'Simplest explanation': Members of Congress respond to Trump being named in Epstein files
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche listen, after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the power of federal judges by restricting their ability to grant broad legal relief in cases as the justices acted in a legal fight over President Donald Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
Officials from President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice informed him months ago that his name appears multiple times in the Epstein files and is among many listed, according to a new report published Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.
“Many other high-profile figures were also named, Trump was told. Being mentioned in the records isn’t a sign of wrongdoing,” the Journal reported. Trump’s name appeared along with hundreds of others in what Attorney General Pam Bondi has described as a “truckload” of documents, and in “what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people.”
According to the Journal, DOJ officials, when speaking with the President in May, told him they did not plan to release any additional documents from the files.
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In recent weeks, a growing crisis for the White House has exploded amid a bipartisan call for the Epstein files, and especially the so-called client list, if it exists, to be released.
“Bondi had said in February that Epstein’s client list was ‘sitting on my desk right now to review’,” the Journal noted. “Trump said last week in response to a journalist’s question that Bondi hadn’t told him that his name was in the files.”
Indeed, just last week President Trump was asked by a reporter if Attorney General Bondi had told him his name was in the files (video below).
When pressed, he replied, “No, no. She’s given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen, and I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden—you know. We went through years of that.”
Professor of Law and MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney, remarked, “Lots of people‘s names end up in an investigative file. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve done anything wrong. That makes it interesting that Trump [won’t] agree to release the files after saying he would during the campaign.”
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) offered this observation: “Trump is in Epstein files. He was told around the time Trumpsters’ ardor for disclosure cooled.”
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U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) added: “What we already suspected was just confirmed true.”
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) called it “the simplest explanation all along.”
Business Insider legal correspondent Jacob Shamsian wrote in a social media thread:
“1) Of course Trump is in the Epstein files. We already know that from public records. 2) The fact that Bondi told Trump this months ago is interesting. 3) The fact that she told him *along with the decision that they would not release more files* is interesting. 4) That Trump deferred to their decision not to release more files, as opposed to pushing for transparency at that meeting, is interesting. 5) That, 2 months later, they still won’t release files is interesting.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
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