A video nonetheless from the NBC archive displaying Donald Trump speaking with Jeffrey Epstein at a celebration in Mar-A-Lago from 1992.
NBC
FBI brokers assigned earlier this yr to overview investigative recordsdata within the legal case towards infamous intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein had been instructed to “flag” any paperwork that talked about President Donald Trump, Sen. Richard Durbin mentioned Friday.
Durbin’s declare got here because the Illinois Democrat despatched the Justice Division and FBI letters asking them to elucidate what his workplace known as “obvious discrepancies concerning the dealing with of the Epstein recordsdata and findings from a July 7 Division of Justice (DOJ) memorandum and directions reportedly obtained by FBI personnel.”
Durbin’s letters, which had been addressed to Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, added to strain on the Trump administration over Bondi’s choice to withhold from the general public proof about Epstein regardless of previous guarantees that it might be launched.
Durbin is the rating Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight over the Justice Division and FBI.
Rating member Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Unwell., arrives for the Senate Judiciary Committee listening to in Dirksen constructing on Tuesday, June 17, 2025.
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The senator’s description of directions given to FBI brokers concerning mentions of Trump’s title was made within the letter to Patel.
Trump is a former pal of Epstein, who died from suicide in a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on little one intercourse trafficking fees.
On Thursday night time, The Wall Avenue Journal reported {that a} “bawdy” letter bearing Trump’s signature was despatched to Epstein in 2003 for this fiftieth birthday. Trump has angrily denied writing such a letter and mentioned he’ll sue the Journal.
“In keeping with info my workplace obtained, the FBI was pressured to place roughly 1,000 personnel in its Info Administration Division (IMD) … on 24-hour shifts to overview roughly 100,000 Epstein-related information to be able to produce extra paperwork that might then be launched on an arbitrarily brief deadline,” Durbin wrote to Patel.
“This effort, which reportedly befell from March 14 by way of the top of March, was haphazardly supplemented by a whole bunch of FBI New York Discipline Workplace personnel, lots of whom lacked the experience to determine statutorily-protected info concerning little one victims and little one witnesses or correctly deal with FOIA requests,” the letter mentioned.
“My workplace was informed that these personnel had been instructed to ‘flag’ any information through which President Trump was talked about.”
Durbin then referenced a well known quote by Trump about Epstein, made to {a magazine} once they had been nonetheless mates.
“Notably, in 2002, Mr. Trump mentioned of Mr. Epstein, ‘I’ve recognized Jeff for 15 years. Terrific man, He is a number of enjoyable to be with. It’s even mentioned that he likes stunning girls as a lot as I do, and lots of of them are on the youthful aspect,’ ” Durbin wrote.
CNBC has requested touch upon Durbin’s letter from the FBI.
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