US President Donald Trump said Friday that he wants the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate links between the late alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and former Democratic President Bill Clinton.
Seeking to turn the tide after a new trove of Epstein emails reignited questions about his own ties to the disgraced financier, Trump also demanded an investigation into US bank JPMorgan Chase, former Harvard president Larry Summers and others.
Republican Trump accused his Democratic rivals of “using the Epstein hoax” to distract from the party’s recent pledge to end a record US government shutdown, and said the scandal involved “Democrats, not Republicans.”
“I will ask Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice, along with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, JP Morgan, Chase and many other people and institutions,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“Records show that these men, and many others, spent much of their lives with Epstein and on his ‘island.'”
Clinton has long faced scrutiny over his ties to Epstein and traveled on his private plane, although he has never been accused of wrongdoing in the scandal.
Epstein said Clinton had “never ever” been to his famous private island in the Caribbean, according to several emails from the latest trove dating back to 2011 and seen by AFP.
There was no immediate comment from Clinton, Summers, LinkedIn founder Hoffman, or JP Morgan Chase, which in 2023 agreed to pay $290 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by victims of Epstein, his former client.
Trump’s message broke two days of silence over the scandal, and emails released Wednesday renewed questions about the 79-year-old’s long, close relationship with Epstein.
Epstein died in prison in 2019 (by suicide, authorities ruled) before he could face trial on federal sex charges. But questions about his alleged mastermind of a sexual ring where powerful men were provided with underage girls only grew.
‘A country to govern’
Trump himself has not been charged with a crime, yet the scandal has dogged him since his return to the White House in January, despite his attempts to put a stop to the matter.
Trump and some of his close allies, including his FBI chief, Kash Patel, had in the past promised their right-wing base that they would seek the disclosure of all evidence against Epstein, including details of his alleged clients.
But there was a furious MAGA backlash after Trump’s Justice Department, in a July memo, reaffirmed that he committed suicide and that a “client list” that Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed she had been reviewing did not actually exist.
The scandal peaked again on Wednesday with the release of emails from Epstein’s estate requested by Congress.
Email traffic between Epstein and his friends said Trump “knew about the girls” and had spent “hours” with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims and the main accuser.
The White House says Giuffre, who committed suicide in April, had stated that Trump “could not have been friendlier.”
Now the House of Representatives will vote next week to require the Justice Department’s disclosure of its materials on Epstein, after a rebellion by a handful of MAGA lawmakers provided enough votes.
Those materials could include much more damning evidence than has previously been seen about links between Epstein and his circle, which over the years ranged from Trump to former British Prince Andrew.
Trump made clear that he does not want the effort to continue.
“Don’t waste your time on Trump. I have a country to govern!” he said on social media.
