The Wall Street Journal reported this week that U.S. President Donald Trump’s name appears repeatedly in documents linked to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, citing unnamed senior administration sources. According to the report, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) identified the references earlier this year while sifting through what former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi described as a “truckload” of records tied to Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In May, Bondi and a deputy reportedly informed Trump during a routine briefing that he and “hundreds of other high-profile figures” were named in the files. The DOJ then advised the president it would withhold further Epstein-related materials from public release due to their inclusion of child sexual abuse imagery and victims’ private information. Trump allegedly deferred to the department’s decision, which was formalized in a July memo stating no additional documents would be disclosed. The DOJ also dismissed long-standing rumors of a client list from Epstein’s private island and found insufficient evidence to probe unnamed third parties.
However, the Journal’s account conflicts with Trump’s remarks last week denying Bondi had ever alerted him to his inclusion in the Epstein records. The White House has categorically rejected the latest reporting. “This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal,” said spokesperson Steven Cheung, echoing the administration’s stance.
The controversy follows a separate Journal article alleging Trump sent a crude birthday note to Epstein in 2003, accompanied by a graphic doodle purportedly mimicking female anatomy. The letter, said to be part of a leather-bound album curated by Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, was described as featuring a nude sketch with Trump’s signature placed near the figure’s waistline. The outlet did not specify how it obtained the materials, which it linked to a previously undisclosed DOJ file.
Trump has denied authoring any such drawing, stating, “I never wrote a picture in my life,” while also launching a libel lawsuit against the Journal, its parent company News Corp, publisher Dow Jones & Co., and two reporters. He accused the paper and owner Rupert Murdoch of propagating “defamatory lies,” deriding the publication as a “disgusting and filthy rag.”
Legal experts note that public figures face high thresholds in proving defamation, requiring evidence of actual malice. The allegations emerge against a backdrop of renewed scrutiny over Epstein’s elite social network, though U.S. authorities maintain investigations into uncharged individuals linked to his crimes have concluded. Victims’ advocates, however, continue pressing for full transparency regarding potential accomplices.
