Trump asks Justice Department to investigate Bill Clinton over Epstein ties

United States President Donald Trump has called on the Department of Justice to investigate ties between one of his Democratic predecessors, Bill Clinton, and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But the request comes shortly after a trove of newly released emails raised questions about Trump’s own relationship with Epstein.
On Friday, Trump took to social media to once again frame the emails as a distraction. He compared them to an investigation into ties between Russian election interference and his presidential campaign in 2016.

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” Trump wrote, framing the emails as a “hoax”.

He also sought to shift scrutiny of his actions onto Democrats and financial institutions, arguing that they had deeper relationships with Epstein than he did.

“Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem!” Trump wrote, before adding: “Don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”

In the second of two lengthy posts, Trump said he would ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate former President Clinton, as well as Clinton’s Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman and the bank JPMorgan Chase.

Bondi responded within hours. On the social media platform X, she thanked Trump for his request and explained she had assigned US Attorney Jay Clayton to the probe.

“The Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people,” she added.
Newly released emails
The Epstein scandal has proven to be an enduring headache for Trump during his second administration, as he faces bipartisan pressure to release the full slate of documents pertaining to the case and address his own involvement.
A wealthy financier, Epstein was known to socialise with powerful figures, including Trump, Clinton and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, a former prince in the United Kingdom whose involvement resulted in the loss of his royal titles last month.

Those associations have long drawn questions about how Epstein may have been shielded from accountability.

Hundreds of women have come forward to accuse Epstein of sexual abuse and trafficking. In 2008, Epstein was convicted in Florida of sexually abusing a minor and solicitation, but critics saw his plea deal as overly lenient.

At the time of his death by suicide in 2019, he was in jail, facing federal sex-trafficking charges. The circumstances of his death have fuelled conspiracy theories, as has the high-profile nature of his social circle, leading some to believe there was a cover-up.

Trump’s own relationship with Epstein came roaring back into the spotlight on Wednesday, as the longest government shutdown in US history came to a close.

The House of Representatives had come back into session for the first time in 54 days in order to vote on a funding bill that would end the 42-day-long shutdown.

But that morning, Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released three excerpted emails from conversations between Epstein, his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell and the writer Michael Wolff, all of which discussed Trump. They appeared to suggest Trump knew about Epstein’s sexual relationships.

In one email, Epstein wrote, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him.”

In another, Epstein told Wolff, “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”

A third email from Wolff suggested Trump had been to Epstein’s house and on his plane, and discussed how Trump might address those visits in a CNN interview.

The Trump administration quickly leapt into damage control, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt describing the email release as selectively edited and a Democratic “smear” campaign.

Later that day, however, the Republican leadership on the House Oversight Committee published 20,000 emails from the Epstein case file, including more conversations about Trump.

In a 2017 email to Summers, for example, Epstein wrote, “i have met some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes – dangerous.”