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Report: Trump told he was named in Epstein files months ago

Report: Trump told he was named in Epstein files months ago

Daily Mail​3 days ago
Donald Trump was informed months ago by Pam Bondi that his name appears 'multiple times' in the Jeffrey Epstein files the same day she recommended against releasing all documents, according to a new report. Senior administration officials claimed that Attorney General Bondi told Trump during a May 2025 meeting that his name was found in the Epstein documents more than previously though, among hundreds of other high-profile individuals.
The files contained 'unverified hearsay' about Trump and the individuals who had social connections to Epstein, the officials claim. Bondi recommended in that same meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal , that the administration not release more files because they contained child [expletive] and personal information for victims.
Trump, the sources claim, deferred to his attorney general on whether to make additional files public. Just because the president is named in the files does not implicate him in any wrongdoing or connect him to Epstein's child [sexual] trafficking crimes.
Administration officials told the Journal that Bondi's May meeting with Trump was a routine briefing covering a number of topics - and the Epstein files wasn't the focus. White House communications director Steven Cheung slammed the Journal's report as 'fake news' in a statement to the Daily Mail.
'The fact is that the President kicked him out of his club for being a creep. 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,' he said. Trump denied that Bondi told him his name was flagged in the files after he emerged from another meeting with her on July 15.
Trump replied: 'No, no' when asked by a reporter whether his name in the files came up. He told reporters on the South Lawn that Bondi had 'given us just a very quick briefing' on their contents before accusing former FBI Director James Comey of 'making up' the files.
It's already known that Trump's name appeared on Epstein's flight logs, as well as the names of his second wife Marla Maples and his son Eric and daughter Tiffany. Epstein's 'black book' contact list also included entries for Trump's first wife Ivana, their daughter Ivanka and the president's brother Robert.
Trump has had recent beef with the Wall Street Journal , threatening to sue the publication and its owner Rupert Murdoch for publishing last week a piece claiming he sent Epstein a 50th birthday card with a hand-drawn outline of a naked women. The Justice Department told the Wall Street Journal that Trump was made aware of the findings as part of the 'routine briefing.' Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche reportedly said that nothing was found in the files that would mandate an additional investigation - or even prosecution.
'As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings,' they told the Journal. The Daily Mail reached out to the Justice Department for additional details on the meeting. Bondi has drawn ire and confusion from the MAGA base for say in February that she had the Epstein 'client list' on her desk ready for review. But the July memo said there was no such list found in the DOJ review.
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Though DSA factions have often sparred over the role elections and endorsements should play in the movement, the group has increasingly entered the sphere in recent years. The national group is supporting candidates in municipal elections from Ithaca, New York, to Atlanta, Georgia, with local chapters backing additional candidates in Boston's mayoral race, council runs in Richmond, California, Detroit, Michigan, and others. In Minneapolis, a DSA-backed mayoral candidate, state senator Omar Fateh won his primary this month, ; unlike Mamdani, Fateh has also won endorsement from local party officials. The New York City chapter, now home to 10,000 members, began prioritizing elections in 2017, creating an electoral working group. Since then, it has secured two New York City council seats and six New York state assembly seats, including Mamdani's, which he has held since 2020. Another 250-plus DSA-backed officials hold office nationwide, including progressive 'Squad' democrats in Congress: Rashida Tlaib and Greg Casar, and Chicago's mayor, Brandon Johnson. NYC-DSA employs a methodical volunteer model for each of its endorsed candidates. It has also been highly selective about who it chooses to support. 'You have to go speak to multiple branches of the chapter, talk to the electoral working group, go through multiple rounds of votes within DSA,' said the DSA-backed New York state senator Jabari Brisport, who represents a Brooklyn district. The robust endorsement pays off, Brisport said. 'When you're running with a DSA endorsement, you really have a whole operation of dedicated volunteers who want to advance socialism,' he said. 