In New Low for DOJ, Bondi Thanks Trump for Ordering Probe of Dems’ Alleged Epstein Ties

The Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a new low Friday after Attorney General Pam Bondi publicly thanked President Donald Trump for ordering the department to investigate ties convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — a longtime friend and former confidant of Trump’s — had with several prominent Democrats and institutions.

Further eroding the DOJ’s longstanding tradition of independence and apolitical law enforcement, Trump’s order, and Bondi’s acquiescence, came just days after the House Oversight Committee released a trove of documents it received from Epstein’s estate. 

The documents included emails in which Epstein, who was arrested on child sex trafficking charges in 2019, alleged that Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours” with one of Epstein’s victims.

Trump has denied involvement in, or knowledge of, Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. While he has acknowledged his past friendship with Epstein, Trump claimed they had a falling out in the mid-2000s. 

In recent days, however, Trump has repeatedly referred to the Epstein scandal as a “hoax,” while White House officials this week attempted to pressure congressional Republicans to retract their support of a legislative effort to force the DOJ to release any files it has on Epstein — a move prominent MAGA influencers have long supported.

After his arrest in 2019, Epstein died by suicide while being held without bail in a correctional facility in New York.

In apparent retribution for the renewed focus on his own ties to Epstein, Trump Friday ordered Bondi, the DOJ and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s connections with former President Bill Clinton, Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman and former Harvard President Larry Summers, as well as the multinational bank JPMorgan Chase.

Trump also again falsely claimed he has the authority to order such investigations because he is the country’s “chief law enforcement agent,” even though the attorney general — not the president — is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats. Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island,’” Trump said of the Epstein scandal. “Stay tuned!!!”

No credible evidence has surfaced that Clinton, Summers or Hoffman were involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking. Without admitting wrongdoing, JPMorgan Chase paid $290 million to some of Epstein’s victims in 2023 to resolve accusations that it turned a blind eye to the disgrace financier’s abuses. 

Hoffman forcefully rejected Trump’s claims and the order to investigate him, saying the allegations were politically motivated and that the administration was using his name to divert attention from its own handling of the Epstein files.

“Trump should release all of the Epstein files: every person and every document in the files. I want this complete release because it will bring justice for the victims,” Hoffman wrote on social media. “I want this complete release because it will show that the calls for baseless investigations of me are nothing more than political persecution and slander. The call for an investigation is an obvious ploy to avoid releasing the files.”

In response to Trump’s order, Bondi thanked the president in a social media post and publicly announced she was assigning Jay Clayton, interim U.S. attorney of the Southern District of New York, to lead the probe.

“As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people,” Bondi claimed.

Bondi — one of Trump’s former defense attorneys — publicly taking direct orders from Trump openly violates the DOJ’s longstanding principle of independence from the White House. The norm, which arose after the Watergate scandal, is codified in the DOJ’s internal rulebook and it is meant to protect the rule of law and shield the department from political bias.

Trump shattered that norm earlier this year when he publicly directed Bondi to open investigations against New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), former FBI Director James Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Following that order, Comey and James were indicted. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them, which they argue stem from Trump’s personal animus toward them.

The attorney general publicly announcing the opening of an investigation was also a departure from department norms. Typically, the department keeps major investigations private, as public disclosures could make obtaining witness cooperation or gathering evidence more difficult or could compromise future charges. 

In response to Bondi’s post, Justice Connection, a support network for former and current DOJ employees, quoted a part the department’s manual governing communications between DOJ officials and the White House.

“The success of the Department of Justice depends upon the trust of the American people,” the rule reads. “That trust must be earned every day. And we can do so only through our adherence to the longstanding Departmental norms of independence from inappropriate influences, the principled exercise of discretion, and the treatment of like cases alike.”

During the 2024 election, Trump said he would have “no problem” with the DOJ releasing the files it has on Epstein. 

In a Fox News interview in February, Bondi said she had the Epstein files “sitting on my desk right now” and was preparing to release them. Later that month, she released a “first phase” of declassified Epstein files, though many of the documents had already been public.

However, Trump’s and the DOJ’s inclination toward releasing the files appeared to shift after Bondi informed the president in May that his name appeared in them.

After the briefing, the DOJ and FBI released a memo in July claiming that a review found no Epstein “client list” and confirmed the disgraced financier died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

In an unprecedented move for a sitting president, Trump sued conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal for defamation in July after the paper reported on a racy birthday greeting bearing his signature that he reportedly sent to Epstein two decades earlier.

In a bizarre move in July, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, another one of Trump’s defense attorneys, interviewed Epstein’s longtime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, in prison. 

After the prison interview, the federal Bureau of Prisons abruptly transferred Maxwell, who was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, to a minimum-security prison in Texas. 

Maxwell’s sex offender conviction should have precluded her serving her sentence in a less restrictive prison facility unless she received a special waiver, according to Bureau of Prisons policy.