Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Friday accused the Justice Department of ordering the FBI to “flag” files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case that mentioned President Donald Trump.
In multiple letters to top DOJ and FBI officials, Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, referenced Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s move to review the Epstein files in February and March ahead of their promised release to the public. The Illinois Democrat said, “according to information [his] office received,” Bondi ordered FBI agents doing the legwork of parsing through the documents to flag all files pertaining to Trump.
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“According to information my office received, Attorney General Bondi then pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel … on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records in order to produce more documents that could then be released on an arbitrarily short deadline,” the letters from Durbin read. “This effort … was haphazardly supplemented by hundreds of FBI New York Field Office personnel. … My office was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.”
In the letters, Durbin called on Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and the agency’s deputy director, Dan Bongino, to answer a series of questions surrounding Trump’s connections with Epstein.
“Why were personnel told to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned? What happened to the records mentioning President Trump once they were flagged? Is there a log of the records mentioning President Trump? Did personnel review any correspondence between President Trump and Mr. Epstein?” are among the questions Durbin asked of the agency heads.
The senator asked the officials to provide answers no later than Aug. 1.
“Prompt attention to this important matter is crucial to understanding the truth and preventing this administration’s actions from causing greater harm,” he wrote.
Trump and Epstein, a New York financier, were friends for years until an argument ruptured their relationship around 2004. In 2008, Epstein was convicted of sex crimes, leading to his imprisonment, where he later died while awaiting trial in what was ruled a suicide in 2019. The circumstances of the death stoked allegations that a deep-state operation eliminated Epstein to keep him from testifying about his connections with rich and powerful figures.
Trump vowed to clear up the speculation by releasing the federal files related to the case. However, the Justice Department’s handling of the rollout was met with bipartisan criticism, notably after it recently released a memo stating Epstein’s death was a suicide and that there was no “client list” of figures he was said to have blackmailed. Further backlash ensued when Bondi released “raw” video footage of Epstein’s cell the night of his death that was later determined to have been edited.
Trump has accused Democrats and “the fake news” of spreading lies about a “client list” to sabotage the White House and divide his MAGA base. He has stood by Bondi, although he recently called on her to release additional grand jury information related to the Epstein court case.
As Democrats, such as Durbin, have seized on the debacle, some Republicans, like former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, have defended Trump against character assassination, suggesting that the Left’s push to investigate Epstein is little more than a ploy to destroy the president and sabotage MAGA.
MCCARTHY SAYS DEMOCRATS NEVER ASKED ABOUT EPSTEIN FILES WHEN HE WAS SPEAKER
“[Democrats] got nothing going. It shows in the poll, they have no leader, they have no message, they have no policy. So they’re lashing out at this,” McCarthy said Thursday.
“But what I love … they are failing. We think about it for one moment. This is the most transparent president we’ve had, Donald Trump. He’s before the press every single day. Look what he’s accomplished, exactly what we elected him to do,” McCarthy continued. “[Trump] didn’t hide from this, he had the authorities investigate this.”