United States President Donald Trump has called on the Department of Justice to investigate ties between one of his Democratic predecessors, Bill Clinton, and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But the request comes shortly after a trove of newly released emails raised questions about Trump’s own relationship with Epstein.
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On Friday, Trump took to social media to once again frame the emails as a distraction. He compared them to an investigation into ties between Russian election interference and his presidential campaign in 2016.
“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” Trump wrote, framing the emails as a “hoax”.
He also sought to shift scrutiny of his actions onto Democrats and financial institutions, arguing that they had deeper relationships with Epstein than he did.
“Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem!” Trump wrote, before adding: “Don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”
In the second of two lengthy posts, Trump said he would ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate former President Clinton, as well as Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman and the bank JPMorgan Chase.
Newly released emails
The Epstein scandal has proven to be an enduring headache for Trump during his second administration, as he faces bipartisan pressure to release the full slate of documents pertaining to the case and address his own involvement.
A wealthy financier, Epstein was known to socialise with powerful figures, including Trump, Clinton and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, a former prince in the United Kingdom whose involvement resulted in the loss of his royal titles last month.
Those associations have long drawn questions about how Epstein may have been shielded from accountability.
Hundreds of women have come forward to accuse Epstein of sexual abuse and trafficking. In 2008, Epstein was convicted in Florida of sexually abusing a minor and solicitation, but critics saw his plea deal as overly lenient.
At the time of his death by suicide in 2019, he was in jail, facing federal sex-trafficking charges. The circumstances of his death have fuelled conspiracy theories, as has the high-profile nature of his social circle, leading some to believe there was a cover-up.
Trump’s own relationship with Epstein came roaring back into the spotlight on Wednesday, as the longest government shutdown in US history came to a close.
The House of Representatives had come back into session for the first time in 54 days in order to vote on a funding bill that would end the 42-day-long shutdown.
But that morning, Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released three excerpted emails from conversations between Epstein, his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and the writer Michael Wolff, all of which discussed Trump. They appeared to suggest Trump knew about Epstein’s sexual relationships.
In one email, Epstein wrote, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him.”
In another, Epstein told Wolff, “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”
A third email from Wolff suggested Trump had been to Epstein’s house and on his plane, and discussed how Trump might address those visits in a CNN interview.
The Trump administration quickly leapt into damage control, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt describing the email release as selectively edited and a Democratic “smear” campaign.
Later that day, however, the Republican leadership on the House Oversight Committee published 20,000 emails from the Epstein case file, including more conversations about Trump.
In a 2017 email to Summers, for example, Epstein wrote, “i have met some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes – dangerous.”
An ongoing controversy
In Friday’s messages, Trump argued that the emails were an attempt to distract from the prolonged government shutdown, during which time Democrats failed to negotiate protections for healthcare subsidies scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
“The Democrats are doing everything in their withering power to push the Epstein Hoax again, despite the DOJ releasing 50,000 pages of documents, in order to deflect from all of their bad policies and losses, especially the SHUTDOWN EMBARRASSMENT,” Trump said.
He also denounced Republicans for backing the push to release more Epstein files, claiming they were siding with Democrats over him.
“Some Weak Republicans have fallen into their clutches because they are soft and foolish,” he wrote.
This week is not the first time Trump’s current administration has faced controversy over the Epstein scandal. In February, for instance, Attorney General Bondi told Fox News in a televised interview that she had an Epstein “client list” in her possession: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”
The existence of a supposed “client list” was a key element in conspiracy theories that framed Epstein as blackmailing powerful figures to do his bidding. Some of Trump’s own officials, including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) head Kash Patel, had promoted that conspiracy theory prior to taking office.
But in July, the Justice Department and FBI issued a joint memo denying the existence of a “client list”, stirring backlash among Trump supporters. Bondi maintained she misspoke in the February interview with Fox News.
Later that month, media reports emerged that Bondi had also briefed Trump that his name appeared in the full Epstein files, which have yet to be released.
Trump himself addressed his relationship with Epstein that month, saying he cut ties with the financier for poaching young female employees from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“When I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people,’” Trump told reporters. “And then, not too long after that, he did it again. And I said, ‘Out of here.’”
Clinton, banks under microscope
Clinton has likewise faced scrutiny for his ties to Epstein: Before his conviction, the financier visited Clinton at the White House, and Clinton has admitted to travelling on Epstein’s jet.
While Clinton has yet to comment on Trump’s threat of an investigation, he has, in the past, denied any knowledge of Epstein’s abuses.
“President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those he has been recently charged in New York,” Clinton’s spokesperson Angel Urena posted on social media in 2019.
Financial institutions have also faced pressure to account for their involvement in Epstein’s affairs.
In 2023, for instance, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay a $75m settlement to survivors of Epstein’s abuses, after a plaintiff alleged that the financial institution profited from his sex-trafficking schemes and failed to flag unusual behaviour.
Later that same year, JP Morgan Chase also struck a deal with Epstein survivors, agreeing to pay a settlement of $290m.
“We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes,” the bank said in a statement at the time.
Similar lawsuits have since been filed, including complaints last month against Bank of America and the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY). During hearings this week, those two banking firms have sought to have the lawsuits dismissed.
Still, pressure remains high on the Trump administration, particularly in the wake of the House reconvening.
With the lower chamber back in session, a new representative was sworn in: Democrat Adelita Grijalva. She provided the critical 218th signature on a discharge petition to force the House to vote on releasing all of the government’s Epstein files.
The bill was a bipartisan effort, led by Thomas Massie, a Republican, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch Trump supporter, confirmed this week he plans to hold the vote next week, though it faces uncertain odds in the Senate. Johnson has repeatedly downplayed the effort.
