The White House is fighting back after reports that US President Donald Trump was told in May that he was among hundreds of names mentioned in justice department documents relating to late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Wall Street Journal said the President was informed of the fact by Attorney General Pam Bondi during a routine briefing. It noted that appearing in the documents was not a sign of any wrongdoing by Trump.
In response, a White House spokesman called it a “fake news story”.
The Trump administration has been under mounting pressure to disclose more information about Epstein – with whom Trump was friendly before, according to the President, they fell out in 2004.
While campaigning for the presidency last year, Trump had promised to release such files about the well-connected sex offender.
But his supporters have since grown frustrated with the administration’s handling of the issue, including its failure to deliver a rumoured “client list” of Epstein. In a memo earlier this month, the justice department and FBI said there was no such list.
Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 as he awaited his trial on sex trafficking charges, following an earlier conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. His death was ruled a suicide.
His crimes, and the nature of his death, have long been the subject of conspiracy theories.
Separately on Wednesday, a US judge in Florida denied the justice department’s bid to unseal court files on Epstein that relate to his prosecution there.
Later that same day, a sub-committee of the US House of Representatives voted to subpoena the justice department for its files. The legal order must be signed by the committee chairman before it is officially issued.
During her briefing of Trump in May, Bondi told the President that the files contained hearsay about many people, including Trump, the Wall Street Journal wrote in its report.
That contradicts an account given earlier this month by the President, who responded “no, no” when asked by a reporter whether he had been told by Bondi that his name appeared in the files.
Bondi also reportedly told the President that the Epstein records included child pornography and victim information that should not be disclosed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, called the report “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russia-gate scandal, which President Trump was right about”.
The attorney general said: “Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said: “The criminal leakers and Fake News media tries tirelessly to undermine President Trump with smears and lies, and this story is no different.”
BBC
