AG Bondi moves to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts

U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi on Thursday night said she would ask a court on Friday to unseal grand jury transcripts from the trial of Jeffrey Epstein. It was unclear whether Bondi was referring to documents from Epstein’s sex offender conviction or the federal charges against him from 2019.

President Donald Trump asked Bondi to unseal the transcripts, he said on Thursday, due to a flurry of publicity about the case. He said the release would end what he characterized as a scam perpetuated by Democrats. The president wrote several social media posts in the last few days that accused his opponents of creating the Epstein files and spreading lies about them.

Trump also said he would sue The Wall Street Journal and its owner for publishing a story that claimed the president sent Epstein a bawdy birthday card alluding to what he called Epstein’s secrets. The letter was fake, Trump said.

What brought the Epstein case back into the spotlight? The Justice Department and FBI last week released a memo that concluded Epstein didn’t keep a list of clients and committed suicide, contrary to popular theories that his 2019 death was the result of foul play. The Justice Department also released surveillance videos of the area outside Epstein’s cell on the night of his death, which it described as raw footage. But a WIRED metadata analysis concluded that the video was edited and missing nearly three minutes.

The memo also said the investigation into Epstein’s alleged child sex trafficking operation was over. The announcement sparked disappointment and outrage from some Republicans, who hoped to hold more of Epstein’s collaborators accountable. While Epstein died before his trial concluded, his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in 2021 of conspiring to entice and transport minors for the purpose of committing sex acts and of sexually trafficking them.

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno’s story on some Republicans’ disappointment with the handling of the Epstein case.