- US President Donald Trump says he has asked Attorney-General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
- Trump has also announced he plans to sue Rupert Murdoch and News Corp over a report about a birthday letter sent to Epstein in 2003 bearing the president's name.
- Bondi says the US Justice Department is ready for a court to unseal the grand jury Epstein documents on Friday, local time.
Photo: AFP
US President Donald Trump says he has asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
"Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
"This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!"
Jeffrey Epstein Photo: AFP / New York State Sex Offender Registry handout
Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, died in prison in 2019.
Shortly after Mr Trump's statement, Ms Bondi said on X that the Justice Department was ready to ask the court on Friday to unseal the grand jury transcripts.
"President Trump - we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts," she wrote.
Trump to 'sue Rupert Murdoch' over Epstein birthday letters report
In a post to his Truth Social platform on Thursday, the US president condemned what he called "a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein" report by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The WSJ reported that Epstein was gifted a leather-bound book of sexually suggestive, "bawdy" letters from associates for his 50th birthday in 2003, including a letter bearing Trump's name alongside a drawing of a naked woman.
"The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures," the president said in his Truth Social post.
"I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn't print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I'm going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper."
The comments came after Trump also posted a separate statement to Truth Social, saying the White House had warned Murdoch about the validity of the letter.
"Mr. Murdoch stated that he would take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so," the statement said.
"The Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Emma Tucker, was told directly by Karoline Leavitt, and by President Trump, that the letter was a FAKE, but Emma Tucker didn't want to hear that. Instead, they are going with a false, malicious, and defamatory story anyway."
The letter revealed by the WSJ was reportedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein years before the wealthy financier was first arrested in 2006 and subsequently had a falling-out with Trump.
The letter bearing Trump's name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ends with, "Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret," according to the newspaper.
The outlet described the contents of the letter but did not publish a photo showing it entirely.
The ABC has contacted News Corp for further comment.
Maxwell was arrested in 2020 and convicted a year later on charges that she helped Epstein lure girls to be sexually abused.
Epstein client list sparks growing MAGA rift
It comes amid a growing rift within the president's Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republican coalition over the Epstein files and a "client list" the FBI has said does not exist.
The FBI had announced last week it would not release any further documents related to Epstein or his suicide in a New York jail cell.
On Thursday, Trump labelled many of his supporters "stupid" and "weaklings" for believing what he describes as the "Jeffrey Epstein hoax".
In his Truth Social post, the US president compared claims of an Epstein client list to other high-profile sagas, including allegations Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
Trump has previously pointed the blame at the Democrats for peddling the story.
"The Radical Left Democrats have hit pay dirt, again!"
Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s.
During the 2021 trial of Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier's long-time pilot, Lawrence Visoski, testified that Trump flew on Epstein's private plane multiple times.
Trump has denied ever being on the plane and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
- ABC
