'No Sh*t, Sherlock': WSJ Reports DOJ Told Trump He's in Epstein Files in May

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that he appears in the Department of Justice's files for Jeffrey Epstein, according to The Wall Street Journal—which Trump is currently suing over previous reporting about his relationship with the dead sex offender.

Citing unnamed senior administration officials, the Journal reported that during a "routine briefing that covered a number of topics," Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, told Trump that his name appeared multiple times in the "truckload" of documents.

"They told the president at the meeting that the files contained what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past," the newspaper detailed. "They also told Trump that senior Justice Department officials didn't plan to release any more documents related to the investigation of the convicted sex offender because the material contained child pornography and victims' personal information."

There have been mounting calls for the DOJ to release the files while protecting victims' identities—particularly since billionaire Elon Musk claimed in early June, shortly after leaving the Trump administration, that the president "is in the Epstein files" and "that is the real reason they have not been made public."

Congressional Democrats—and a handful of Republicans—have joined the growing demands for the full release, but both chambers are controlled by the GOP, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) this week sent lawmakers home for summer recess early to avoid a vote on the Epstein files until they return in September.

Meanwhile, journalists in recent weeks have continued to publish revelations about Trump's ties to Epstein—whose suspicious 2019 death in jail while facing a federal sex trafficking case was ruled a suicide, a conclusion met with widespread skepticism.

Trump's public comments suggest the two men met in the late 1980s and remained friends until a reported falling out over a business deal in 2004, before Epstein was indicted in 2006. CNN on Tuesday published photos confirming that Epstein attended Trump's 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, and footage from a 1999 Victoria's Secret fashion event in New York in which the two men are talking and laughing.

That followed the Journal's reporting last week that Trump wrote a "bawdy" letter for a leather-bound album that Ghislaine Maxwell—now serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors—prepared for Epstein's 50th birthday.

Trump—a well-documented liar—denied writing the letter and threatened to sue the paper, as he has ABC and CBS. He then filed a $10 million libel lawsuit against the journalists who wrote the piece; Dow Jones & Company, which publishes the Journal; its parent company News Corp; and the company's billionaire founder, Rupert Murdoch. The publisher plans to defend against the suit.

While Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, claimed that the Wednesday reporting "is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal," Bondi and Blanche said in a statement to the paper that "as part of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings."

According to the Journal, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel privately told other officials that Trump's name appeared in the files. He declined to answer the paper's inquiry but said in a statement that the Justice Department's recent memo explaining why it won't release more Epstein files was "consistent with the thorough review conducted by the FBI and DOJ."

Amid heightened scrutiny over Trump's relationship with the sex criminal, the president said on social media last Thursday: "Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!"

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg—an appointee of former President Barack Obama in the Southern District of Florida—concluded Wednesday that she had to dismiss the DOJ's request because of grand jury secrecy rules with few exceptions.

The decision is a setback for the president and Bondi's effort to "stave off the fury of Trump's MAGA base, which has demanded public disclosures of evidence," Politico noted, but "DOJ leaders have also asked two federal judges in New York, where prosecutors brought cases against Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, to unseal grand jury transcripts. And New York's federal courts have generally taken a less stringent approach to grand jury secrecy."