Trump Says DOJ Should Probe Jeffrey Epstein and JPMorgan, Reid Hoffman

President Donald Trump said Friday he would ask the Justice Department to conduct an investigation into the connections between the now-dead pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and JPMorgan Chase, as well as several of his perceived political enemies.

On Truth Social, Trump compared the Epstein scandal to the “Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats.”

“I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” he wrote.

Representatives for Hoffman, Clinton, and Summers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for JPMorgan said the bank regrets doing business with Epstein, a relationship that ended in 2013.

“We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts,” JPMorgan spokeswoman Patricia Wexler said.

Later Friday, Bondi said she asked Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to handle the probe.

“I’ve asked him to take the lead,” Bondi wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “As with all matters, the Department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people.”

The Manhattan-based prosecutors’ office oversaw the 2019 prosecution of Epstein, who killed himself in jail while awaiting trial. It also brought charges against Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison. A spokesperson for the office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Trump’s directive comes on the heels of the House Oversight Committee releasing a cache of over 20,000 emails it obtained from Epstein’s estate, some of which included references to Trump. The two were friends in the 1980s and 1990s, and ran in the same Manhattan and Palm Beach social circles, before falling out in the mid-2000s.

The Trump administration has yet to fulfill promises made by DOJ officials, including Bondi, to release the Epstein files held within the Justice Department, which has led to public backlash.

Epstein maintained a relationship with JPMorgan Chase for years, and helped Jes Staley, then the head of JPMorgan Chase’s private banking division, with career advice. JPMorgan Chase cut ties with Epstein in 2013 amid concerns over his frequent and large cash withdrawals. Epstein had registered as a sex offender after pleading to a sex crime in 2008.

“The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,” JPMorgan spokeswoman Patricia Wexler said.

The bank has already paid at least $365 million in settlements related to civil lawsuits involving Epstein. It agreed to pay $290 million to settle a class-action lawsuit from Epstein’s victims who alleged it facilitated his sex-trafficking operation, and another $75 million to settle a similar lawsuit from the US Virgin Islands government.

Following Epstein’s 2019 suicide, Hoffman, the billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn, apologized for inviting him to a dinner party in 2015 with other tech giants. Hoffman later expressed regret for not doing his own research into Epstein.

Clinton flew on Epstein’s private jet for international trips he took in his post-presidency, and Epstein visited the White House several times while Clinton was in office.

The emails released from the House Oversight Committee show Epstein corresponding with Larry Summers, the Clinton-era Treasury Secretary, including a joke about women’s intelligence.

Trump’s name cropped up frequently in the cache of emails released by the House Oversight Committee this week. Epstein discussed Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and his first administration with acquaintances, including Kathryn Ruemmler, who is now the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs. He was often the topic of conversation in Epstein’s correspondence with Steve Bannon after he left his job as White House Advisor in the Trump administration.

In one 2011 email, Epstein told Maxwell that Trump “spent hours at my house” with victim Virginia Giuffre, who died earlier this year.

When asked in a 2016 deposition whether Trump was “a witness to the sexual abuse of minors” by Epstein, Giuffre said she “never saw or witnessed Donald Trump participate in those acts.”