Fallout over Jeffrey Epstein has been propelled by reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that he was mentioned in the criminal case files.
The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported on July 23 that anonymous sources said Bondi told Trump his name appeared multiple times, along with other figures, in the government’s files on the late financier indicted on sex trafficking charges. (Being named in the files does not mean he engaged in criminal activity, and a White House official denied wrongdoing, USA TODAY previously reported.)
Bondi’s Justice Department on July 7 released a memo saying no further disclosure of the documents was needed after teasing a “truckload” of Epstein files in March. In a rare moment of discord among Trump’s supporters, many Republicans have pushed for more transparency around the files.
“The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung previously said. “This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, just like the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was right about.”
But criminal investigations into Epstein spanned nearly 15 years, and Trump had already appeared in some evidence that has been made public. Here is what to know:
See the list: Which MAGA supporters is Trump calling ‘weaklings’ over Epstein files?
Is Donald Trump’s name in the Epstein files?
Trump had already appeared in legal documents concerning Epstein’s crimes, but never in a way that implicates him.
In the 1990s, Trump rode on aircraft owned by Epstein, according to flight logs released in two lawsuits. But that was 30-plus years ago.
In Palm Beach County state attorney documents, an image of a message pad communication seized in a Palm Beach police search appeared, but there is nothing more than Trump’s name and a phone number.
Florida court has rejected the administration’s call to unseal documents
A federal judge in Florida on July 23 denied the Department of Justice’s move to unseal grand jury transcripts from a federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein as part of the first criminal case against him.
U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg, formerly a circuit court judge in Palm Beach County, said in a memo on July 23 that her “hands were tied” and that the DOJ hadn’t shown sufficient evidence to release transcripts related to a federal investigation of Epstein in the 2000s.
The material sought in Rosenberg’s court involved a 2006-08 federal investigation of Epstein that never resulted in an indictment. Part of the infamous “deal of the century,” in which Epstein pleaded guilty to two state-court, prostitution-related charges, said that if Epstein followed the agreement that the federal charges would be dropped.
Two other requests for related grand jury testimony are still pending in a Manhattan federal court.
When was Epstein caught and first charged?
A police investigation into Epstein began in March 2005 after a woman from the Palm Beach area in Florida said her 14-year-old stepdaughter had been molested by a wealthy man.
In July 2006, Epstein was indicted by a state grand jury on a felony charge of soliciting prostitution, which did not address the 14-year-old victim’s age. He was arrested and spent one night in Palm Beach County jail, released the next day on $3,000 bond.
Epstein signed a non-prosecution agreement that was called the “deal of the century.” He pleaded guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, where he was allowed work leave privileges six days a week/12 hours a day over the 13 months he served.
When he was released from jail, he spent a year on house arrest but was allowed to travel anywhere so long as he returned in 24 hours.
What was Epstein convicted of?
Epstein never sat for trial, but he pleaded guilty to solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of a minor for prostitution in 2008 in Florida. He was also a registered sex offender.
He died in 2019, before he could be tried for sex trafficking charges in New York. He was found hanged in a Manhattan jail cell, and the medical examiner ruled it a suicide.
Trump himself has cast doubt on Epstein’s death.
Contributing: Joey Garrison and Aysha Bagchi, USA TODAY
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Trump in the Epstein files? What we knew before Bondi told Trump
