Newsletters
U.S. President Donald Trump directed federal law enforcement Friday to investigate former President Bill Clinton's connections to the late Jeffrey Epstein, seeking to deflect mounting questions about his own relationship with the disgraced financier following the release of damaging emails.
Trump instructed the Justice Department and FBI to examine Epstein's links to Clinton, former Harvard president Larry Summers, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and banking giant JPMorgan Chase. The directive comes as the president faces renewed scrutiny after emails surfaced in which Epstein suggested Trump "knew about the girls" and spent hours with one of the victims at his residence.
The 79-year-old president has denied any wrongdoing and characterized Democratic criticism as the "Epstein hoax." However, questions about his decades-long friendship with the alleged sex trafficker have persisted since his return to office in January.
Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 in what authorities ruled a suicide, weeks before he was set to face trial on sex trafficking charges. His alleged operation of a network that provided underage girls to powerful men continues to generate legal and political fallout.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said he would ask Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI to investigate Epstein's "involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions." He claimed records show "these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his 'Island.'"
Bondi responded that the Justice Department would "pursue this with urgency and integrity" and appointed senior New York prosecutor Jay Clayton to lead the inquiry.
The announcement contradicts a July memo from the FBI and Justice Department stating investigators had not found evidence warranting an investigation of uncharged third parties in the Epstein case. That memo also sparked controversy within Trump's political movement after revealing that a "client list" Bondi had claimed to be reviewing did not exist.
Clinton has faced longstanding scrutiny over his association with Epstein and traveled on the financier's private aircraft, though he has not been accused of criminal conduct related to the scandal. According to emails from 2011 reviewed by AFP, Epstein said Clinton had "never ever" visited his private Caribbean island. Clinton, Summers and Hoffman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
JPMorgan Chase rejected Trump's claims outright. The bank, which settled a class action lawsuit brought by Epstein victims for $290 million in 2023, said in a statement that "the government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks."
"We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts," the bank added.
Trump's social media statement broke two days of silence on the controversy, which has overshadowed his recent political gains after Democrats agreed to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The president has yet to address the email revelations on camera, including messages stating he spent "hours" with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's accusers who died by suicide in April.
The White House said Giuffre had previously cleared Trump of wrongdoing and stated he "couldn't have been friendlier." Photographs and video footage documenting Trump's interactions with Epstein decades ago have complicated his efforts to distance himself from the scandal.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote as early as next week on legislation demanding the White House release all files related to Epstein. The measure gained sufficient support after several lawmakers from Trump's own political base broke ranks to back the effort. Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel had previously promised supporters they would seek the release of all evidence against Epstein.
On Friday, Trump made clear he opposes the congressional push. "Don't waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!" he wrote.
3 min read
2 min read
