President Donald Trump was reportedly informed by Attorney General Pam Bondi that his name appeared multiple times in sealed files tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation—just before the Justice Department decided to halt any further public disclosures, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The briefing reportedly occurred in May during a routine meeting at the White House between President Trump, Bondi, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Senior officials familiar with the matter told the Journal that Trump was notified he was among “hundreds” of names referenced in the Epstein case files. According to the report, much of the content was classified as unverified hearsay, including information about Trump.
When a journalist asked President Trump last week whether he had been told his name was in the files, he responded, “No.” But that claim appears to contradict what was privately shared during the DOJ meeting.
White House communications director Steven Cheung dismissed the Journal report as “another fake news story,” pointing to what he called a pattern of inaccurate coverage by the outlet.
The DOJ ultimately decided against releasing additional materials related to Epstein, citing the presence of child pornography and sensitive victim information. According to sources, President Trump agreed with the DOJ’s position and said he would “defer to the department’s judgment.”
Attorney General Bondi and Deputy AG Blanche confirmed in a July 18 statement that the president was informed of the findings as part of a standard update, and insisted the files required no further investigation.
Further complicating the issue, FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly told colleagues that Trump’s name appeared in the files as well, reinforcing the DOJ’s private disclosures.
On July 7, the Justice Department issued a memo officially stating it would not release more documents from the Epstein probe, and declared that no conclusive evidence had been found showing Epstein maintained a blackmail client list.
President Trump, who had known Epstein socially for years before distancing himself from him in the early 2000s, has denied any continued relationship after Epstein’s 2006 arrest. In 2019, Trump stated they hadn’t spoken in over 15 years.
More recently, Trump filed a $20 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal after it published claims that he once sent Epstein a birthday card featuring the outline of a naked woman. Trump dismissed the story as “completely fake.”
The controversy surrounding the Epstein files has generated significant backlash during Trump’s second term in office, especially after he pledged on the 2024 campaign trail to make all Epstein-related material public.
In a July 22 update, Deputy Attorney General Blanche said he had contacted attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate now serving a prison sentence for s** trafficking, and expressed interest in meeting with her “in the coming days.”
