Bondi's announcement came after an explosive Wall Street Journal report about a letter Trump sent to Epstein in 2003.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is coming under criticism from congressional Republicans growing increasingly frustrated with her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files scandal, which has badly divided the party and is now throwing work in the House off the rails.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Alcatraz on Thursday, where they are expected to announce plans to reopen the dilapidated California state prison that closed decades ago for being too expensive to operate and has since been transformed into a museum.

President Trump "would not recommend" that Attorney General Pam Bondi appoint a special prosecutor to handle the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.

The Justice Department has fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a federal prosecutor in Manhattan who worked on the cases against Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jeffrey Epstein,

According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 82 per cent of Democrats believe Donald Trump is hiding Jeffrey Epstein's so-called 'client list,' along with 62 per cent of Republicans.

The Trump administration is struggling to contain the fallout of a decision not to release any more records related to the wealthy financier’s sex trafficking investigation.

The sustained backlash has exposed the hazards of the attorney general’s focus on courting President Trump, with the assumption that he maintains the total backing of his base.