US President Donald Trump has said he will order an investigation into paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged links to major banks and several prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton.
Trump on social media said he would ask Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others “to determine what was going on with them, and him”.
Interest in Epstein’s relationships was renewed this week after US lawmakers released more than 20,000 pages of documents from his estate, including some mentioning Trump.
Clinton has strongly denied he had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
In addition to Clinton, Trump said he asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate banks JP Morgan and Chase, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who is also a prominent Democratic donor.
“Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem!” he wrote on social media.
“They all know about him, don’t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!”
A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase said the firm regrets “any association” they had with Epstein, and added that the firm “did not help him commit his heinous acts”.
Trump’s request comes ahead of the House of Representatives’ vote next week on whether the justice department should release all its files related to the investigation into Epstein.
Democrat Adelita Grijalva’s swearing in to the chamber on Wednesday triggered the move, after she immediately signed a discharge petition from calling for the release of the files.
Her signature was the 218th – the final signing needed to trigger a floor vote.
