By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he was asking the Department of Justice to investigate Jeffrey Epstein's alleged ties with JPMorgan and several prominent Democratic figures, including former President Bill Clinton.
The request comes after a congressional committee released thousands of documents that raised new questions about Trump's relationship with the convicted sex offender.
Along with Clinton, who socialized with the late financier in the early
2000s, Trump said he had asked the Justice Department to investigate former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder who is also a prominent Democratic donor.
"Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem!" he wrote on social media. "They all know about him, don't waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!"
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
JPMorgan in an emailed statement said: "We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts. We ended our relationship with him years before his arrest on sex trafficking charges."
Clinton and Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hoffman could not be immediately reached for comment.
TRUMP SAYS HE BROKE TIES WITH EPSTEIN LONG AGO
Trump and Epstein were friends during the 1990s and the 2000s, but Trump says he broke off ties before Epstein's 2008 conviction and has consistently denied knowing about the late financier’s abuse and sex trafficking of underage girls. Still, the steady release of documents highlighting the relationship has proven to be a headache during his second term in office.
JPMorgan paid $290 million in 2023 to some of Epstein's victims to settle accusations that it had turned a blind eye to his sex trafficking. The deal followed embarrassing disclosures that JPMorgan ignored internal warnings and overlooked red flags about Epstein because he had been a valuable client. The bank did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.
The other people named by Trump could not immediately be reached for comment. No credible evidence has surfaced so far that any of them were involved in Epstein's sex trafficking, and all have previously denied wrongdoing. Clinton flew on Epstein's private jet several times before the financier's 2008 conviction, while Hoffman and Summers socialized with him. All three men have expressed regret about their relationship with him.
While nine in 10 Republicans say they approve of Trump's performance in the White House overall, just four in 10 say they approve of his handling of the Epstein files, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in October.
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan, Sarah N. Lynch, Maiya Keidan, Lananh Nguyen, Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal and Susan Heavey; editing by Scott Malone)
