At Trump’s request, US Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s ties to Democrats
The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday that it will honor President Donald Trump's request to investigate Jeffrey Epstein's connections with former Democratic President Bill Clinton and JPMorgan, as Trump aimed to shift attention away from his own ties to the convicted sex offender.
The move comes two days after a congressional committee released thousands of documents that raised new questions about Trump's relationship with the late financier, and marks the latest in a series of demands by Trump for federal law enforcement to pursue his perceived political enemies, News.Az reports citing Reuters.
The Epstein scandal has been a political thorn in Trump’s side for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters. Many Trump voters believe Bondi and other Trump officials have covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
Trump has harnessed the Justice Department to target other perceived political enemies, notably former FBI Director James Comey and New York State Attorney General Letitia James, both of whom were charged after Trump replaced the prosecutor leading the cases.
Legal experts say Trump's demands could undermine the criminal cases that emerge from those probes, as judges can dismiss cases found to be motivated by "vindictive prosecution" - which both Comey and James have raised, though judges have not yet ruled on their requests to dismiss the cases.
Patrick J. Cotter, a former federal prosecutor, said it was "outrageously inappropriate" for Trump to order the department to investigate individual citizens, adding, "That's not how it's supposed to work."
Along with Clinton, who socialized with Epstein in the early 2000s, Trump said he had asked the Justice Department to investigate former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder who is also a prominent Democratic donor. All three men were mentioned in the 20,000 Epstein-related documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
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