In a move that may quell much of the criticism of the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case — both inside his administration and among the GOP base — President Donald Trump announced late Thursday that he was ordering the grand jury testimony in the case unsealed.
“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 wrote on Truth Social shortly after 9 p.m. Eastern Time.
“This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”
BREAKING: President Trump announces on Truth Social that he has asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony” on Jeffrey Epstein. pic.twitter.com/yPhtSRKafm
— MAGA Resource (@MAGAResource) July 18, 2025
The move came on the same day that The Wall Street Journal reported Epstein received a birthday letter in 2003 which included Trump’s name and “contain[ed] several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker.”
Attorney General Bondi confirmed that she would move on Friday to release the testimony.
“President Trump—we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts,” she said in a post on X.
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
Should Trump keep going and release ALL the Epstein files?
The move comes after Trump’s Department of Justice came to the official conclusion that there was no Epstein “client list” and that the financier killed himself while in prison on charges of sex trafficking in 2019. Sources close to Trump also said the president was averse to releasing any official list of Epstein’s contacts because it likely included innocent parties who had merely met with Epstein, not had sexual relations with the often-underage girls he reportedly trafficked.
However, this met with strong resistance from within the administration — including FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, who reportedly threatened to resign over the findings. Furthermore, the decision churned up old allegations that Epstein was an intelligence asset, which is why he faced a light sentence in his first run-in with the law and wasn’t subsequently arrested for what authorities said was a massive human trafficking operation until years later.
Criticism was amplified when a video released of Epstein’s jail cell on the night he died — which authorities previously asserted did not exist — was found to be missing a minute of footage.
Bondi initially blamed this on a glitch within the system.
“So every night the video is reset. And every night should have the same minute missing,” Bondi said of the missing footage. “So we’re looking for that video, to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night.”
However, analysis of the video initially showed that the “raw” data was likely manipulated via video editing software. Further analysis of the metadata not only revealed that to be true but also that the missing footage was actually three times longer than initially thought.
The final straw, however, appeared to be the Journal hit piece.
The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy—like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly “Donald” below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.
The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story,” he said.
“I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,” he said. “It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”
However, the report in addition to the continuing internecine squabble allowed congressional Democrats — previously unconcerned with Epstein during President Joe Biden’s administration, it should be noted — to make considerable noise over what they called the current administration’s lack of transparency.
If House Republicans won’t use their subpoena power to uncover what Trump may be hiding in the Epstein files—Democrats will dig up the buried truth. pic.twitter.com/p1OvcgvVrU
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) July 14, 2025
The American people deserve to know the extent of Emil Bove’s involvement in withholding the Epstein files. pic.twitter.com/6gSwBibkZ6
— Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBooker) July 17, 2025
Emil Bove, by the by, is a Trump judicial nomination the Democrats are desperate to stop because he’s insufficiently squishy; the invocation of Epstein is just another pointless, desperate “Spartacus Moment” from the senior senator from Attentionville.
However, all that being said, America deserves to know the truth about Jeffrey Epstein — and the grand jury testimony, released in full with no unnecessary redactions, would be a huge start to both finding out the facts and ending this distraction drain on Trump’s agenda. Now, we wait to see whether the execution matches the intention.
If Bondi’s word is (pun unintended) bond, it shouldn’t be long before we find out. At the very least, however, this is a good (re)start.
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