Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s choose to run the US attorney’s workplace in Manhattan, is going through his largest test but.
Late Friday, after every week of destructive headlines, Attorney General Pam Bondi introduced on X that Clayton will lead a federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to distinguished Democrats. It got here hours after Trump directed Bondi, on Truth Social, to analyze Epstein’s 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.”
The task is the latest test for a US attorney’s workplace to hold out Trump’s political wishes, additional blurring the road that traditionally separated the White House from the Justice Department.
Alumni of the US attorney’s workplace for the Southern District of New York audibly groaned and expressed exasperation on the information of the investigation and potential controversy it should seemingly deliver when contacted by NCS Friday.
Some US attorneys have carried out Trump’s politically pushed mission. But not everybody has. Trump’s US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert, a profession prosecutor backed by the district judges, resigned underneath stress to deliver instances towards two of Trump’s perceived enemies.
Clayton will now should handle the politics of the Epstein story, his bosses in Washington, and the prosecutors within the workplace. It isn’t clear whether or not Clayton realized of the task from the X submit or had agreed to take it on.
A spokesman for SDNY declined to remark.
The Southern District, which has lengthy held a repute for its independence from Washington, can have its independence examined once more, however the workplace is very acquainted with the Epstein subject.
SDNY prosecutors throughout Trump’s first administration prosecuted Epstein and his confederate and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking minors. They interviewed dozens of survivors and didn’t discover proof to help expenses towards anybody else, individuals acquainted with the investigation stated.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 whereas awaiting trial. Maxwell was convicted of intercourse trafficking women with Epstein within the early 2000s. She is serving a 20-year sentence. During her interview this summer season with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Maxwell didn’t implicate anybody in intercourse trafficking.
Geoffrey Berman, who was US attorney for SDNY when it introduced expenses towards Epstein, informed NCS’s Jake Tapper in 2022, “The Southern District of New York doesn’t pull punches. And I can assure you if there was a chargeable case against anybody else it would have been brought,” He added, “If the Southern District didn’t bring a case there was no case to be brought.”
Prosecutors additionally had sought to interview Epstein’s long-time good friend Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the previous British prince, who had been accused by Virginia Giuffre of sexual assault, however have been rebuffed by his attorneys. The former prince denied any involvement however settled with Giuffre.
Clayton, a former accomplice at New York legislation agency Sullivan & Cromwell who has served on a number of company boards, was chosen by Trump earlier this 12 months to guide the workplace. While the Senate didn’t advance his nomination, in August, the district judges voted for him to serve within the function. His relationship with Trump dates again a number of years — they’ve golfed collectively and Clayton served because the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission throughout Trump’s first time period.
Since taking up SDNY, Clayton has stored a low profile. He assumed the place after the workplace weathered a public exodus of skilled prosecutors, together with the interim US attorney after the Justice Department, who revolted when the Justice Department dropped felony public corruption expenses towards New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
This summer season, Clayton confronted his first firestorm when the Justice Department officers in Washington fired Maurene Comey, an skilled and well-liked prosecutor within the workplace and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. Comey, who was one of many prosecutors who labored on the Epstein and Maxwell investigations, has sued the Justice Department over her termination. Clayton flew to Washington to strive unsuccessfully to save lots of her job, one individual with information of the matter stated.
At a securities regulation convention final week, Clayton used the discussion board to tout a case aligned with the Trump administration’s agenda, a take-down of drug sellers in New York’s Washington Square Park.
The White House has struggled to tamp down the Epstein story. The House Oversight Committee launched greater than 20,000 pages of paperwork from Epstein’s property this week unleashing a wave of headlines. Some Republicans are anticipated to interrupt ranks and vote subsequent week for a invoice calling for the Justice Department to launch its Epstein case information.
On Thursday, DOJ’s Blanche accused Epstein’s property of hiding paperwork, which they referred to as “inaccurate.”
The Justice Department hasn’t defined why it directed Clayton to open the investigation into these particular associates of Epstein and JPMorgan Chase. In July, the FBI and Justice Department issued a statement saying they carried out a “systematic review” of the case information and “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
By reopening the investigation, it may give DOJ grounds to cease the general public launch of its Epstein case information since they could now relate to an ongoing investigation.
Former prosecutors say the statute of limitations has seemingly run out on any attainable crimes apart from intercourse trafficking of minors. The latest trove of data, which included emails between Epstein and Summers and different emails that reference Trump and Clinton, didn’t recommend any of them have been concerned in felony exercise.
Previously JPMorgan Chase was sued for ignoring purple flags and persevering with to financial institution with Epstein at the same time as they filed suspicious exercise experiences with the Treasury Department. The financial institution terminated the connection in 2013, a number of years after Epstein pleaded responsible to state prostitution expenses.
In 2023 the financial institution paid $290 million to settle a category motion lawsuit from survivors of Epstein who alleged the monetary establishment turned a blind eye to uncommon money transactions they allege enabled Epstein’s intercourse trafficking. JPMorgan Chase additionally paid $75 million to settle with the US Virgin Islands. The financial institution didn’t admit or deny any wrongdoing in both settlement.
On Friday, Patricia Wexler, a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase, stated, “The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks. We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”