The White House has pushed back against reports that President Donald Trump is among hundreds of names that appear in justice department documents relating to the late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The claims were “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media”, a White House spokesman said.
It comes as a US judge denied the justice department’s bid to unseal Florida court files on Epstein.
The Trump administration has been under mounting pressure to disclose more information about the well-connected sex offender. While campaigning last year, Trump had promised to release such files.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s name appeared multiple times with many others, including other high-profile figures, in records held by the justice department.
Being named in these documents is not evidence of any criminal activity, nor has Trump ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in a routine briefing at the White House in February that the files contained hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialised with Epstein in the past.
Bondi also told the president that the Epstein records included child pornography and victim information that should not be disclosed, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The story was later matched by other US media outlets, but has not been independently verified by the BBC.
Trump was once friendly with Epstein before they fell out in 2004 – two years before Epstein was first arrested.
Last week, the president was asked by a reporter whether the attorney general had told him his name was in the files.
“No, no,” Trump said.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, called the report “nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media”.
The attorney general said: “Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said: “The criminal leakers and Fake News media tries tirelessly to undermine President Trump with smears and lies, and this story is no different.”
But an unnamed White House official told Reuters news agency they were not denying that Trump’s name appears in the documents.
The official pointed to Epstein files disclosed months earlier by the justice department that had included Trump.
Those files, distributed to conservative influencers in February, included the phone numbers of some of Trump’s family members, including his daughter.
Trump had directed Bondi to seek the release of all grand jury materials, prompting the justice department to ask courts in Florida and New York to unseal files related to cases in both those jurisdictions.
But Judge Robin Rosenberg ruled on Wednesday that releasing papers from Epstein’s Florida case would violate state guidelines governing grand jury secrecy.
“The court’s hands are tied,” the Obama appointee ruled in her 12-page order.
The transcripts in question stem from Florida’s investigation into Epstein in 2006 that led to him being charged with soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Judge Rosenberg also declined to transfer the issue to New York, where two judges are separately deciding whether to unseal transcripts related to Epstein’s 2019 sex-trafficking probe. That request is still pending.
The ruling comes as interest has switched back to Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex-trafficker who is serving 20 years in prison for helping Epstein abuse young girls.
A senior justice department official is planning to meet the former British socialite to discuss her knowledge of the case, her attorney confirmed to the BBC.
Republicans on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee have sent a legal summons for Maxwell to appear before the body remotely from prison on 11 August.
Her attorney, David Oscar Markus, told the BBC that if she chooses to testify, rather than invoke her constitutional right to remain silent, “she would testify truthfully, as she always has said she would”.
“As for the congressional subpoena, Ms Maxwell is taking this one step at a time,” he added.
“She looks forward to her meeting with the Department of Justice, and that discussion will help inform how she proceeds.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that Maxwell cannot be trusted to provide accurate testimony.
The Louisiana Republican said: “I mean, this is a person who’s been sentenced to many, many years in prison for terrible, unspeakable, conspiratorial acts and acts against innocent young people.”
Bondi said earlier this month the US justice department had uncovered no “incriminating client list” on Epstein.
She also said he did take his own life in a New York jail in 2019 – despite conspiracies over his death.
Bondi had previously suggested she would make major disclosures in the case, saying she had “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs”.
The attorney general’s reversal prompted fury from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters, who called for her to resign.
Democrats have seized on the Republican infighting to accuse the Trump administration of a cover-up.
On Tuesday, Speaker Johnson closed down congressional voting for summer break one day early, in an attempt to stall legislative efforts to force the release of documents related to Epstein.
But Republican rebels in a House Oversight Subcommittee voted on Wednesday afternoon to force the justice department to release the files.
Three Republicans – Nancy Mace, Scott Perry and Brian Jack – joined five Democrats in voting for the subpoena. Two Republicans voted against.
But James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, must sign it off in order for the legal summons to proceed.
(BBC)
