Following Trump's announcement on social media, US Attorney General Pam Bondi responded saying, "We are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts."
ADVERTISEMENT
US President Donald Trump late Thursday directed the Justice Department to provide "any and all" information about the disgraced sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein, his one-time friend who died by suicide in 2019, awaiting trial on federal charges of trafficking of underage girls.
"Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent grand jury testimony, subject to court approval," Trump said in a social media post late Thursday.
Following Trump's announcement on social media, Bondi responded, saying, "We are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts."
Though a court's consent is usually required for such an action, it is unclear whether Trump is authorising the public publication of these records, or if or when that would occur.
Trump's order to the Justice Department comes as controversy over his handling of records from the Epstein probe entered a new dimension Thursday as his administration struggles to fulfil promises to release details on the sex trafficking case.
It also comes amid a sexually provocative letter that The Wall Street Journal claims held Trump's name and was used on a 2003 record for Epstein's 50th birthday.
Trump denied drafting the letter, deeming it "false, malicious and defamatory".
The US leader has in recent days been riled up by the Epstein case, even berating his MAGA supporters as “weaklings” as many vied for more records from the Epstein probe.
Trump tries to downplay Epstein fallout
As his supporters decried the Justice Department’s failure to release much-hyped records in Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation, Trump’s strategy has been to downplay the issue.
On Tuesday, he told reporters, “I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is.”
Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI abruptly walked back the notion that there’s an Epstein client list of elites who participated in the wealthy New York financier’s trafficking of underage girls.
Trump quickly defended Bondi and chided a reporter for asking about the documents.
Meanwhile, news emerged that the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a federal prosecutor who worked on the cases against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Epstein.
In a note to colleagues on Thursday, Comey wrote, “Fear is the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.”
Maurene's father, James Comey, was the FBI director when Trump took office in 2017, having been appointed by then-President Barack Obama and serving previously as a senior Justice Department official in US President George W Bush’s administration.
No specific reason has been given for her firing, but when the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, was asked about the possible appointment of a special prosecutor for a full probe into the federal sex trafficking case, she confirmed that Trump does not support such a move.
“The president would not recommend a special prosecutor in the Epstein case," she said.
The political crisis triggered by the Epstein case has been challenging for Trump in what analysts believe to be his own making.
For years, Trump has promoted conspiracy theories and QAnon-influenced propaganda, portraying himself as the sole saviour capable of overthrowing the "deep state".