(WASHINGTON) — 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 files?”
“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.”
Bondi, when asked about Trump’s comments to ABC News, said she hadn’t yet seen the president’s comments but added that the DOJ and FBI memo “speaks for itself.”
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.
Amid calls for her resignation, Bondi said defiantly on Tuesday: “I’m going to be here for as long as the president wants me here, and I believe he’s made that crystal clear.”
When asked about the rift between her and Bongino, Bondi said she wouldn’t discuss personnel matters.
“I was with [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel all morning and we are committed to keeping America safe, making America safe, working with our incredible partners at DEA, FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshals to do everything we can to make America safe and that’s what we’re focused on,” she said at an event at the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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 have consequences 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 on Tuesday what he thought about her remarks.
“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.”
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, some Republican lawmakers expressed interest in Epstein’s convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, testifying before Congress.
Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said he believed everything on Epstein should be out in the open.
“I think all this stuff ought to be public,” Hawley said. “I mean, I think all of the all the documents, should all be public. I think we’d all ought to be out in the open. I’m a big fan of declassifying — I think this isn’t technically classified. It’s just, you know, close hold for prosecution, but I think we ought to put it all out there.”
Though Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told ABC News he had “total confidence in President Trump and his team” regarding the Epstein matter.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Lauren Peller and Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
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