Trump won’t appoint special prosecutor in Epstein case, White House says, DOJ did ‘exhaustive and thorough review’
WASHINGTON — President Trump “would not recommend” a special prosecutor examine the Jeffrey Epstein case, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday, as controversy over the late pedophile continued to dog the administration.
“That’s how he feels,” Leavitt told reporters when asked about the possibility during her regular briefing.
Calls have grown for the release of the full investigative file on Epstein, who died in his Manhattan lockup in August 2019, after the Department of Justice and FBI released a memo last week concluding the disgraced financier committed suicide — and did not keep a list of “clients” to whom he trafficked underage teens for sex, contrary to widespread speculation.
Leavitt stressed that the president would welcome additional releases of “credible” information relating to the sex-trafficking case — but said that Trump believes the DOJ had done its job.
“The president believes that he directed the Department of Justice to do an exhaustive and thorough review, and they did that, and they all agreed, the FBI director, the deputy FBI director, the attorney general, on the memo that they drafted and they released,” she said.
The July 7 memo also concluded that Epstein did not blackmail any “prominent individuals as part of his actions.”
While the review confirmed Epstein harmed over “one thousand victims,” the DOJ and FBI determined that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
The subsequent surge of attention to the Epstein case — and away from Trump’s policies — has caused the president to lash out at those pressing the DOJ to release more files, calling the whole controversy a Democratic “hoax” and a “scam.”
“Unlike Republicans, they [Democrats] stick together like glue. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls—,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday, noting that past Democratic presidents hadn’t released files related to the case.
“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats[‘] work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”
On Tuesday, Trump asked reporters aloud why there was so much “interest” in the Epstein case, calling it “pretty boring stuff.”
Leavitt noted that Trump’s anger about the reaction to the memo stems from the fact that Democrats “didn’t do a dang thing” with the case following the conviction of Epstein’s companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, on trafficking and conspiracy charges in late 2021.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
“It was this president who directed the Department of Justice and the attorney general to do an exhaustive review of all files related to Jeffrey Epstein, which they did,” the press secretary said.
“The attorney general and the FBI led by [Attorney General] Pam Bondi, [FBI Deputy Director] Dan Bongino, [FBI Director] Kash Patel — these are great patriots, some of the most trusted voices in the Republican movement,” Leavitt added.
Bondi, who would make the final decision on appointing a special prosecutor, has been criticized for her handling of the Epstein matter.
However, Trump has defended his attorney general, saying Tuesday that she had dealt with the situation “very well.”