Top Senate Democrat Dick Durbin revealed that the FBI launched a massive operation to dig through the Epstein files and ‘flag’ any mention of Donald Trump.
Durbin said that about 1,000 FBI employees were ordered to work 24-hour shifts and review about 100,000 pages of documents related to the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.
The senator also noted his staffers had been told ‘that these personnel were instructed to “flag” any records in which President Trump was mentioned.’
Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, revealed the details in a letter to FBI director Kash Patel.
The letter was written in response to a July 7 memo from the Department of Justice that ‘directly contradicts’ previous statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi.
He then included a laundry list of statements made by AG Bondi that promised to release the supposed ‘client list’ along with other incriminating evidence.
‘Who made the decision to reassign hundreds of New York Field Office personnel to this March review of Epstein-related records?’ Durbin asked.
‘Why were personnel told to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned?’
The FBI told CNBC it had ‘no comment’ when reached.
Trump’s relationship with the late billionaire pedophile has again come under scrutiny after The Wall Street Journal published a ‘bawdy’ birthday letter allegedly sent by the president.
Top Senate Democrat Dick Durbin (pictured) revealed the scope of the FBI’s operation to dig through the Epstein files and demanded they ‘flag’ any mention of Donald Trump
The president’s relationship with the late billionaire pedophile (pictured together in 1997) has come under scrutiny again amid the publishing of an alleged letter Trump wrote Epstein in 2003 wishing him a happy birthday
Trump has virulently denied he wrote the missive and sued the publishers for at least $10 billion in federal court.
Durbin, 80, wrote that ‘FBI was pressured to put approximately 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division… on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records in order to produce more documents that could then be released on an arbitrarily short deadline.’
He claimed that the work ‘was haphazardly supplemented by hundreds of FBI New York Field Office personnel, many of whom lacked the expertise to identify statutorily-protected information regarding child victims and child witnesses or properly handle FOIA requests.’
Durbin wrote the letter in response to the bombshell WSJ story that implied the letter was part of documents submitted in Epstein’s criminal case.
He stated his skepticism that ‘despite tens of thousands’ of hours of work, it took Bondi’s DOJ ‘more than three additional months’ to say no client list was found and that there had been no whistleblower, which Bondi publicly said existed in February.
Durbin, who is not running for re-election at the end of his term in 2026, asked several questions of the top Trump officials as a powerful member of the judiciary committee, which has FBI and DOJ oversight.
Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to Kash Patel (pictured), Dan Bongino and Pam Bondi over why the release of the supposed ‘Epstein files’ had not lived up to countless prior promises they had made in conservative media
Trump and Epstein chatting at a social event
Trump followed through on his promise to sue the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch for $10billion after the paper reported on his alleged involvement with a 50th birthday gift to Jeffrey Epstein.
The filing, obtained by DailyMail.com, shows the libel suit filed in the Southern District of Florida against WSJ, Dow Jones, Rupert Murdoch and the paper’s reporters who published the story in what Trump called a ‘powerhouse’ suit on Truth Social.
Trump is requesting a jury trial and is suing ‘for damages, punitive damages, court costs, and such other relief as the Court deems just and proper, not to be less than $10 billion dollars.’
A bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday claimed Trump wrote a ‘bawdy’ 50th birthday card to Epstein which concluded: ‘Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret ‘.
The newspaper said it had reviewed a typewritten letter bearing Trump´s signature, framed by the seemingly hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, that Ghislaine Maxwell included in a 2003 birthday album.
Trump has denied writing the letter or drawing the picture, calling it ‘false, malicious, and defamatory .’
He posted to Truth Social Friday: ‘We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal. This historic legal action is being brought against the so-called authors of this defamation, the now fully disgraced WSJ, as well as its corporate owners and affiliates, with Rupert Murdoch and Robert Thomson (whatever his role is!) at the top of the list.’
Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pose with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago
The letter also addressed Attorney General Pam Bondi (pictured left) and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino (pictured right)
Donald Trump followed through on his promise to sue the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch after the paper reported on his alleged involvement with a 50th birthday gift to Jeffrey Epstein
Trump cited his successes against ABC News and CBS News’ 60 Minutes in prior lawsuits.
He added: ‘This lawsuit is filed not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media. I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case. Thank you for your attention to this matter. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’
‘We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit,’ a spokesman for the paper’s owners told The New York Times.
In the text, the paper claimed Trump wrote: ‘We have certain things in common, Jeffrey’ and that both of them know that ‘there must be more to life than having everything’.
The message is said to have included an X-rated drawing of a naked woman, with Trump’s famous signature squiggle written across her genitals to mimic pubic hair.
According to the Journal, the naked woman appeared to have been hand-drawn with a marker, with a pair of arcs indicating the woman’s breasts and a squiggly signature reading ‘Donald’ appearing in her pubic region, mimicking hair.
‘I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women,’ Trump told the WSJ. ‘It’s not my language. It’s not my words.’
But it once again raises questions about the friendship between Trump and Epstein.
But last week following the memo from his DOJ, which sparked a MAGA civil war, Trump became irate and said during a cabinet meeting that everyone should move on.
He has now called his supporters ‘weaklings’ for believing a Democrat-run ‘hoax’.
The Wall Street Journal bombshell, which Trump thoroughly denounced on social media, comes amid major MAGA outrage over a DOJ and FBI report published last week indicating no further Epstein-related files will be released.
Since then, Republicans in Congress have faced pressure from their constituents to force the DOJ to release the files and conservative influencers have been pressuring lawmakers to act.
Trump has also urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to release additional documents, though the push from Capitol Hill could obtain documents the AG or Trump does not want released.
The late financier was charged in 2008 for soliciting prostitution with an underaged girl and received a modest jail sentence in Florida. He was later charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in 2019. He hung himself in prison awaiting his trial, feds say.
However, his socializing with the likes of Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hordes of other A-list celebrities, including Trump, have prompted many to believe that these ‘elites’ could have been involved in Epstein’s crimes.