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At least a half-dozen top officials in the current Trump administration have connections to Jeffrey Epstein, according to an NBC News review of some of the over 3 million documents the Justice Department has released.
The degree to which each individual was connected to Epstein varies significantly, from a single email to years of communications. President Donald Trump, who had a lengthy relationship with Epstein, is mentioned thousands of times in the files. Trump has never been accused by authorities of any wrongdoing connected to Epstein, and has said he parted ways with him in the mid-2000s because he was a “creep.” He has also denied any wrongdoing.
During a testy oversight hearing on Wednesday. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi on whether any current administration officials have been questioned by the Justice Department about their ties to Epstein.
“I’m stunned that you want to continue talking about Epstein,” Bondi replied while sidestepping the question.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump praised Bondi’s appearance at the Senate hearing and claimed that the files provide “conclusively” that he “has been 100% exonerated.”
Some officials from previous Democratic administrations have appeared in the files — including former President Bill Clinton, his former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler.
Ruemmler announced this week that she would leave her position as Goldman Sachs’ top lawyer amid blowback over her extensive emails with Epstein. Ruemmler has said she was friendly with Epstein only in the context of being a criminal defense attorney and that she regrets ever having known him.
Summers announced in November that he was taking a leave of absence from his teaching at Harvard University and would step back from other public commitments. Summers said in November that he was “deeply ashamed” of emails that came out last year showing him corresponding with Epstein as recently as July 2019. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s crimes.
Clinton has said that he cut ties with Epstein before the financier was accused in 2006 of having sex with a minor. His spokesperson said the emails “prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing.” He has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein by authorities.
Two other ex-Trump administration officials — former DOGE chief Elon Musk and former chief strategist Steve Bannon — also made appearances in the files. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s crimes.
Alex Acosta, who was Trump’s Labor secretary during his first term, led the first federal criminal probe into Epstein as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Acosta approved a much-maligned secret nonprosecutorial agreement that allowed Epstein to plead guilty in 2008 to lesser state charges, which helped him avoid potentially decades of jail time. Acosta has defended the plea deal and said that his office “acted appropriately” given the context of the 2008 case. “Times have changed, and coverage of this case has certainly changed,” he said in 2019 after Epstein’s arrest in New York.
Reached for comment, a White House spokesperson referred NBC News to remarks Trump made on Thursday about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who admitted this week to visiting Epstein’s island in 2012.
“No, I wasn’t aware of it,” he said of Lutnick’s trip, adding, “I actually haven’t spoken to him about it, I wasn’t, but from what I hear, he was there with his wife and children. And I guess in some cases, some people were. I wasn’t. I was never there. Somebody will someday say that. I was never there.”
No major U.S. political figure has been accused by law enforcement of any crimes, and all have denied wrongdoing. A joint DOJ-FBI memo released last year found that there was no evidence of a so-called “client list” and that no one else would be investigated in connection with Epstein.
Here’s a look at administration officials’ ties to Epstein and his co-conspirator in a sex tracking ring, Ghislaine Maxwell:
Epstein and Trump’s overlap
Numerous people in President Donald Trump’s administrations, past and present, showed up in Epstein file dumps.
NBC News mapped out the web of connections between Jeffrey Epstein and those in President Trump’s administration
This chart shows Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, and eight others who serve or served in Trump’s administration. Mouse over or tap an artist name to hear how they showed up in an Epstein files dump.
Jeffrey Epstein
RFK Jr. : Kennedy Jr. shows up in the flight logs of Epstein’s private jet and is referenced in an email exchange between Ghislaine Maxwell and Epstein.JeffreyEpsteinSteveBannonElonMuskKevinWarshJohnPhelanMehmetOzStephenFeinbergRFK Jr.HowardLutnickDonaldTrump
RFK Jr.
Health and Human Services Secretary
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Secretary Lutnick
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