Trump was told his name appears in Epstein files'

House subpoenas Maxwell

- Reuters

US Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that his name appeared in investigative files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The disclosure about Trump's appearance in the Justice Department's case records threatened to deepen a political crisis that has engulfed his administration for weeks. Some Trump supporters for years have fanned conspiracy theories about Epstein’s clients and the circumstances of his 2019 death in prison.

The White House sent mixed signals following the story. It released an initial statement characterising it as “fake news,” but a White House official later told Reuters the administration was not denying that Trump's name appears in some files, noting that Trump was already included in a tranche of materials Bondi assembled in February for conservative influencers.

Trump, who was friendly with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, appears multiple times on flight logs for Epstein’s private plane in the 1990s. Trump and several members of his family also appear in an Epstein contact book, alongside hundreds of others.