(New York) The storm caused by Jeffrey Epstein files continued to swell on Wednesday, while the media, congress and federal magistracy combined their forces to increase the pressure on Donald Trump and his administration.
THE Wall Street Journal and the New York Times opened the valves by revealing that the general prosecutor of the United States Pam Bondi had informed the president last May that his name appeared in Epstein files, as well as that of several other personalities.
According to Bondi and his right arm, Todd Blanche, this information was communicated to President Trump at a “routine meeting” in the White House.
Photo Jeenah Moon, Reuters
A screen on the Epstein case displayed in Times Square, in New York
“Nothing in the files justified an additional investigation or proceedings,” added Bondi and Blanche in a declaration published in response to questions from New York Times.
The Epstein storm started on July 7 when the Department of Justice announced that the files bearing the name of the pedocriminal who died in 2019 would not be made public.
This was a decision that went against the promises made by Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and several other members of the Republican Administration.
Since then, anger or disappointment convent with the followers of the Maga movement, feelings to which is now added suspicion among democrats. They accuse the Trump administration of trying to hide compromising information on the president.
Increasingly embarrassing friendship
That Donald Trump appears in Epstein files is not a surprise. Last week, the Wall Street Journal has published a report on at least one document, according to his information.
This is a health letter bearing the signature of Donald Trump and accompanied by a black felt drawing representing a naked woman. According to the Wall Street Journalthis letter was inserted in an album prepared by Ghislaine Maxwell, accomplice of Epstein, and offered to the latter on the occasion of his 50e Birth anniversary in 2003.
Donald Trump denied having written this letter, but his name should appear elsewhere in Epstein files, including in connection with a complaint filed by an alleged victim of the predator.
The latter asked the FBI to investigate the members of Epstein’s entourage, including Donald Trump.
The White House did not respond directly to the new revelations of the New York Times and Wall Street Newspaper. But his communications director, Steven Cheung, repeated that Donald Trump had expelled Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-A-Lago, his private club, due to behavior worthy of a “dirty type”. He also described as “false news” any assertion suggesting that Donald Trump had been involved in the activities that earned Epstein to be brought to justice in 2019 for sexual abuse. He was found dead in the cell where he was waiting for his trial.
The fact remains that Donald Trump frequented Epstein regularly for about 15 years, even going so far as to call him “formidable guy” in 2002 during an interview with magazine new York.
The Congress Slice
The congress also contributed to the turmoil that shakes the Trump administration. A commission of the House of Representatives dominated by the Republicans adopted, by 8 votes to 2, a resolution presented by the Democrats and aimed at forcing the Department of Justice to give it the Epstein files.
Three Republican representatives voted for the resolution with the five democrats of the Commission. Several Republican members of the Commission were absent, having decided to start their summer vacation a day earlier than expected.
“The Department of Justice must now transmit (EPSTEIN files) to the supervisory committee,” welcomed the Democratic representative of Pennsylvania Summer Lee, author of the resolution which took the Republicans by surprise.
Photo Jonathan Ernst, Reuters
Summer Lee, Democrat representative of Pennsylvania
The American people deserves transparency and responsibility, and their victims deserve that justice will be done. The rich and the powerful are not above the law.
Summer Lee, Democrat representative of Pennsylvania
The room also quoted to appear Ghislaine Maxwell, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022. Maxwell will testify to the prison where she was serving her sentence on August 11.
New reverse for Trump
As if that was not enough, a Florida Federal Judge inflicted a new setback on the Trump administration, rejecting a request made by Pam Bondi aimed at lifting the seals on the transcriptions of the surveys carried out by two major juries of Florida having investigated Epstein in 2005 and 2007.
A similar request was presented to New York judges by the General Prosecutor, who seeks in any way to master the storm caused by the refusal to make Epstein files public.
The Department of Justice took a way this week to reach this end, announcing a meeting between Todd Blanche and Ghislaine Maxwell. The number two of the justice department, which served as a main lawyer for Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels case, said he wanted to ask Jeffrey Epstein’s former flame: “What do you know?” According to CNN, the meeting will take place this Thursday.
Photo provided by the Tribunal of the South District of New York, Agency France-Presse
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein
In the meantime, the Trump administration multiplies the accusations against its political opponents, giving the impression of wanting to divert the attention of Epstein files. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced the establishment of a special unit to investigate a conspiracy theory according to which Barack Obama has manipulated intelligence and conspired to undermine the legitimacy of the electoral victory of Donald Trump in 2016.
This investigation stems from a report supporting this theory defended by the director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. This report led Donald Trump on Tuesday of accusing the former democratic president of “betrayal” and “sedition”.
A certain number of influencers Maga and conservative media, including Fox News, take up this theory contradicted in particular by a bipartite report by the Senate Intelligence Committee published in 2018 and co -signed by its president Marco Rubio, today Secretary of State.
What are the “Epstein files”?
The term “Epstein files” refers to thousands of documents, videos and investigation elements collected by the federal and state authorities as part of multiple cases linked to Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.
Many court documents were made public, notably within the framework of the Epstein case in Florida in 2008 and the charges brought to New York in 2019, but others remain sealed or expurgated.
The Department of Justice has the transcriptions of the great juries which investigated Epstein or its accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, but cannot make them public without the authorization of a judge.
Trump-Epstein friendship, in a few dates
Around 1990
The two men would have met when Epstein bought a property a few kilometers from Mar-A-Lago and began to win in the Palm Beach Ultrarics circle.
1993
Epstein attended the wedding of Trump and Marla Maples, at Plaza Hotel in New York, according to images broadcast by CNN.
1993
According to the model of Stacey Williams swimwear, Trump has touched her after Epstein presented her to Trump Tower, according to the New York Times – An accusation that the American president rejected.
1990s
Trump flew on Epstein plane at least seven times, according to the flight registers presented in court and cited in the American media. Trump said in 2024 that he had “never climbed the Epstein plane”.
2003
According to the Wall Street JournalTrump wrote a letter for the 50e Epstein anniversary showing a naked woman drawing and her signature in place of the pubic hair. In the message, you can read: “Happy birthday – and can be another wonderful secret every day. »»
2004
The two men would have moved away after trying to buy the same property by the sea, in Florida – which Trump finally obtained, according to the New York Times. Consequently, the two men were no longer revised together in public. Later, Trump also told his associates that Epstein had behaved in a displaced manner with the daughter of a member of the Mar-A-Lago club, pushing the businessman to ban his longtime friend of the club.
2006
Epstein is arrested in Florida for charges of prostitution. The FBI launches an investigation.
2008
Epstein is sentenced to 18 months in prison in Florida. As part of a secret agreement, the American prosecutor’s office agrees not to continue Epstein for federal crimes.
2019
He was arrested again and accused of having traded girls, some of whom were only 14 years old and of having had sex with them. The same year, he was found hanged in his cell, before his trial. It is suicide, according to the authorities.
Fannie Arcand, The pressaccording to Associated Press, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal