NEW LAWSUIT THREATS, legal moves, bombshell reports and allegations dropped Friday, as the saga around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein consumed Washington for another day.
President Trump’s move to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the Epstein grand jury transcripts was met with mixed reactions, as the White House sought to quell outrage from some of Trump’s allies seeking full transparency.
Bondi said she’d move immediately to release the transcripts, after some on the MAGA right expressed doubt about a Department of Justice (DOJ) report stating Epstein did not keep a “client list.”
The surprise move came after a Wall Street Journal report alleged Trump sent a “bawdy” birthday card to Epstein for his 50th birthday with a cryptic message and drawing of a naked woman. Trump denies the story and says he will sue the paper.
Democrats — and some Republicans, such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — say the grand jury transcripts aren't enough. They're calling on Bondi to release all the government's files on Epstein, including FBI witness interviews.
“We want all the files,” Massie posted on X.
Trump’s attacks on those seeking full transparency have only fanned the flames of speculation.
Democrats, who once dismissed the Epstein saga as a conspiracy theory, are now demanding full transparency.
“We need total disclosure of the complete file, redacting only the names and the identities of the minor victims,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said on MSNBC. “There is overwhelming bipartisan, popular demand, Congressional demand, to release all of this stuff.”
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) accused the Trump administration of sitting on Epstein’s bank records.
“They’re refusing to investigate,” Wyden posted on X.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he received information that Bondi “pressured” the FBI to comb through the Epstein files to flag any mention of Trump.
The Washington Post reports that "no credible allegation has emerged to connect Trump to any of Epstein’s crimes."
"Rest assured — if Trump were prominently mentioned, it would have been leaked by now," the Post's fact checker wrote.
Trump said over social media that Democrats would have already released the Epstein files if there was a “smoking gun” implicating him in Epstein’s crimes.
Some Republicans rolled their eyes at what they described as political opportunism by Democrats.
“[Democrats] never asked about it — they tried to hide from it,” former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Fox News’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.” “[Trump] didn’t hide from this — he had the authorities investigate this.”
