Durbin: FBI agents were told to 'flag' Epstein records that mentioned Trump

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he has received information that Attorney General Pam Bondi “pressured” approximately 1,000 FBI personnel to comb through tens of thousands of pages of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and flag any mention of President Trump.

Durbin made the explosive allegation in three letters that he sent Friday to Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino seeking more information about the administration’s handling of files related to Epstein and asking why senior officials were allegedly focused on looking for documents connecting Trump to Epstein.

Citing “information my office received,” Durbin said Bondi “pressured the FBI to put approximately 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division” on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records as part of a broader effort to release documents publicly by what Durbin called “an arbitrarily short deadline.”

Durbin says his office was told that FBI personnel were “instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.”

He went on to note in the letters that Trump in 2002 said he had known Epstein for 15 years and called him a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with.”

The senior Democratic lawmaker also pointed to an exclusive report in The Wall Street Journal claiming that Trump sent a bawdy letter to Epstein’s partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, for a birthday album she was putting together 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” along with Trump’s signature below the figure’s waist.

He asked Bondi, Patel and Bongino if they have personally reviewed all the files in the Department of Justice’s possession related to Epstein and whether the FBI has other Epstein-related records that Justice did not review.

And Durbin questioned why FBI personnel were told to flag records mentioning Trump and what happened to those records.

“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 Office of Inspector General.

Durbin is also seeking clarification about Bondi’s statement in February during a Fox News interview when she said a list of Epstein’s clients is “sitting on my desk right now to review.”

That statement conflicts with an unsigned memorandum from the Justice Department and FBI released this month stating that a “systematic review” of Epstein-related files “revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’

Durbin says the claim in the memo that no list exists “contradicts public statements” that Bondi “repeatedly made.”

He cited Bondi’s claim on another Fox News show in February that a whistleblower told her that the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York was sitting on thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein.

Durbin wants to know if the client list does not exist, then what was Bondi referring to when she alluded to documents “sitting” on her desk.

He also wants to know when the whistleblower disclosed to Bondi that there were thousands of pages of additional records in the possession of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York’s office and whether that information was shared with Congress or the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office.

Furthermore, Durbin asked the senior officials to explain why they placed almost 1,000 FBI personnel on 24-hour shifts to review Epstein related documents in March and who made the decision to assign hundreds of people from the FBI’s New York field office to the task.

Durbin’s letters also raise questions about the Justice Department’s and FBI’s claim in the unsigned July 7 memo that the conclusion that Epstein died by suicide was supported by “fully raw” video footage from the common area of the special housing unit were Epstein was at the time of his death.

“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 asked Bondi, Patel and Bongino to describe in detail all of the modifications made to the “full raw” surveillance footage before its publication.

He asked that the officials provide answers 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.