In a pointed series of posts that intensified an already rancorous political climate, President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to direct the Department of Justice to investigate several high-profile Democrats and business leaders over their past associations with Jeffrey Epstein.
The president framed the move as a necessary countermeasure to what he described as a partisan effort by Democrats to revive what he called the “Epstein Hoax” in order to distract from the ongoing government shutdown.
“Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures,” he wrote on Truth Social, “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.”
Trump asserted that “all arrows” in the Epstein matter “are pointing to the Democrats,” accusing them of attempting to shift attention away from what he repeatedly characterizes as the failures of their shutdown strategy. “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam,” he said, insisting that records show the individuals he named “spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’ Stay tuned!!!”
The president’s comments followed the release of documents by the House Oversight Committee on Thursday that included references to Trump alongside other figures connected to Epstein.
Trump responded with visible frustration, claiming Democrats were attempting to “bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects.”
He warned Republicans against being drawn into what he described as a political trap. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap,” he wrote, placing full responsibility for the shutdown’s economic toll on the opposing party. “The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk — and they should pay a fair price. There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”
The political collision between Trump’s charges and the names he invoked included a moment of contrast: the president had dined at the White House with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, one of the individuals he mentioned, just two days earlier.
The juxtaposition underscored how personal relationships and political accusations continue to intermingle unpredictably in the Trump era.
The article noted that the president’s threats against Dimon and others “cannot necessarily be dismissed as empty,” pointing to ongoing Justice Department prosecutions involving several figures Trump has publicly criticized, including John Bolton, James Comey, and Letitia James.
For Trump, whose governing style has often merged personal grievance with executive action, the Epstein dispute appears to have become the latest front in a much broader partisan battle over blame, accountability, and political narrative during the shutdown.
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