Attorney General Pam Bondi informed President Trump in the spring that his name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files, according to three people with knowledge of the exchange.The disclosure came as part of a broader briefing on the reexamination of the case against Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. It was made by Bondi during a meeting that also included the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, and covered a variety of topics. Bondi frequently meets with Trump to brief him on various matters, officials said.Bondi and Blanche, both of whom previously served as lawyers for Trump, informed the president that his name, as well as those of other high-profile figures, had come up in their reexamination of documents connected to the case that had not previously been made public. It is not clear how significant the references to Trump are. But the briefing sheds light on private West Wing discussions at a moment when the president’s team is desperately trying to move on and quell the rebellion among those Trump supporters who feel that he – and some of his senior appointees – led them astray with claims that they would make the files available. Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, would not address questions about the briefing, but called any suggestion that Trump was engaged in wrongdoing related to Epstein “fake news”.Trump previously denied that Bondi had told him that he is in the files. The week of June 7, the White House received an inquiry from ABC News about the May briefing, according to administration officials. A week later, an ABC journalist asked Trump if Bondi had told him his name appeared in the files. He replied, “No, no,” and said she had told him about the “credibility” of various things in the files. He went on to claim that they contained material manufactured by Democrats. The conversation between Trump and Bondi and Blanche was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. Bondi is also facing Democratic calls to testify before Congress about the revelation. Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, responded to the report by calling on Bondi and FBI chief Kash Patel to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
