A billboard last week in Times Square calls for the release of the Epstein files. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated with how his administration's handling of the furor around the Jeffrey Epstein files has dominated the news and overshadowed his agenda, said two people familiar with his thinking.
His exasperation follows weeks of missteps and no clear strategy among top officials who underestimated the outrage, especially from the president's base, and hoped the country would forget about the unreleased Epstein files and move on, according to nearly a dozen people close to the situation, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal deliberations.
"This is a pretty substantial distraction," said one person close to the situation. "While many are trying to keep the unity, in many ways, the DOJ and the FBI are breaking at the seams. Many are wondering how sustainable this is going to be for all the parties involved -- be it the FBI director or attorney general."
Despite his frustration, Trump has been hesitant to make personnel changes, according to another person close to the president: "He does not want to create a bigger spectacle by firing anyone," this person said.
At the center of the storm is Attorney General Pam Bondi, who for months made releasing the FBI's Epstein files one of her signature initiatives. Her pledge intensified the clamor among members of Trump's right-wing base to release the files amid speculation that the undisclosed evidence could implicate the financier sex offender's rich and powerful friends.
But over the July 4 holiday weekend, Bondi, her top deputy and FBI leaders gave final approval to an unsigned memo about the Epstein files that ignited a whole new furor. The memo said the Trump administration had found no evidence to dispute that Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 and said there was no "client list" that would lead them to prosecute anyone else. Additionally, the memo said, no more documents would be released in order to protect the privacy of victims.
A firestorm of criticism has since consumed all three branches of government, given the Democrats a powerful new line of attack and left Trump struggling to respond to the most intractable political crisis he's faced since his return to the White House.
"They completely miscalculated the fever pitch to which they built this up," said Stephen A. Saltzburg, a former Justice Department official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations who teaches at George Washington University's law school. "Now, they seem to be in full-bore panic mode, trying to change the subject and flailing in an effort to make sense of what makes no sense."
For weeks after the memo's release, Trump and Bondi spoke on the phone nearly every day, as they often do, according to two people familiar with the calls, amid a blowback that, unlike the president's previous controversies, has refused to abate from the headlines.
A steady series of announcements from the administration has failed to quiet the clamor, including the release of FBI records on Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, a newly launched investigation into former FBI director James B. Comey and even an explosive treason accusation against former president Barack Obama over the 2016 presidential election. And polls continue to show the public is skeptical about what the government is telling it about Epstein.
"We had the Greatest Six Months of any President in the History of our Country, and all the Fake News wants to talk about is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax!," Trump vented on social media this month.
Attempts to assuage Trump's base with more Epstein information have often spurred more questions, said several people interviewed by The Washington Post.
They cited the FBI's release of 2019 security footage from outside Epstein's jail cell, which was intended to prove that he died by suicide and debunk conspiracy theories that he was killed. After the release, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino realized that what they billed as "full raw" footage was missing three minutes, according to three people close to the FBI. The gap fueled more speculation.
Bongino and Patel were included in drafting, approving and advocating for the release of the memo that detailed their decision not to release more from the files, according to emails reviewed by The Post and three people close to the president.
But since the backlash intensified, both have privately groused that if they were in charge they would have released the Epstein files, redacting identifying information about victims, according to two people familiar with private conversations.
Bongino, a former Secret Service officer turned podcast host with a large right-wing following, was furious about the fallout over the memo and video release, the people said.
In the days after, top officials in the FBI and Justice Department pointed fingers at one another. Bondi accused Bongino of leaking information to the media around the handling of the Epstein files, according to three people familiar with the conversations. And Bongino considered quitting his high-profile job, according to people familiar with his thinking and a social media posting from his ally and right-wing influencer Laura Loomer; though he has so far decided to stay.
The pressure intensified last week after the Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi told Trump in a May Oval Office meeting with Patel that the president's name appeared multiple times in the files. The mere presence of Trump's name -- or anyone else's -- in the bureau's investigative documents does not necessarily suggest wrongdoing. But Democrats in Congress latched on to that revelation as they tried to keep attention on the case.