'They help with everything from field organizing to comms to fundraising.' For NYC-DSA, electoral campaigns are not only focused on single candidates but also on building support for their movement, said Phara Souffrant Forrest, another DSA state assemblymember from Brooklyn. 'When DSA campaigns for a candidate … we're organizing their district around shared values like housing justice, healthcare for all and workers' rights,' she said. The chapter does not use paid canvassers, though Mamdani's campaign hired roughly 50 for specialized outreach. 'Our main asset, which money can never buy, are volunteers who are passionate, who feel ownership over a campaign because the win would be personal for them,' said Sarahana Shrestha, a DSA assemblymember representing a south-eastern New York district. Her campaign brought in many voters who had otherwise 'given up on electoral politics', she said. DSA members appeared to do the same in the mayoral primary, mobilizing thousands of new voters. Some DSA endorsees – such as Ocasio-Cortez, who the group supported in her 2018 campaign – receive DSA backing upon request once they have launched their campaigns. Others, like Mamdani, are 'cadre candidates' who have strong pre-existing ties to the organization and are recruited by and from the chapter. Since joining NYC-DSA in 2017, Mamdani has been deeply involved with the organization, helping lead other electoral campaigns and working closely with the chapter on his successful 2020 assembly run. Once in office, Mamdani became an integral part of NYC-DSA's socialists in office committee, designed to facilitate chapter communications with elected socialists. Today, many of his staffers are chapter leaders. And when launching his mayoral campaign, 'he said that he would not run at all if he did not receive our endorsement,' the NYC-DSA organizer Michael Thomas Carter wrote in Drop Site News. 'While the coalition that coalesced around his campaign was much broader than NYC-DSA, in this very direct sense our organization is responsible for his mayoral run,' he wrote. This commitment to the chapter has been a throughline in Mamdani's career, said Gordillo. 'He's been really tested to learn how to exercise leadership while also being accountable to a base, because he's done that in DSA pretty often,' he said. Mamdani has championed some NYC-DSA campaigning efforts he did not pioneer, such as the successful fight for a bill to expand publicly owned renewable energy, which Gordillo helmed. But he has been a leader on other initiatives, such as the 'Not on Our Dime!' bill, which aims to pressure Israel to follow international law and on which he was the lead sponsor. (Ending US support for Israel's military is a key issue for DSA, whose national organization ended its support for Ocasio-Cortez and former New York congressman Jamaal Bowman over insufficient support for the issue.) That back-and-forth has continued through the mayoral campaign, with the chapter's political operatives also helping him make connections and shape his platform. 'He met with our Labor Working Group a lot to learn more about what were the top demands for different unions where we have a lot of member density,' said Gordillo, who is a union electrician by day. Mamdani won more votes than any other mayoral candidate in New York City primary election history. Brisport said that's a testament not only to the power of NYC-DSA's organizational skills, but also to the popularity of their political values. 'Clearly there is something in the air that is shifting, because open socialists are running for office and winning, showing that our ideas are good, workable things that people actually need,' he said. Mamdani's embrace of the democratic socialist label has been a boon for NYC-DSA, with about 4,000 members joining since he launched his mayoral campaign. It will also be a test for the chapter and for American socialism. 'Zohran ran as an open democratic socialist and the billionaire class, the most powerful forces in the world and in the city, are aligning against him,' Gordillo said. 'They will be finding every moment to amplify anything that they can say is a mistake or a failure, and because he ran in a way that was so tied to the movement, I think that any of his shortcomings will also be attributed to us.' The chapter is now preparing to mobilize volunteers around the general election, but also organizing to support Mamdani's key policies like a proposal to increase taxes on the rich. The organization is prepared to hold Mamdani accountable to socialist values, but also to communicate his successes to the public, said Gordillo. 'We will make sure that the billionaire class and corporate interests can't just fearmonger about him, or hide it when he fulfills his campaign promises,' he said. 'The fate of the left in New York rests on the success of the Mamdani administration, so ensuring that there is a successful mayoralty is going to have to become our top priority.'

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