WASHINGTON — FBI officers reviewing extra 100,000 data from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation in March had been directed to flag any paperwork that talked about President Trump, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee stated Friday.

In a letter to management of the Justice Division, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois stated his workplace “was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.”

Durbin’s assertion comes after a report within the Wall Road Journal that Trump despatched a raunchy fiftieth birthday card to Epstein that included a sketch of a unadorned girl, that includes breasts and a squiggly “Donald” signature mimicking pubic hair.

The Journal reviewed copies of a group of lewd letters that Epstein’s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, gathered from Epstein’s mates and colleagues and compiled in an album to mark his 2003 birthday.

Trump, who denies writing the letter, has repeatedly threatened to sue the Journal and its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch.

Trump had already been dealing with mounting strain from his MAGA base to publicly launch Justice Division recordsdata from the case of Epstein, a disgraced financier whose sprawling intercourse trafficking ring victimized greater than 200 ladies and underage women.

Trump ordered Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to reverse course on a current choice to shut the case and unseal grand jury testimony.

“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,” Trump introduced Thursday on Fact Social. “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”

The Division of Justice and FBI declared earlier this month in a memo that Epstein’s case was closed and his 2019 demise in a NY city jail was a suicide. However Bondi, a Trump appointee and arch loyalist, instantly agreed Thursday to Trump’s new demand.

“President Trump — we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts,” Bondi wrote on X.

It stays to be seen if Trump and Bondi will persuade a federal decide in New York to launch the grand jury transcripts. Such paperwork are sometimes not made public and launched solely underneath narrowly outlined circumstances.

Trump and Epstein grew to become mates within the Eighties.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Mr. Trump instructed New York journal, in 2002, noting that Epstein was “a lot of fun to be with” and “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

However their friendship apparently broke down in 2008 after Epstein was convicted of kid sexual offenses. Their relationship — and the opportunity of Trump’s involvement in Epstein’s crimes — has been scrutinized ever since.

The Epstein case has riveted Trump’s Republican base, largely due to the multimillionaire financier’s connections to wealthy and highly effective individuals they think had been concerned in his little one intercourse trafficking.

However releasing the recordsdata just isn’t solely as much as Trump, even when he wished to.

“You’ve got decades’ worth of materials,” stated David Weinstein, a Miami protection lawyer and former federal prosecutor, who stated the disclosure of grand jury data is ruled by federal guidelines and can’t be launched with no courtroom order.

Moreover, “there’s a lot of redactions that will have to be made,” Weinstein stated, noting the variety of people who might need been related to Epstein through the investigation however weren’t themselves suspected or charged with crimes. “You’ve seen some of that already in the civil cases that were filed, and where courts have said, ‘No, this is what can be put on the docket.’”

After the Division of Justice dropped the case, lots of Trump’s most vocal allies, corresponding to U.S. Reps Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), overtly dissented from the administration and referred to as for the discharge of all recordsdata.

Earlier this week, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie launched the bipartisan Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act, which might require Bondi to make public all unclassified data, paperwork and investigative supplies that the Division of Justice holds on the Epstein case.

“We all deserve to know what’s in the Epstein files, who’s implicated, and how deep this corruption goes,” Massie stated in a press release. “Americans were promised justice and transparency. We’re introducing a discharge petition to force a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on releasing the COMPLETE files.”

A ballot carried out by the Economist/YouGov earlier this month discovered that 83% of Trump’s 2024 supporters favor the federal government releasing all materials associated to the Epstein case.

Wilner reported from Washington, Jarvie from Atlanta. Instances workers author Clara Harter contributed to this report.