President Donald Trump was reportedly told in May that his name appears multiple times in the trove of documents the Department of Justice possesses about accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein—a bombshell revelation that sheds light into why Trump is so desperate to keep the files under wraps.

According to the Wall Street Journal’s report on Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi personally told Trump at a meeting that his name is among the files.

From the report: 

[Bondi and her deputy] told the president at the meeting that the files contained what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past, some of the officials said. One of the officials familiar with the documents said they contain hundreds of other names.

The WSJ report shows Trump lied just a few days ago, when reporters asked him point blank if he was told that his name appears in the documents.

“No, no,” Trump said when asked if Bondi told him his name was in the files. 

Trump added, “I would say that these files were made up by [former FBI Director James] Comey, they were made up by [former President Barack] Obama, they were made up by the Biden …,” before trailing off.

It’s not just Bondi who has reportedly acknowledged that Trump’s name is in the files.

According to the WSJ:

FBI Director Kash Patel has privately told other government officials that Trump’s name appeared in the files, according to people close to the administration.

Trump, for his part, has been going berserk in the weeks since his administration announced that there are no more major Epstein files to be released. 

That announcement has roiled the MAGA base, which has been told for years that the government was in possession of information that implicated powerful people in crimes involving the underage girls Epstein was accused of trafficking.

An enraged Trump even called his own supporters, who are demanding the government make all of the files public, “weaklings” whose support he no longer wants.

Polling shows the scandal is taking a toll on Trump, with large majorities of Americans believing the government is hiding information about Epstein. Because of that, Trump is desperately trying to change the subject, dangling red meat to his base—including a baseless allegation that Obama committed “treason.”

But even Trump’s biggest supporters say that’s not enough, and that the files must be released.

“Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies,” Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia wrote in a post Monday on X. “They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else.”

However, congressional GOP leadership has taken Trump’s side in the matter, refusing to pass legislation that compels the administration to release its files on Epstein. 

In fact, House Speaker Mike Johnson is sending the House home unexpectedly early, to avoid being forced to vote on legislation that forces the files into public. But Johnson’s efforts have not quelled dissent in the GOP ranks. The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday issued a subpoena for convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to testify before the committee. 

Ultimately, the WSJ report makes clear that leadership is trying to protect Trump from being implicated.

You won’t catch us saying this much, but turns out, Elon Musk seems to have been right.