President Donald Trump recently ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to carry out investigations into top Democratic officials and donors who have associated with deceased child predator Jeffrey Epstein. But the person handling those investigations has Epstein ties of his own.
That's according to a Tuesday article in the Daily Beast's "The Swamp" newsletter. The Beast reported that Jay Clayton – who Attorney General Pam Bondi tasked with overseeing the investigations of Democrats like former President Bill Clinton and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman — is tied to an investor who knowingly bankrolled Epstein's activities.
Trump's first administration initially tried in 2020 to confirm Clayton – who at the time headed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Officials were seeking to replace U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who was conducting investigations into Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon. However, when that effort failed, Clayton ended up joining the board of private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which is headed by Trump ally Leon Black.
Black gave Epstein more than $170 million according to an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee. Ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) alleged that $62 million of that was to fund Epstein's "illegal activities" in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which housed his notorious private compound on his private "Little Saint James" island.
The Beast reported that Black's payments were ostensibly for "tax and estate planning," though Black later admitted in a 2023 settlement with the Virgin Islands government that he knew that money was being used to "fund [Epstein's] operations." He paid $62 million to the local government as part of an immunity deal with prevented him from being prosecuted for bankrolling the convicted sex trafficker.
According to the publication, Black's history with Trump dates back to the 1990s. When Congress was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, Black testified to lawmakers that he and Trump both attended a concert and "might have been in a strip club together."
Click here to read the Beast's report in its entirety (subscription required).