This Week in Epstein News
Reporting from the Situation Room, Oversight appearances, and a damning poll.
This article is part seven of a series called The Epstein Administration, in which we break through the noise of the Epstein files, report the truth, and demand transparency and accountability.
The week of June 8 was chock-full of news about the Epstein files. With so many stories competing for media attention, no single story received its due attention. Home of the Brave collected the week’s most significant updates on the Epstein files to ensure that the news cycle does not drown out the extent to which the Trump administration continues to resist transparency and investigation. We’ll continue to consolidate Epstein news into one easily viewable place for our readers who remain interested and concerned about the Administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
Trump Formally Nominates Todd Blanche For Attorney General. On Monday, June 8, Trump formally nominated his former defense attorney Todd Blanche to serve as Attorney General. Blanche has served as Acting AG since Trump fired Bondi in April, and Blanche served as Deputy AG under Bondi.
Blanche must now submit paperwork to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which must wait 28 days after Blanche turns in all of his paperwork to schedule his confirmation hearing. Punchbowl News estimates that the fastest timeline would culminate in a committee vote on Blanche’s nomination at the end of July.
Epstein’s Former Executive Assistant Appears Before House Oversight. On Tuesday, June 9, Epstein’s executive assistant Lesley Groff testified before the House Oversight Committee. Groff oversaw a large portion of Epstein’s scheduling, travel, and day-to-day life for nearly twenty years, spanning from 2001 to 2019.
Epstein’s controversial 2008 plea deal and federal non-prosecution agreement included a release of federal criminal charges against Groff as Epstein’s co-conspirator.
A 2019 civil lawsuit named Groff as an enabler. But Groff has always maintained that she was not aware of Epstein’s crimes when they happened. Groff repeated this same claim on Tuesday to the House Oversight Committee. She told the committee members that Epstein was a “master manipulator” and that she sought to “dispel the false notions” that she “knowingly enabled or conspired with him to commit his evil acts” because “nothing could be further from the truth.”
When Oversight releases the transcript of her interview, we’ll fact-check her testimony here.
Comer Wants to Meet with Todd Blanche and Alan Dershowitz. On Tuesday, June 9, Comer announced that the House Oversight Committee will try to speak with Todd Blanche and Alan Dershowitz.
Dershowitz was a lawyer on Epstein’s defense team after Epstein’s initial 2006 arrest for solicitation of prostitution, and helped negotiate Epstein’s 2008 plea deal. Dershowitz told The Guardian: “Everything I did in relation to the Epstein case, I’m proud of.” Comer said that he will “give him an opportunity to come in” and answer the Committee’s questions.
Bill Gates Appears Before Oversight. On Wednesday, June 10, the House Oversight Committee interviewed Bill Gates about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Gates said in his opening statement, which he released to the public, that he “never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct” and “never victimized anyone.” The public has long questioned Gates’ relationship with Epstein, scrutiny that only increased after DOJ’s release of its files in January, which include several communications between the men.
Gates noted in his opening statement that he “never should have met with Epstein in the first place” and now understands that “even if he had delivered the new donors [to Gates’s global health efforts] he promised, it would not have justified associating with him.”
New Poll on Approval of Handling of Epstein Files. On Wednesday, June 10, Reuters/Ipsos released a poll finding that nearly 75% of the country believes that the federal government probably is hiding material related to Epstein’s alleged clients, and only 10% of the poll’s respondents say that the Trump administration “helped efforts to hold people connected to Epstein accountable.”
New York Times Article on Epstein Fallout in Trump Administration. On Wednesday, June 10, The New York Times released an excerpt from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s forthcoming book that details the Trump White House’s “freakout” about the Epstein files in the summer of 2025.
The article details top officials in the Trump administration’s attempts to handle the political fallout from the Epstein files debacle, featuring several meetings in the Situation Room. The article portrays then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, and then-Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino as heavily involved in political strategizing, alongside JD Vance and Trump’s White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
The Times article weighs the Trump administration’s PR motives against its aims of transparency, ultimately depicting an administration more concerned with image control than justice. Epstein survivors released a statement in response to the article with an emphasis on Blanche’s purported role, writing that “we deserve an attorney general who will use the full power of that office to pursue justice, protect others, and ensure that what happened to us never happens again.”
Robert Garcia Announces Requests to Comer for More Appearances. On Thursday, June 11, Ranking Democrat on House Oversight Robert Garcia announced that he asked Chairman Comer to bring before the Committee JD Vance, Susie Wiles, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Personnel Taylor Budowich, then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political, and Public Affairs James Blair, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Steven Cheung, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, Jr.
“Explosive new reporting from the New York Times,” Garcia wrote, necessitates immediate interviews with Vance, Blanche, Patel, and Wiles in particular.
Comer has yet to respond publicly to Garcia. Comer ultimately holds subpoena power, but any of the officials named in the New York Times article could voluntarily sit for an interview by the Committee, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick did.
Trump Announces Plans to Nominate Jay Clayton for DNI. On Thursday, June 11, Trump announced that he plans to nominate Jay Clayton for Director of National Intelligence to replace Tulsi Gabbard whose last day as DNI is June 19.
Clayton currently serves as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and in that role, and last November, Trump and Bondi charged him with investigating Epstein’s alleged ties to high-profile Democrats. Days after the passage of the Epstein Transparency Act, Clayton signed a court submission asking the judge to unseal grand jury materials related to the Epstein investigation, a gesture that the New York Times article referenced above depicts as strictly performative. Prior to serving as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Clayton served on the Board of Apollo Global Management, an appointment he received in connection with the resignation of Leon Black, the company’s co-founder and CEO, who stepped down amid controversy over his financial ties to Epstein. Clayton served as Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term.
Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy. We’ll continue to keep an eye on the Oversight Committee, the upcoming confirmations, and other Epstein-related events as they unfold. Let us know if you’d like weekly roundups on other topics and what those topics might be.
Somewhat irrelevant, but whenever I read stories about the current DNI head designate, I run into an odd culture shock. Jay Clayton was also the name of a wonderful but little known female avant-garde jazz singer, who passed away a couple of years ago. I keep picturing her in charge of the intelligence community.
So here we have another nominee for DNI with no intelligence experience, which runs contrary to the law. Are the Republicans going to confirm him anyway,ignoring the law, on the theory that he's not as bad as the prior nominee? What a joke!