Attorney General Pam Bondi, at the behest of President Trump, has initiated an investigation into ties between Jeffrey Epstein and prominent Democratic figures.
Ms. Bondi designated Jay Clayton, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to lead the investigation that was spurred by revelations in the government’s Epstein files that several prominent Democrats were in close contact with the convicted sex criminal.
Ms. Bondi called Mr. Clayton “one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country.”
“As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people,” she wrote on social media.
Earlier Friday, the president directed Ms. Bondi to investigate the ties between Epstein and former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and other people and institutions.
“Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
SEE ALSO: Epstein emails show powerful friends, media elite, kept close ties despite his sex crime conviction
Roughly 20,000 pages of emails and other documents were released Wednesday by House Republicans after House Democrats unveiled three emails that they say show Mr. Trump was involved with Epstein.
The Justice Department’s refusal to release all of the Epstein files has prompted speculation that Mr. Trump is trying to protect himself or others who could be linked to Epstein’s trafficking of underage women for sex.
Epstein, a wildly successful financier, was associated with a who’s who of wealthy and politically powerful men. Mr. Trump was friends with Epstein but cut ties with him in the 2000s after Epstein was convicted of soliciting an underage woman for prostitution.
House Democrats and four Republicans are forcing a vote on a bill that would make the Justice Department release all the files on Epstein. House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said the vote will be happen next week.
The measure will face a steep climb to pass in the Senate.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump said it was time to put the spotlight on Democrats who were in Epstein’s orbit.
SEE ALSO: Epstein files emerge as flashpoint in 2026 Republican primaries
“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, where their party is in total disarray, and has no idea what to do,” he wrote in another post Friday.
“Some Weak Republicans have fallen into their clutches because they are soft and foolish. Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem! Ask Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, and Larry Summers about Epstein, they know all about him, don’t waste your time with Trump,” he said. “I have a Country to run!”
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department this year seeking Epstein information, and the panel has been receiving it in batches and posting the material online.
Democrats on Wednesday released emails dating back to 2011 in which Epstein talks about Mr. Trump.
In one 2011 email, Epstein said one female victim “spent hours at my house” with Mr. Trump and that Mr. Trump is a “dog that hasn’t barked.”
The committee’s Republicans called foul, showing that Democrats had redacted the name of the victim, the late Virginia Guiffre, who never accused Mr. Trump of wrongdoing and had complimented his behavior.
In her 2025 memoir, “Nobody’s Girl,” Guiffre, who died by suicide in April, said she first met Mr. Trump at his Palm Beach Mar-a-Lago club, where she was paid $9 an hour to work in the club’s locker room. Her father, a maintenance man at the club, introduced her to the then-future president in the summer of 2000.
She wrote, “Trump couldn’t have been friendlier, telling me it was fantastic that I was there. ’Do you like kids?’ he asked. ’Do you babysit at all?’ He explained that he owned several houses next to the resort that he lent to friends, many of whom had children who needed tending.”
• Susan Ferrechio contributed to this story.
