• Bank defends its actions after president directs DOJ investigation into financial ties with sex trafficker
• Trump calls for probe of JPMorgan, Clinton, and others following release of damaging emails
• House vote on releasing all Epstein files expected next week amid bipartisan pressure

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TDR) — JPMorgan Chase issued a forceful response Friday after President Donald Trump directed the Department of Justice to investigate the banking giant’s relationship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, marking an escalation in the ongoing controversy over Epstein-related documents.

Trump announced the directive on Truth Social, stating he would ask Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s involvement with former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, tech investor Reid Hoffman, and JPMorgan Chase.

Trump’s directive

“Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans, to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN, and all of their other failures, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him,” Trump wrote.

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Trump characterized the matter as “another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam,” claiming records show that these men “spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.'”

Bank defends its actions

Patricia Wexler, a JPMorgan spokesperson, responded swiftly to Trump’s announcement.

“The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,” Wexler said in a statement. “We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts. We ended our relationship with him years before his arrest on sex trafficking charges.”

The New York Times reported that JPMorgan Chase alerted the government to suspicious banking behavior weeks after Epstein’s death in 2019. The report flagged tens of millions of dollars in potentially suspicious transactions involving Epstein and prominent Wall Street and business figures, though the nature of the transactions and Epstein’s role in them remains unclear.

Congressional pressure mounts

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Last month, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sent letters to JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, and Bank of New York Mellon requesting information about more than $1.5 billion in suspicious financial transactions flagged by the banks and tied to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

“Can JPMorgan Chase & Co help Congress understand how Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their co-conspirators were able to use your bank and others to conduct more than $1.5 billion in suspicious financial transactions to operate their international sex trafficking ring for years without ever being caught?” Raskin wrote.

JPMorgan paid $290 million in 2023 to settle a class action lawsuit filed by Epstein’s survivors that alleged the bank turned a blind eye to unusual cash transactions. The bank also paid $75 million to settle with the U.S. Virgin Islands. JPMorgan did not admit wrongdoing in either settlement.

Damaging emails surface

Trump’s directive came days after House Democrats released emails from Epstein’s estate that repeatedly mentioned the president. In one 2011 email to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote that an alleged victim “spent hours at my house” with Trump, adding that Trump “knew about the girls.”

The emails referred to Trump as “dirty Donald” and suggested Epstein possessed damaging information about the president. “Its wild. because I am the one able to take him down,” Epstein wrote in a 2018 email.

Files vote looming

The House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on releasing all Epstein files currently held by the Department of Justice. The discharge petition received bipartisan support, including from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), despite White House pressure to block it.

Trump earlier this week attempted to convince Republicans to block the petition, even holding a Situation Room meeting with key GOP lawmakers. The effort failed when the petition reached its decisive 218th signature.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. His former girlfriend Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking minors.

Should the Department of Justice release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking operation?

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