The White House is denying a report by The Wall Street Journal that claims President Donald Trump was informed in May that his name appears multiple times in the so-called Epstein files.
Citing senior administration officials, the WSJ reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy informed President Trump during a White House meeting in May that his name was mentioned alongside other high-profile figures who had known Jeffrey Epstein. The report noted that being named in the files does not necessarily imply wrongdoing. The WSJ said President Trump’s name appeared in what officials described as “unverified hearsay.”
President Trump was previously known to have had a friendly relationship with Epstein before Epstein became the subject of widespread allegations of sex trafficking and child abuse. The two men reportedly had a falling out in the early 2000s.
“The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement obtained by Scripps News. “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.”
RELATED STORY | Trump sues WSJ; Bondi files request to unseal Epstein grand jury records
The WSJ's latest report comes just days after it published a story claiming President Trump sent Epstein a lewd birthday letter in 2003.
President Trump has denied sending the letter and has since filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper’s parent company, media executive Rupert Murdoch and the article’s authors.
The president has faced increasing backlash from some of his own supporters regarding the Epstein case, particularly after the Department of Justice and FBI released a memo stating that a comprehensive review found no “incriminating client list.”
In an attempt to quiet that backlash, President Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to request access to grand jury materials related to Epstein. On Wednesday, however, a federal judge in Florida denied the request.
RELATED STORY | Florida judge denies request to unseal Epstein grand jury records
