President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Attorney General Pam Bondi should release “whatever she thinks is credible” on Jeffrey Epstein as he faces pressure from his MAGA supporters.
Trump, speaking to reporters as he left the White House, said he received a “very quick briefing” on the Justice Department and FBI review of the Epstein files. The briefing took place before the release of the DOJ and FBI memo last week.
The review found no evidence the deceased financier kept a “client list” of associates and no further charges are expected. The department also released hours of footage as part of its review, which officials say further confirmed Epstein died by suicide while in custody in his jail cell in Manhattan in 2019.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders asked the president what Bondi told him about the review, “specifically, did she tell you at all that your name appeared in the file?”
“No, no, she’s — she’s given us just a very quick briefing,” Trump responded before making baseless claims the files were created by some of his political foes.
“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 — and you know, we and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, with all of the different things that we had to go through,” Trump said.
“We’ve gone through years of it, but she’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her,” Trump said of Bondi. “Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.”
Trump is facing outrage among his MAGA base over the administration’s handling of the Epstein files. It’s also led to some infighting within his administration, as Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino had a fiery confrontation with Bondi over the matter, ABC News reported.
Trump sought to quiet the revolt over the weekend by posting a lengthy defense of Bondi and urging his administration to focus on other priorities.
But the comments continued to pour in, including warnings from some of Trump’s top defenders that the issue is not going away and could cost him in next year’s midterm elections.
Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a Fox News host, told MAGA influencer Benny Johnson on Monday that she believed there did need to be “more transparency” regarding the administration’s handling of the Epstein case.
Trump was asked what he thought about her comments on Tuesday.
“The attorney general’s handled that very well. She’s really done a very good job,” Trump said. “And I think that when you look at it, you’ll understand that. I would like to see that also. But I think the attorney general, the credibility is very important. And, you want credible evidence or something like that. And I think the attorney general has handled it very well.”
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