President Donald Trump announced this Friday that he will ask the Department of Justice to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged links with the US bank JPMorgan and prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, while the Republican’s relationship with the discredited financier is once again in the spotlight.
The request comes two days after a congressional committee released thousands of documents that raised new questions about Trump’s relationship with the deceased convicted sex offender, and is the latest in a series of demands by Trump for federal law enforcement to go after his alleged political adversaries.
The Epstein scandal was a thorn in Trump’s political side for months, in part because he himself spread conspiracy theories about Epstein among his followers. Many Trump voters believe the government covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and withheld details about his death by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
Along with Clinton, who frequented Epstein in the early 2000s, Trump claimed to have asked the Justice Department to investigate former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and a prominent Democratic Party donor. The three men were named in the 20,000 Epstein-related documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee.
“Epstein was a Democrat, and it is a problem for Democrats, not Republicans!” Trump wrote on social media. “Everyone knows him, don’t waste your time on Trump. I have a country to govern!”
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A JPMorgan spokesperson stated in an emailed statement: “We regret any ties we had with him, but we did not help him commit his heinous acts.”
Clinton and Summers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hoffman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Trump faces continued pressure over Epstein case
Trump and Epstein were friends during the 1990s and 2000s, but Trump claims he severed ties before Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges of soliciting the services of a minor for prostitution.
Trump repeatedly denied knowledge of the late financier’s abuse and trafficking of minors. However, some of his staunchest supporters accused his administration of a cover-up.
Trump, who frequently interacts with the press, declined to answer questions in recent days as new revelations about Epstein became public.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on legislation that would force the Justice Department to release all material it has on Epstein, who was facing federal charges of sex trafficking of minors at the time of his suicide. The measure is expected to pass, even after House Speaker Mike Johnson repeatedly tried to block the vote.
It would also require passage of similar legislation by the Senate and authorization from Trump to force the Justice Department to act.
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in October, only four in ten Republicans approved of Trump’s handling of the Epstein case, far lower than the nine in ten who approve of his overall performance in the White House.
With information from Reuters
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