An image of Trump and Epstein is projected onto the U.S. Department of Commerce headquarters on July 18, in Washington, D.C. Pressure to make the documents public has intensified recently.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The Jeffrey Epstein files have been a focus for the American public ever since U.S. President Donald Trump campaigned on releasing the classified documents last year. Pressure to make the documents public has intensified recently, as a faction of the president’s supporters increasingly demand to see them.
Here’s the most recent news about the Epstein files, where this all began and why they’re the focus of such attention.
Who is Jeffrey Epstein?
Jeffrey Epstein in court in West Palm Beach, Florida, July, 2008. He pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge, after federal prosecutors agreed not to charge him with sex trafficking of minors.Uma Sanghvi/The Associated Press
The Brooklyn-born Epstein, a former high school math teacher who later founded consulting and financial management firms, cultivated the rich and famous.
He was known for socializing with politicians and royalty, including Trump, Democratic President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Britain’s Prince Andrew. Some friends and clients flew on his private plane and visited his Caribbean islands. Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During the 2021 trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier’s longtime pilot, Lawrence Visoski, testified that Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane multiple times. Trump has denied being on the plane.
What was Epstein charged with?
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge, after federal prosecutors agreed not to charge him with sex trafficking of minors. He served 13 months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender. That punishment is now widely regarded as too lenient. In July, 2019, the Justice Department charged Epstein with sex trafficking minors, including sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005. He pleaded not guilty. Epstein died on August 10, 2019, at age 66 by hanging himself in a Manhattan jail cell, an autopsy concluded. He was never tried on the 2019 charges.
What’s happened recently?
Some of Trump’s most staunch supporters in recent weeks have called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to resign, after she backtracked on a promise she made earlier this year that the Justice Department would release additional materials – including “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs” in connection with Epstein’s clients.
After releasing only a select number of records that failed to shed new light on the case, the department and the FBI released a joint memo earlier this month that poured cold water on long-running conspiracy theories about Epstein by saying there was “no incriminating client list” or any evidence of blackmail.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi promised earlier this year that the Justice Department would release additional materials – including 'a lot of names' and 'a lot of flight logs.'Ken Cedeno/Reuters
Since then, at Trump’s direction, Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche have asked a federal court for permission to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of both Epstein and Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of five federal charges related to her role in Epstein’s alleged sexual abuse of underage girls.
However, legal experts, including one of Epstein’s former attorneys, Alan Dershowitz, have said that those transcripts will not likely contain the types of materials being sought by Trump’s supporters.
In an attempt to quell the uproar, Trump has called the Epstein case “pretty boring” and said “the credible information has been given.”
“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday described information relating to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as 'sordid but boring' amid backlash from some of his supporters over how the Justice Department handled the investigation into the late financier's death and his alleged clientele.
Reuters
Trump’s alleged letter to Epstein for his birthday
The Wall Street Journal reported on July 17 that Trump’s name had appeared on a risqué 2003 personal note to Epstein, reigniting calls for the files to be released.
The Journal reported that the letter was one of several included in a leather-bound album meant to celebrate Epstein’s 50th birthday, about three years before sex-abuse allegations emerged against the financier. The Globe and Mail has not verified the authenticity of the letter.
Trump quickly responded to the story on his Truth Social platform, saying the letter was fake. He then filed a lawsuit against the newspaper and Rupert Murdoch, who controls its publisher, News Corp., for at least US$10 billion in damages.
The Journal said the letter, bearing Trump’s name, contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appeared to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. The newspaper said the letter concludes, “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,” and featured the signature “Donald.”
The MAGA faction’s focus on the Epstein files
The 2019 suicide of the disgraced financier and sex offender in a New York jail cell generated conspiracy theories, fueled by the conservative MAGA movement, that he was killed by one of his famous connections.
Even as it released video from inside a New York jail meant to definitively prove that Epstein killed himself, the Justice Department also said in a memo that it was refusing to disclose other evidence investigators had collected. For weeks, Bondi had suggested more material was going to be revealed – “It’s a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public,” she said at one point – after a first document dump she had hyped angered Trump’s base by failing to deliver revelations.
That episode, in which far-right influencers were invited to the White House in February and provided with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified” that contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain, has spurred conservative internet personalities to sharply criticize Bondi.
After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI. In a March TV interview, she claimed the Biden administration “sat on these documents, no one did anything with them,” adding: “Sadly these people don’t believe in transparency, but I think more unfortunately, I think a lot of them don’t believe in honesty.”
Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec posted: 'We were all told more was coming. That answers were out there and would be provided. Incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been.'Rebecca Cook/Reuters
Conservatives who have sought proof of a government cover-up of Epstein’s activities and death expressed outrage over the department’s position. Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec posted: “We were all told more was coming. That answers were out there and would be provided. Incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been. And it didn’t have to be.”
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote that “next the DOJ will say ‘Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed,’” calling it “over the top sickening.” Elon Musk shared a series of photos of a clown applying makeup appearing to mock Bondi for saying the client list doesn’t exist after suggesting months ago that it was on her desk.
With reports from the Associated Press and Reuters.