defamatory lies.”
Trump’s post came two days after he hosted business leaders, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, for dinner at the White House.
“The government had damning information about (Mr. Epstein’s) crimes and did not share it with us or other banks,” a JPMorgan spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC on Friday.
“While we were involved with this man, we regret that we did not assist him in his heinous acts,” spokeswoman Patricia Wexler said in a statement. “We ended our relationship with him years before he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.”
Epstein was a longtime JPMorgan client and a friend of former JPMorgan executive Jess Staley.
In 2023, JPMorgan settled separate lawsuits by Epstein’s victims and the U.S. Virgin Islands government, which denied wrongdoing and accused the bank of facilitating and profiting from Epstein’s sex trafficking of young women. The bank agreed to pay $290 million to victim organizations and $75 million to the USVI.
CNBC has reached out to Clinton and Summers, as well as the White House and the Department of Justice, for comment on Trump’s post.
Jeffrey Epstein (left) and Donald Trump pose together at their Mar-a-Lago mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, in a 1997 photo.
Davidoff Studio Photos | Archive Photos | Getty Images
Emails released this week by the House Oversight Committee show Epstein and others talking about Trump.
“I know how dirty Donald is,” Epstein wrote in a 2018 email thread about Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleading guilty on behalf of Trump in connection with hush-money payments.
In another thread from the same year, Epstein wrote of Trump: “It’s wild because I’m the one who can beat him.”
President Trump also faces a vote in the full House on a petition to release criminal investigative files on Epstein, which the Justice Department has refused to release despite prior promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi and other Trump administration officials.
President Trump has denied knowing about Epstein’s decades-long abuse of underage girls and young women.
The two had a falling out in the early 2000s.
The email threads released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee include one written in April in which Epstein told author Michael Wolff that President Trump “knew these girls.” In the email, Epstein did not explain what that meant.
In another email written in April 2011, Epstein told co-defendant Ghislaine Maxwell, “I want you to understand that the dog that didn’t bark is Trump.”
In the same thread, Mr. Epstein also mentioned a person whom lawmakers identified as a victim who “spent many hours at his home” with Mr. Trump, although his name was redacted in the email.
“He was never mentioned,” Epstein added.
