The US Department of Justice had informed President Donald Trump that he was among hundreds named in the undisclosed Epstein files. The meeting between Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump happened in May, and the president has been aware since, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The report claimed Trump was mentioned several times but also specified that it had found several unsubstantiated claims in the files, some even relating to the US president. This came just a month after Trump's former ally and billionaire Elon Musk made similar claims about the Epstein files.
The furor around disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking minors, is still roiling Donald Trump's administration two weeks after his Justice Department effectively closed the case, announcing there was no more information to share.
In a July 7 memo, the Justice Department said the Epstein "client list" that Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed to have been reviewing did not, in fact, exist, and reaffirmed that he died by suicide in his prison cell.
Pressure has been mounting on the Trump administration to declassify the files. But details revealed in the WSJ report suggest the records included child pornography and sensitive victim information, according to a federal judge in Florida.
The White House continues to shrug off the matter and has branded it as "fake news."
"This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about," a statement from the Trump administration said.
Many Republican lawmakers are now speaking beyond party lines and demanding a release of the files — a move Democrats have rallied behind.
The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives on Wednesday sent lawmakers home early for a six-week summer break, to avoid being forced into awkward votes on the probe into the late, politically connected sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Also read: Obama vs Trump: Russian interference, coup allegations take centre stage amid Epstein storm
