By Steve Neavling
President Donald Trump was privately told this spring that his name appears in newly reviewed files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to three people familiar with the briefing, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal report.
The message came from Attorney General Pam Bondi during a May meeting that included Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, both of whom previously served as Trump’s personal attorneys. The two informed Trump that his name, along with other high-profile individuals, surfaced in documents tied to the Epstein investigation that hadn’t been publicly released before.
“As part of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings,” Bondi and Blanche said in a joint statement. “Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”
Trump’s name had already appeared in publicly released documents from the Epstein probe. The two were once friends, moving in the same elite New York circles, until what Trump later described as a falling-out in the early 2000s. Trump has long denied any involvement in Epstein’s alleged crimes and claimed he banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago resort for “being a creep.”
When asked in June whether Bondi had told him about his name appearing in the files, Trump denied it, saying she had only briefed him on the “credibility” of the information and suggested Democrats had manufactured some of the materials.
Aides said the former president wasn’t particularly concerned about the disclosure, noting his name was also included in previous records. Still, administration officials acknowledged the internal anxiety surrounding the conversation, given Trump’s sensitivity to politically fraught topics.
While it’s unusual for an attorney general to brief a president directly on an active or potential investigation, officials said the meeting was within legal bounds.
