Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Sick.), the rating member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he has obtained data that Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi “pressured” roughly 1,000 FBI personnel to comb by means of tens of hundreds of pages of paperwork associated to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and flag any point out of President Trump.
Durbin made the explosive allegation in three letters that he despatched Friday to Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino looking for extra details about the administration’s dealing with of information associated to Epstein and asking why senior officers had been allegedly centered on on the lookout for paperwork connecting Trump to Epstein.
Citing “information my office received,” Durbin stated Bondi “pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division” on 24-hour shifts to overview roughly 100,000 Epstein-related information as a part of a broader effort to launch paperwork publicly by what Durbin referred to as “an arbitrarily short deadline.”
Durbin says his workplace was informed that FBI personnel had been “instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.”
He went on to notice within the letters that Trump in 2002 stated he had recognized Epstein for 15 years and referred to as him a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.”
The senior Democratic lawmaker additionally pointed to an unique report in The Wall Road Journal claiming that Trump despatched a bawdy letter to Epstein’s companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, for a birthday album she was placing collectively for Epstein in 2003.
Durbin highlighted reporting that Trump’s letter to Epstein “contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker” together with Trump’s signature under the determine’s waist.
He requested Bondi, Patel and Bongino if they’ve personally reviewed all of the information within the Division of Justice’s possession associated to Epstein and whether or not the FBI has different Epstein-related information that Justice didn’t overview.
And Durbin questioned why FBI personnel had been informed to flag information mentioning Trump and what occurred to these information.
“Is there a log of the records mentioning President Trump? If yes, please transmit a copy of the committee and the OIG,” he wrote, referring to the Judiciary panel and the Workplace of Inspector Basic.
Durbin can also be looking for clarification about Bondi’s assertion in February throughout a Fox Information interview when she stated a listing of Epstein’s purchasers is “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
That assertion conflicts with an unsigned memorandum from the Justice Division and FBI launched this month stating {that a} “systematic review” of Epstein-related information “revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’
Durbin says the declare within the memo that no listing exists “contradicts public statements” that Bondi “repeatedly made.”
He cited Bondi’s declare on one other Fox Information present in February {that a} whistleblower informed her that the U.S. legal professional’s workplace for the Southern District of New York was sitting on hundreds of pages of paperwork associated to Epstein.
Durbin needs to know if the consumer listing doesn’t exist, then what was Bondi referring to when she alluded to paperwork “sitting” on her desk.
He additionally needs to know when the whistleblower disclosed to Bondi that there have been hundreds of pages of extra information within the possession of the U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of New York’s workplace and whether or not that data was shared with Congress or the Justice Division’s inspector normal’s workplace.
Moreover, Durbin requested the senior officers to clarify why they positioned virtually 1,000 FBI personnel on 24-hour shifts to overview Epstein associated paperwork in March and who made the choice to assign a whole bunch of individuals from the FBI’s New York discipline workplace to the duty.
Durbin’s letters additionally elevate questions in regards to the Justice Division’s and FBI’s declare within the unsigned July 7 memo that the conclusion that Epstein died by suicide was supported by “fully raw” video footage from the widespread space of the particular housing unit had been Epstein was on the time of his demise.
“Public skepticism of the government’s transparency in this matter has been needlessly increased due to your release of surveillance video from outside of Jefrey Epstein’s cell,” Durbin wrote. “In fact, the footage was likely modified, according to the metadata embedded in the video.”
Durbin requested Bondi, Patel and Bongino to explain intimately all the modifications made to the “full raw” surveillance footage earlier than its publication.
He requested that the officers present solutions no later than Aug. 1.
“Prompt attention to this important matter is crucial to understanding the truth and preventing this administration’s actions from causing greater harm,” he wrote.
