On July 18th, local time, it was learned that Dick Durbin, a member of the Democratic Party and a core member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, stating that Garland had pressured the FBI to mobilize approximately 1000 employees to review 100,000 documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, specifically marking all records mentioning Trump.
Dick Durbin, in his letter, cited information obtained from his office, claiming that FBI personnel were instructed to “mark” all references to Trump, with the goal of releasing the relevant materials in a short period of time. Durbin questioned the political motives behind this action and noted that Garland had previously claimed he had a “list of clients for Epstein” on his desk, but recent memorandums released by the Department of Justice and the FBI denied such a list existed.
Durbin requested the three officials to respond to multiple questions by August 1st, including whether there were logs mentioning Trump? What exactly was the “client list” referred to by Garland? Why did so many personnel need to be deployed for the review? And if any surveillance video was altered, what could be seen as evidence?
Epstein, a wealthy businessman, had close interactions with numerous American politicians and business figures. After being arrested for alleged sexual crimes in August 2019, he died in prison, presumed to have committed suicide. During his presidential campaign last year, Trump had promised to release the “client list” of Epstein, revealing the crimes committed by Epstein and the truth behind his death. On July 7th, the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a joint memorandum, declaring there was no “client list” and would not release more documents related to Epstein’s case. This conclusion has sparked internal doubts and dissatisfaction within Trump’s camp, with Trump having made several statements on the matter recently. (Xu Tao)