US Attorney General Pam Bondi allegedly told President in May his name appeared in files relating to Jeffrey Epstein, according to news report
Donald Trump was allegedly told his name appeared in Justice Department files relating to Jeffrey Epstein, senior US officials told The Wall Street Journal.
The report states that US Attorney General Pam Bondi allegedly told Trump in May that his name appeared in the files relating to Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in 2019 while awaiting trial in jail, the Journal reported.
The White House rejected the report and condemned it as “fake news”.
“This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement in response to the report.
Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing relating to Epstein.
The Justice Department concluded in early July that there was no basis to continue a probe into the Epstein case.
“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,” Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on Wednesday.
This comes after a federal judge denied a US State Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein, the first ruling in a series of attempts by the Trump administration to release more information on the case.
District judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach, Florida, said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under US law that could make them public.
“The court’s hands are tied,” the judge ruled.
Trump had directed Bondi to seek the release of the grand jury evidence following increased speculation from some of his supporters.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.
His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was charged with helping him abuse teenage girls.
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a jail in New York City about a month after he was arrested.
Investigators concluded he killed himself. Maxwell was later convicted at trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
