Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ailing., pressed Justice Division management about their dealing with of recordsdata associated to the federal investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein, together with experiences that FBI personnel had been instructed to “flag” any information that talked about President Donald Trump.
In a sequence of oversight letters written to Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, Durbin questioned Bondi about “contradictions” in her public statements on the case, Patel about experiences that he was “pressured” by Bondi to put 1,000 personnel on 24-hour shifts to mine roughly 100,000 Epstein-related information and Bongino about reported disputes amongst Trump officers about “the dearth of transparency” of their dealing with of the high-profile case.
Within the letters despatched Friday, Durbin, the highest Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, requested every of the Trump administration officers to answer info obtained by his workplace that instructed FBI personnel had been particularly instructed to “flag” any information mentioning Trump.
“My workplace was informed that these personnel had been instructed to ‘flag’ any information by which President Trump was talked about. … Why had been personnel informed to flag information by which President Trump was talked about,” Durbin requested Bondi, Patel and Bongino in separate letters. “What occurred to the information mentioning President Trump as soon as they had been flagged?”
A Durbin aide informed NBC Information that the senator’s workplace obtained that info from a protected FBI whistleblower disclosure.
The FBI declined NBC Information’ request for touch upon Durbin’s letters.
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The letters mark the most recent try by Democrats to maintain consideration on Epstein greater than per week after the Justice Division launched a memo outlining a choice to stop further disclosures associated to the investigation. The memo roiled Trump’s MAGA base, making a uncommon rift amongst Trump and the far-right base that thrusted him into energy — a rift that Democratic lawmakers have aimed to widen.
Within the aftermath of the Justice Division memo, Bondi has confronted blowback partially due to earlier public statements she made pointing to the existence of 1000’s of pages of further paperwork associated to Epstein, together with a purported “shopper checklist.”
Durbin, like lots of Trump’s supporters over the previous week, requested the Lawyer Normal to reconcile her earlier public declarations along with her division’s discovering that “no additional disclosures” are warranted within the case and {that a} overview of information “revealed no incriminating shopper checklist.”
“Why did you publicly declare on February 21 that the shopper checklist was ‘sitting on my desk proper now to overview?'” Durbin requested Bondi. “If it was not a shopper checklist, what was ‘sitting in your desk’ at that second?”
Bongino and Patel have additionally confronted backlash on-line. Each of them beforehand promoted conspiracy theories that instructed the Epstein case was a part of a authorities cover-up to guard highly effective political gamers concerned in a toddler abuse ring.
Patel, within the solely put up he is made to his private social media account for the reason that Justice Division memo was launched, stated “the conspiracy theories simply aren’t true” and “by no means have been.” Durbin, aiming to name consideration to Patel’s previous ideas of a cover-up, requested the FBI director to element the conspiracy theories he was referring to in his put up.
“What are the conspiracy theories you’re referring to in your July 12 tweet that ‘had been by no means true?’ If there are a couple of, please clarify every intimately,” the senator wrote to Patel.
NBC Information beforehand reported that Bongino was “uncontrolled livid,” skipped a day of labor and thought of resigning from his put up as a result of Justice Division’s dealing with of the Epstein recordsdata, a subject Durbin questioned the previous political commentator about.
“What was the character of the dispute between you and White Home and DOJ officers after the discharge of the July 7 memorandum,” Durbin requested Bongino. “Is that this dispute between you and White Home and DOJ officers the explanation behind your July 11 absence from work?”
Durbin additionally questioned the Trump officers about reporting from the Wall Avenue Journal that alleged Trump wrote a letter to Epstein in 2003, accompanied by a drawing of a unadorned girl, that was included in a leather-bound birthday album gifted to Epstein for his fiftieth birthday, in keeping with paperwork reviewed by the Journal.
Trump has denied that he wrote the letter and he filed a lawsuit in opposition to the newspaper for publishing the story. NBC Information has not independently confirmed the Journal’s reporting.
The Journal’s father or mother firm and its writer didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the lawsuit Friday evening.
“Did personnel overview any correspondence between President Trump and Mr. Epstein, together with a letter within the reported ‘leather-bound album’ as a part of this yr’s overview [of Epstein records]?” Durbin requested.
Hours after the Journal’s reporting, Trump on Thursday directed Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony” associated to Epstein, “topic to Courtroom approval.” Bondi on Friday filed a movement requesting the unsealing of grand jury transcripts associated to the Epstein case.
“Given the general public curiosity within the investigative work carried out by the Division of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation into Epstein, the Division of Justice strikes the Courtroom to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts in United States v. Epstein, topic to applicable redactions of victim-related and different private figuring out info,” the doc stated.
