According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche informed President Donald Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein that the Department of Justice and the FBI reviewed.
The officials told Trump of their plan not to release any additional documents, the report says, because the material contained child pornography and the personal information of victims.
President Trump, according to the Journal, said he would defer to the Justice Department’s decision not to release additional files on Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
MORE: Florida judge rules Epstein grand jury records will remain sealed
According to the report, Trump was also informed that the names of many other high-profile individuals appeared in the documents, which the Journal reported was not evidence of wrongdoing.
The Trump administration did not say anything publicly about the decision not to release additional files until July, when it angered many of Trump’s supporters by announcing that it would not release any additional files after earlier promising to do so.
The DOJ and FBI stated that their review “did not uncover evidence” that could lead to further criminal charges.
When asked by ABC News on July 15 what Bondi told Trump about the review — “specifically, did she tell you at all that your name appeared in the files?” Trump responded: “No, no, she’s — she’s given us just a very quick briefing,” before making baseless claims that the files were created by some of his political foes.
Asked by ABC News following the publication of the Journal article if the president had been told his name is in the files, White House spokesperson Steven Cheung, said, “The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep. This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about.”
In a statement, Bondi and Blanche said, “The DOJ and FBI reviewed the Epstein Files and reached the conclusion set out in the July 6 memo. Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts. As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings.”
FBI Director Kash Patel, who prior to joining the new administration called for the release of all Epstein files, said in a statement, “The memo released on July 6th is consistent with the thorough review conducted by the FBI and DOJ. The criminal leakers and Fake News media tries tirelessly to undermine President Trump with smears and lies, and this story is no different.”
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