House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday that President Trump should be more transparent about the Department of Justice’s investigation in “this whole sordid Jeffrey Epstein matter.”
The New York Democrat said Mr. Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and high-profile MAGA figures have painted themselves into a corner by fanning the flames of conspiracy theories around Epstein’s death and his so-called client list for years.
“Now the chickens are coming home to roost,” Mr. Jeffries told reporters on Capitol Hill.
He said the American people deserve to know the truth.
“What, if anything, is the Trump administration and the Department of Justice hiding?” he said. “If you are not hiding anything, prove that to the American people, and if you are trying to hide something, as many of Donald Trump’s MAGA supporters apparently believe, then the Congress should actually work hard to try to uncover the truth for the American people.”
Mr. Trump has faced stiff blowback from his usually intensely loyal MAGA base over the way the Department of Justice and the FBI have handled the Epstein case. Democrats are seizing on the uproar to drive a wedge between Mr. Trump and those die-hard supporters.
Mr. Jeffries said Mr. Trump and Ms. Bondi were either “intentionally lying” about the Epstein files for years, or they are “engaging in a cover-up” to protect Mr. Trump, his family, his friends, and his “billionaire corrupt supporters.”
“It can only be one of the two things,” Mr. Jeffries said.
Epstein was a well-connected financier and convicted sex offender. Police said he killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.
His death has sparked all sorts of conspiracy theories, including that he kept a client list that he could use to blackmail high-profile figures.
However, the Justice Department, in a memo last week, said it was closing the investigation and that “systematic review revealed no incriminating ’client list.’”
“There was also no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” it said. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
The department said it would not be releasing more files because of their graphic nature.
Some of Mr. Trump’s most ardent supporters are fuming. They wonder how FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino signed off on the memo after spending years arguing the government could be hiding information, and demanding the release of more files.
Ms. Bondi also has taken a lot of heat after playing up the idea in an interview with Fox News earlier this year that the Epstein list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
She later said she was referring to the Epstein case file, not a client list.
Ms. Bondi also accused the Biden administration of stopping the release of files related to the case.
“The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as it relates to this whole sordid Jeffry Epstein matter,” Mr. Jeffries said.
