Donald Trump says he has ordered the justice department to produce additional documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“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,” he said.
It’s unclear if Trump is authorising the public release of these documents. Such action would typically require the approval of a court.
It came shortly after Trump said he would sue The Wall Street Journal over an article alleging that a “bawdy” birthday greeting bearing Trump’s name was sent to Epstein in 2003, before the late financier was charged with sex crimes.
The letter, which the newspaper claims was sent on Epstein’s 50th birthday, has been decried by Trump as a “fake”.
In a post, Trump said that the newspaper and owner Rupert Murdoch “were warned directly” they would be sued if they printed the story, describing it as “false, malicious, and defamatory”.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a letter bearing Trump’s name “contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker.”
“Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person,” the paper reported.
The letter, according to The Wall Street Journal, allegedly ends with the words: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures,” Trump said on social media in response to the story.
According to the newspaper, the letter was part of a compilation of birthday greetings that was put together by Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein to sex-traffic children and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Trump’s directive to release more documents comes after days of sustained pressure from some of Trump’s most loyal supporters demanding further disclosures in the Epstein case.
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted minutes after the president: “We are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.”
A grand jury is a group of citizens set up by a prosecutor to determine whether there is enough evidence for charges to be filed. In legal terms, it determines whether probable cause exists to believe a crime has been committed.
Grand jury decisions still must be tested before a normal jury in court, in order for a suspect to be convicted of a crime.
It is unclear whether the president’s post concerned grand jury testimony from the first set of cases concerning Epstein in the early 2000s or whether it stemmed from the federal charges brought in 2019. The BBC has inquired with the White House.
Some grand jury documents have been already released concerning the case in Florida in 2006 that led to him being charged with solicitation of a prostitute. The case was heavily criticised over the lack of serious charges and the severity of the testimony given by victims, which included multiple minors.
While campaigning last year, Trump promised to release files relating to the disgraced financier.
However, Bondi last week announced that the US justice department did not believe Epstein had a so-called client list that could implicate high-profile associates, and that he did take his own life – despite conspiracies over his death.
It came after Bondi had touted she was set to announce major revelations about the case, including “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs” – a nod to those who travelled with the financier or who visited his private islands where many of his purported crimes were said to have occurred.
Her reversal prompted furious response from scores of Trump’s most ardent supporters who have called for Bondi to resign after failing to produce the list, which Trump officials had previously claimed to have in their possession.
Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was critical of the administration’s handling of the files in recent days, praised Trump’s move.
“This is massive, this is something that we’ve been talking about for quite some time, and really a power to the grassroots,” he said.
Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death while incarcerated happened more than a decade after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.
