Bill Barr recounts telling Trump about Epstein death: 'You better brace for this'

Former Attorney General William Barr recalled his conversations with President Trump when convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in 2019, details he revealed during his testimony before a House investigative panel last month and which were made public in a transcript released Tuesday.

Barr told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that he had at least two conversations with the president about Epstein.

“One was when I heard about the suicide,” Barr told the panel. “I called him up and said, ‘You better brace for this,’ and I told him words to that effect.”

Barr recalled telling Trump that Epstein “committed suicide” and said Trump also “suspected it was apparently suicide.”

“He had the same reaction I did, which was, ‘How the hell did that happen, he's in federal custody?’” Barr said to the panel.

Barr said he and Trump both raised concern that the apparent suicide might lead to conspiracy theories.

“And I think I conveyed to him that it was appalling and that we were going to investigate it vigorously,” Barr continued, “and he had the same reaction I did, which is, 'This is going to certainly generate a lot of conspiracy theories.'”

“These are not his exact words, but that's what I remember about the conversation being effectively — maybe words to the effect, yeah,” Barr added, according to the transcript.

A joint memo released by the Justice Department and the FBI in July concluded that Epstein died by suicide, prompting a firestorm of criticism from many Trump supporters who have long suspected his death was the result of foul play.

Barr said the only other conversation he recalls having with Trump about Epstein is when the president remarked on their past relationship.

“The president said something to the effect that he had broken off with Epstein long ago and that he had actually pushed him out of Mar-a-Lago," Barr said.

Trump has publicly acknowledged his past relationship with Epstein but said in 2019 they hadn’t spoken in 15 years. Trump has said part of the falling out included throwing Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago for poaching employees from the resort.

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) on Tuesday released the full transcript from Barr’s deposition last month, as well as letters from former Trump Attorneys General Alberto Gonzales and Jeff Sessions, who denied having any knowledge relevant to the committee’s probe of the federal government’s investigation into Epstein and his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The committee also released a Tuesday letter it sent to Epstein’s estate requesting “full, unredacted copies” of cash ledgers, message logs, calendars and flight logs. According to the letter, committee staff privately reviewed the unredacted documents.