AG Pam Bondi asks for release of grand jury transcripts in Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking case

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi asked a federal judge in Manhattan on Friday afternoon to unseal grand jury transcripts in the Jeffrey Epstein child sex trafficking case as President Donald Trump weathers a storm of criticism for not making good on his promise to release investigative records on the deceased financier.

The Justice Department also filed a motion Friday requesting the release of grand jury transcripts in the indictment of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend, who was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and grooming underage girls to have sex with the Manhattan playboy.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in a Florida state court to soliciting an underage prostitute. A federal grand jury in Manhattan indicted him again in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.

The Trump campaign and now-FBI Director Kash Patel had promised a full accounting in the case during the runup to the 2024 presidential election. In January, the Justice Department released a tranche of files related to the case, but many of the records had already been public. 

After the election, Bondi also promised to release the records.

On July 6, the Department of Justice issued a memo detailing steps investigators have taken to determine whether Epstein kept a “client list” of others who joined him in exploiting underage women.

According to conspiracy theories, some of which have been promoted by Trump, federal investigators covered up the participation of other wealthy and influential people in Epstein’s alleged child sex trafficking ring.

This issue resurfaced last week after the FBI issued a memo concluding that no “client list” exists.

“There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” the memo states. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

The bureau memo also concluded that Epstein died by suicide in his jail cell in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on Aug. 9, 2019.

Far from ending speculation regarding Epstein’s death and his co-conspirators, the memo sparked outrage among many in the president’s base.

Trump has attempted to dismiss questions regarding the probe and his earlier comments about the sealed files.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal published a story about a drawing of a naked woman and a sexually explicit message that Trump allegedly sent to Epstein on the financier’s 50th birthday in 2003.

“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the message said.

The president has denied that he penned the note, and on Friday Trump filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the Wall Street Journal and its majority owner, Rupert Murdoch.

On Friday evening, Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche, who represented Trump during his hush money criminal trial in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, asked federal district court Judge Richard Berman to unseal the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts, without backtracking on the department’s stance that there were no revelations within them.

“While the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation continue to adhere to the conclusions reached in the memorandum, transparency to the American public is of utmost importance to the Administration,” Blanche wrote in his motion.

He noted that “public officials, lawmakers, pundits and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter.”