Sen. Durbin Says FBI Was Told to “Flag” Epstein Files That Mention Trump — Sparks New Oversight Fight
Senate Judiciary Committee leader Sen. Dick Durbin says FBI personnel were instructed to “flag” Epstein files that mentioned President Donald Trump, raising fresh questions about the Justice Department’s handling of the high-profile case. According to letters Durbin sent to top DOJ and FBI officials this week, the review targeted references to Trump and now demands answers on what happened next.
Durbin’s comments escalate tension between congressional Democrats and the Trump-aligned leadership at the Department of Justice. The dispute comes amid broader controversy over the release and transparency of hundreds of thousands of pages of evidence in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
In his letters to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says his office received information that roughly 1,000 FBI personnel were put on 24-hour shifts earlier this year to review roughly 100,000 Epstein-related records and were told to flag any records in which Trump was mentioned.
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Durbin asked each official to explain why the flagging instruction was issued and what became of the flagged files, noting “apparent contradictions” between public remarks by the Justice Department and the internal review practices described to his staff.
“There are serious questions about whether all relevant materials have been appropriately accounted for in this process,” Durbin wrote in one letter.
The claims have been reported by multiple news outlets, but the DOJ and FBI have not publicly confirmed the specific instruction to flag mentions of Trump or released details on the flagged records.
This development matters because it deepens scrutiny over how federal law enforcement is managing one of the most controversial investigations of the past decade, with critics saying transparency is essential to public trust.
Congressional Democrats have also asked the DOJ Inspector General to audit the chain of custody for the Epstein files to ensure they haven’t been tampered with or concealed.
The Justice Department’s inspector general has been asked to report on the handling and integrity of the Epstein records by early next year, and lawmakers are pushing for more disclosures about both the flagged materials and the broader trove of files.
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