President Donald Trump claimed that the Justice Department’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were “made up” by former President Barack Obama, ex-FBI Director James Comey, and the Biden administration.
Trump’s comments come as he continues to face backlash from many of his own supporters following the DOJ and FBI’s release of a memo last week stating there was no evidence of an Epstein “client list” that implicated powerful individuals in his child sex trafficking operation.
During a press gaggle outside the White House on Tuesday, Trump was asked whether Attorney General Pam Bondi had informed him that his name appeared in the Epstein documents. Trump replied:
“No, no.”
He added that Bondi had given “just a very quick briefing” regarding “the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen.”
Trump went further, asserting:
“These files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden administration. And we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, and all of the different things we had to go through.”
In recent days, Trump has repeatedly defended Bondi’s controversial decision not to release the Epstein files.
“The attorney general has handled that very well,” Trump told reporters. “She’s really done a very good job. And I think when you look at it, you’ll understand that. I would like to see transparency also. But I think the attorney general—the credibility is very important. And you want credible evidence for something like that.”
Bondi sparked confusion during a Feb. 21 interview on Fox News when she claimed that an alleged list of Epstein’s sex-trafficking clients was “sitting on my desk right now.” Last week, she sought to clarify, stating she was referring more generally to documentation in the Epstein case.
