Trump told in May that his name appears in Epstein files: report

Washington: US President Donald Trump is among many of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates whose name appears in the “Epstein files” – records from investigations of the financier’s alleged sex-trafficking crimes – according to a US media report.

The Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal reported Attorney-General Pam Bondi and her deputy informed the president his name was in the documents during a meeting at the White House in May, citing officials familiar with the exchange.

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1997.Credit: Getty

Trump was told many other high-profile figures were also named, according to the Journal’s story. The meeting was reportedly a routine briefing and Trump’s appearance in the files was not the focus.

Being named in the files is not necessarily an accusation of wrongdoing. Trump was friends with Epstein in the 1990s, and they mixed in the same New York social circles before falling out in the 2000s, according to Trump.

But the report of Trump’s appearance in the documents will intensify speculation about why the administration has refused to release the files – something Trump indicated he would do – and fuel anger in the president’s MAGA base.

In a statement to this masthead, White House communications director Steven Cheung did not explicitly deny The Wall Street Journal story, but said it was a continuation of “fake news” stories aimed at attacking Trump.

“The fact is that the president kicked [Epstein] out of his club for being a creep,” Cheung said, referring to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

“This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russia-gate scandal, which President Trump was right about.”

Cheung was referring to claims made in recent days by Trump and his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, that former president Barack Obama led a conspiracy to concoct intelligence that Vladimir Putin interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

In fact, numerous intelligence reports concluded Russia did seek to influence the outcome of the election in Trump’s favour, even if there was no evidence they hacked voting machines or software.

Trump has already commenced legal action against News Corp over a Journal story from last week that said he wrote a cryptic letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday, which appeared inside the outline of a naked woman in a book organised by Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s girlfriend.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually exploit and abuse girls. Epstein killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting his own trial on sex-trafficking charges. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to procuring a minor to engage in prostitution, as part of a plea deal.

Trump is suing News Corp for defamation in Florida, claiming $US10 billion (about $15 billion) in damages.

“I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper, the WSJ. That will be an interesting experience!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social last week.

Democrats, who have been pushing for the files to be released, seized on the latest report as evidence of a government cover-up.

“It was the simplest explanation all along,” wrote Democratic congressman Don Beyer, of Virginia, on X.

Meanwhile, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight voted on Wednesday, Washington time, to subpoena the Department of Justice for files in the sex-trafficking investigation into Epstein.

Three Republicans on the panel voted with Democrats for the subpoena, sending it through on an 8-2 vote tally. Republican subcommittee chairman, Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, said that work to draft the subpoena was beginning. The committee also subpoenaed Maxwell to testify next month at the Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee, where she is being held.

Earlier on Wednesday, a federal judge in Florida rejected the Justice Department’s request to unseal transcripts from grand jury investigations of Epstein years ago in the state, saying the request did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.

“My hands are tied,” US District Judge Robin Rosenberg said Wednesday in a written opinion, saying she was bound by local court rulings related to the release of grand jury information.

A similar records request is still pending in New York.

With AP, Bloomberg

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