Donald Trump says he has directed the Justice Department to release further papers relating to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval,” his statement read. It is unknown whether Trump has authorised the public release of these materials. A court’s approval is normally required for such activity. It occurred shortly after Trump said that he would sue The Wall Street Journal over a report claiming that a “bawdy” birthday message carrying Trump’s name was delivered to Epstein in 2003, before the late billionaire was convicted with sex charges.
The letter, which the tabloid alleges was sent on Epstein’s 50th birthday, has been condemned by Trump as a “fake”. In a post, Trump claimed that the newspaper and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, were “directly warned” that they would be sued if they published the report, which he described as “false, malicious, and defamatory.” The Wall Street Journal said that a letter bearing Trump’s name “contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to have been hand-drawn with a heavy marker.” “Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person,” according to the article.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the letter finishes with the lines “A pal is a wonderful thing.” Happy birthday, and may each day hold another amazing surprise.” “These are not my words, nor the way I speak. In response to the news, Trump tweeted, “I also don’t draw pictures.” According to the publication, the letter was part of a collection of birthday wishes assembled by Epstein colleague Ghislaine Maxwell. In 2021, Maxwell was convicted of assisting Epstein in sex-trafficking children and sentenced to 20 years in jail. Trump’s request to provide more records comes after days of relentless pressure from some of his most ardent supporters, who have demanded additional disclosures in the Epstein case.
Minutes after the president, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote: “We are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.” A grand jury is a group of persons formed by a prosecutor to assess if there is sufficient evidence to pursue charges. In legal words, it assesses if there is reasonable cause to think a crime was committed. Grand jury conclusions must still be examined before a regular jury in court before a defendant may be convicted of a crime.
It is unclear whether the president’s post was about grand jury testimony from the first batch of Epstein prosecutions in the early 2000s or the federal charges filed in 2019. The BBC enquired with the White House. Some grand jury documents from the 2006 case in Florida, in which he was accused with solicitation of a prostitute, have already been unsealed. The case was highly attacked for the absence of substantial charges and the severity of the testimony provided by the victims, which included several juveniles. While campaigning last year, Trump promised to release documents related to the disgraced financier.
However, Bondi said last week that the US Justice Department did not believe Epstein had a “client list” that could expose high-profile acquaintances, and that he did commit himself – contradicting conspiracy theories. It came after Bondi had promised to reveal important details about the case, including “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs” – a reference to people who went with the financier or visited his private islands, where many of his alleged crimes were believed to have occurred.
Her reversal prompted furious response from scores of Trump’s most ardent supporters who have called for Bondi to resign after failing to produce the list, which Trump officials had previously claimed to have in their possession. Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was critical of the administration’s handling of the files in recent days, praised Trump’s move. “This is massive, this is something that we’ve been talking about for quite some time, and really a power to the grassroots,” he said. Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death while incarcerated happened more than a decade after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.
English