Three people familiar with the May meeting said Epstein was just one topic of many in the regularly scheduled briefings with the president. Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also told Trump they did not want to release the files to protect the privacy of the victims in the files and because of the sexually explicit content in them, the people said.
Justice Department officials drafted the Epstein memo stating that they would release no additional information about Epstein because the results of their review contradicted past statements by high-level members of the Trump administration, including Trump himself.
Bondi was not directly involved in crafting the July memo, according to a person familiar with the internal process. But two senior White House officials said the attorney general participated in discussions that led to its release.
Blanche has denied any disagreement between the Justice Department and the FBI in crafting the memo's conclusions. Earlier this month, he said he "worked closely" with Patel and Bongino on the document and that all had agreed to its findings.
"The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo's composition and release is patently false," he said in a statement.
Bondi has faced scrutiny over her actions on the Epstein files before. In February, she staged a widely panned release of what she described as "Phase One" of the Epstein files. It turned out to be a rollout of mostly already public documents bound in binders marked "classified" and distributed to handpicked, right-wing influencers at a White House briefing.
Many of those influencers used their platforms to lambast Bondi, calling her a liar and demanding greater transparency. Bondi, in response, made big promises about future Epstein releases.
In Fox News interviews, she said "truckloads" of new documents had been delivered to her office and that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now for review.”
"Everything's going to come out to the public," she told Fox's Sean Hannity in early March. "The public has a right to know. Americans have a right to know."
Over two weeks later that month, the FBI dispatched roughly 1,000 personnel to scour more than 100,000 pages of Epstein-related documents for anything more that could be released, according to two people familiar with that review. The details were first reported by the New York Times.
Workers toiled around-the-clock and staffed mandatory weekend shifts for weeks to accommodate punishing deadlines from higher-ups and were told to flag any mentions of Trump and other prominent figures—a senior bureau official said in a whistleblower report to the Senate Judiciary Committee that was obtained by The Post.
"Considering the nature of the files, they are replete with information not fit for public disclosure,"
the official said,
noting that much of it contained personal identifying information,
details on victims
and other private data protected under federal law.
After concluding that less than a tenth of those documents could be considered for release,
staffers were asked to go through them at least four times more.
The ultimate result had seemed obvious to many of those involved from the start.
It was memorialized in the Epstein memo:
There was no unreleased evidence that would "expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing."
In the weeks since,
Bondi and Blanche have repeatedly said they stand by that judgment.
At the same time,
amid the sense of crisis and anger from Trump's base,
they have taken actions that run counter to that conclusion and their memo's other central findings.
The memo concluded that no further disclosures on Epstein "would be appropriate or warranted." But last week,
under direct instructions from Trump,
they petitioned courts in Florida and New York to release grand jury transcripts from the investigations of Epstein and his imprisoned associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
A Florida judge rejected that request.
Judges in New York have not yet ruled.
On Thursday,
Blanche flew to Tallahassee to interview Maxwell,
who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Prosecutors have repeatedly questioned her credibility and willingness to "brazenly lie under oath."
In an unusual move for the deputy attorney general,
the second-most powerful person at the Justice Department,
Blanche spent two days with Maxwell,
interviewing her about anyone else "who has committed crimes against victims."
Maxwell's attorney said Blanche asked her about "potentially 100 different people" and she answered every question truthfully.
Now,
as the Justice Department scrambles to satisfy public demand for more information,
Congress is also putting pressure on law enforcement agency to release Epstein files.
The Republican-led House is expected to issue a subpoena for Epstein's voluminous criminal file,
which will put Trump administration in uncomfortable position of deciding how to respond.
A key House committee has already subpoenaed testimony from Maxwell in deposition set to take place next month.
As he left federal courthouse in Tallahassee after interviewing Maxwell last week,
Blanche dodged reporters' questions.
But in social media post,
he teased that new disclosures could soon be coming.
Echoing vows made months ago by Bondi,
Blanche wrote:“The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at appropriate time.”