Epstein affair The investigation

Major row in US Congress as Attorney General grilled about Epstein investigation

On Wednesday, US Attorney General Pam Bondi will be questioned in Congress about the Epstein investigation and ICE – and things are getting heated, reports the BBC.

The tone was high when Bondi was questioned by Democratic House of Representatives member Pramila Jayapal. Jayapal asked the minister to apologize to Epstein's victims, which she refused.

– I am not going to lower myself to this woman's kindergarten level, said Bondi.

Jayapal shouted in response that the Justice Department is engaging in a "massive cover-up" of the Epstein investigation.

In another outburst, Bondi called Democratic member Jamie Raskin a "dismissed lawyer zero". When Democrat Zoe Lofgren accused the Justice Department of not cooperating in the investigation of the ICE shootings, Bondi accused her of a “circus.”

Trump said he knew about Epstein’s crimes – 20 years ago

President Donald Trump said in a conversation with a former Florida police chief that he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal activities, the Miami Herald reports.

The conversation reportedly took place in 2006 when the first allegations against Epstein became public. At the time, Donald Trump is said to have said: “Thank God you’re stopping him, everyone knew he did this.” Trump is also said to have admitted that he was “around” Epstein while teenagers were there, but that he had then run away.

Trump is also said to have urged the police chief to investigate Ghislaine Maxwell, calling her both “operative” and “evil.”

The former police chief was reportedly questioned about the conversation with Trump seven years ago in connection with the FBI's extensive Epstein investigation.

The new information presents a contradictory picture to the one that Donald Trump himself has maintained. The president has repeatedly claimed that he had no knowledge of Epstein's criminality and that the two had not been together for "many years".

Epstein tried to remove himself from Google searches

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hired a team to clean up negative publicity on Google, reports Semafor. He also tried to influence the reporting of his crimes through his media contacts, newly released documents show.

Among other things, Business Insider founder Henry Blodget is said to have had then-editor-in-chief Jessica Liebman remove Epstein's mugshot in 2013, after Epstein's foundation contacted Blodget.

When Semafor contacted Blodget, he stated that he had “no memory” of the incident and said that the newspaper had published about a hundred articles about Epstein’s crimes over the years.

Epstein is also said to have used a social media team to remove articles about his crimes from Google searches. For this service, he is said to have paid upwards of $10,000 a month, writes the Financial Review.

The new documents also show that Epstein had contacts with employees at several media outlets. Among them were CBS employee Peter Attia and Mariette DiChristina, who was previously the editor-in-chief of Scientific American.