Washington DC: US President Donald Trump has directed the Department of Justice to pursue the release of additional documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a post, Trump stated that, “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.”
However, it remains unclear whether Trump is calling for these records to be made public, as such a release would typically require court authorization.
President Trump—we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts. pic.twitter.com/hOXzdTcYYB
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) July 18, 2025
This announcement followed Trump’s declaration that he intends to sue The Wall Street Journal over its recent article claiming a sexually suggestive birthday greeting allegedly sent from Trump to Epstein in 2003.
Trump has labelled the letter ‘a fake’ and said that The Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, ‘were warned directly’ about potential legal action if the article was published. The President described the piece as ‘false, malicious, and defamatory.’
According to the newspaper, the letter bearing Trump’s name “contained several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker.” The content inside this outline was reportedly “a typewritten note styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written in the third person. A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump firmly denied any connection to the letter, asserting that, “These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that the letter was compiled as part of a birthday greeting collection orchestrated by Ghislaine Maxwell, a close Epstein associate who was convicted in 2021 for aiding in Epstein’s sex trafficking operations and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly followed Trump’s post, writing that, “We are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts.” Grand juries, groups of citizens tasked with determining whether sufficient evidence exists for an indictment, play a confidential role in legal proceedings, and their materials are generally sealed unless a judge rules otherwise.
It is not yet known whether Trump’s directive pertains to the early 2000s grand jury proceedings from Epstein’s initial cases or the later federal charges brought in 2019.
Some grand jury materials tied to the 2006 Florida case, which resulted in Epstein pleading guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution, have already been released. That case drew wide criticism for the leniency of the charges and the testimonies provided by several minors.
During his campaign last year, Trump had pledged to release information concerning Epstein. However, Bondi recently stated that the Department of Justice did not believe a so-called Epstein ‘client list’ existed, and reiterated the official conclusion that Epstein died by suicide.
These statements contradicted earlier expectations from Trump supporters that major revelations, ‘a lot of names’ and ‘a lot of flight logs’, would be disclosed. Bondi’s reversal prompted significant backlash, with some of Trump’s most loyal followers demanding her resignation for failing to deliver the promised disclosures.
Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk welcomed Trump’s latest move, stating that, “This is massive, this is something that we’ve been talking about for quite some time, and really a power to the grassroots.”
Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His death occurred more than a decade after his conviction in 2008 for soliciting sex from a minor, which required him to register as a sex offender.
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