Attorney General Pam Bondi made FBI agents trawl through about 100,000 investigative files relating to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and “flag” any that mentioned Donald Trump, according to a top Democrat.
Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has written to Bondi demanding an explanation for the move, along with what he says are “apparent discrepancies regarding the handling of the Epstein files”.
According to information received by Durbin, whose committee oversees the Justice Department, Bondi “pressured the FBI” to put about 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division on 24-hour shifts to review Epstein-related records.
The effort reportedly took place from March 14 to the end of March, and was “haphazardly supplemented by hundreds of FBI New York Field Office personnel, many of whom lacked the expertise to identify statutorily-protected information regarding child victims and child witnesses or properly handle FOIA requests,” Durbin said.
“My office was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned,” he added.
A justice department spokeswoman confirmed the letter had been received but said the department would not provide any further comment.
But the content, which has not been denied, is likely to inflame suspicions in some MAGA ranks that the administration is embroiled in a cover-up over the child sex offender, who was once a known associate of Trump.
The issue has become a political headache for Trump, particularly after The Wall Street Journal published an article on Thursday night with details of a letter Trump allegedly wrote Epstein for his 50th birthday 20 years ago.
The letter was given to Epstein in 2003, before he was convicted in Florida for sex with an underage girl. According to The Wall Street Journal, it contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman.
“We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” Trump is alleged to have written on the gift. “Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? … Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump, however, insists the story is “fake” and on Friday reportedly followed through on his promise to sue The Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, for publishing it.
But MAGA anger has also been directed at Bondi, after the department and the FBI put out a memo on July 7 claiming Epstein did not have an incriminating “client list,” and that he died by suicide in his cell while awaiting trial—contrary to the MAGA theories that he was murdered to protect other powerful child sex offenders.
In his letter, Durbin noted the claim that there was no client list contradicted what Bondi had repeatedly said on Fox News and elsewhere.
He asked her to provide information by August 1 explaining, among other things, if she had reviewed all the information in the files; why she had previously claimed there was a client list “sitting on my desk”; and why personnel were told to flag records in which Trump was mentioned.
“Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and Dan Bongino have made a mess of the Epstein files,” Durbin said, referencing the Attorney General, the FBI director and the FBI deputy director.
“It’s time to clear it up once and for all for the American people.”
