Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday asked a federal judge to unseal grand jury testimony related to a 2019 indictment of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. President Donald Trump the previous day had directed Bondi to do so.
The move came amid an escalating PR fiasco related to the convicted sex offender, with whom Trump had been friends decades ago, prior to Epstein’s legal troubles.
Prominent MAGA conservatives are demanding that the White House release the so-called “Epstein files,” which they say may reveal a conspiracy of child sex trafficking by global elites. Bondi’s request to unseal transcripts, even if granted, likely won’t satisfy them, since grand jury testimony is typically narrow in scope and lacking in granular detail.
Still, the administration likely hopes its push for more transparency will quiet outrage and intrigue related to Epstein. On Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump sent Epstein a “bawdy” birthday letter in 2003. Trump, who denies that he wrote the letter, is suing the Wall Street Journal for defamation.
A memo released early last week by the Department of Justice and FBI declared the Epstein case closed, and both Trump and Bondi have urged Americans to move on from the controversy.
As MAGA influencers continued to fixate on the scandal, the president seemed to grow increasingly frustrated. “I don’t want their support anymore!” he wrote this week on social media. Trump said the Epstein files were fabricated by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other Democratic rivals.
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