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US President Donald Trump has asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to release "anything she thinks is credible" about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump's statement comes as he faces a rare backlash from supporters after he sought to draw a line under the issue.
Bondi has been sharply criticized by some members of Trump's political base after saying last week that there was no evidence that Epstein maintained a "client list" or was blackmailing powerful figures.
Over the weekend, Trump urged supporters not to "waste time and energy" on the controversy. But the president's allies, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, are calling for "transparency."
Epstein's death in 2019 in a US prison while awaiting federal trial was ruled a suicide.
But many members of Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement have theorized that details of the convicted pedophile's crimes with strong ties were kept secret in order to protect influential figures or intelligence agencies.
Trump praised the Attorney General's handling of the case, saying: "She's handled it very well and it's going to be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should publish."
When a reporter asked whether the attorney general had told Trump whether his name appeared in any of the records, he said: "No, no."
Later on Tuesday, the president again called for the release of "credible" information.
"Only really bad people, including fake news, want something like this to continue," Trump said.
Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
Last week he expressed his frustration in the Oval Office about the fixation on Epstein and called on everyone to move forward.
But some of the president's Republican allies are not neglecting the issue.
In an interview with American conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives Johnson said that he trusted President Trump and his team and that the White House was aware of facts that he did not know.
But he added that Bondi "needs to come forward and explain it to everyone."
"We need to make everything public and let people decide," Johnson said in an interview.
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told Benny Johnson in an interview that she "fully supports transparency on this issue."
She praised Bond's work as attorney general, but said leaders and elected officials must keep their promises to voters.
Pam Bondi has said that the memo released last week on Epstein by the Justice Department "speaks for itself."
Another conservative Republican, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, said that if more Epstein files are not released, a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the financier's crimes.
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said voters expect more accountability.
"I think it's completely understandable that the American people would want to know who he [Epstein] trafficked those women to and why they weren't prosecuted," Kennedy told NBC News.
But other influential Republicans, including Senator John Thune and Congressman Jim Jordan, pointed out their positions to President Trump.
"We should publish it all and let people decide," Johnson says.
At a news conference, Bondi sidestepped questions about the controversy. "Nothing about Epstein," she told reporters. "I'm not going to talk about Epstein."
She said last week's memo from the Justice Department, released jointly with the FBI, refusing to release additional files on Epstein and confirming his death by suicide, "speaks for itself."
On Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives tried unsuccessfully to force a vote on the release of the Epstein files.
Republicans pointed out that the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, also had access to the files but did not release them. / Adapted from the BBC Pamphlet/
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