Epstein investigation is latest test for US attorney Jay Clayton

By Kara Scannell, CNN

(CNN) — Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick to run the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, is facing his biggest test yet.

Late Friday, after a week of negative headlines, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X that Clayton will lead a federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats. It came hours after Trump directed Bondi, on Truth Social, to investigate Epstein’s relationship with “Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”

The assignment is the latest test for a US attorney’s office to carry out Trump’s political desires, further blurring the line that historically separated the White House from the Justice Department.

Alumni of the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York audibly groaned and expressed exasperation at the news of the investigation and potential controversy it will likely bring when contacted by CNN Friday.

Some US attorneys have carried out Trump’s politically driven mission. But not everyone has. Trump’s US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert, a career prosecutor backed by the district judges, resigned under pressure to bring cases against two of Trump’s perceived enemies.

Clayton will now have to manage the politics of the Epstein story, his bosses in Washington, and the prosecutors in the office. It isn’t clear whether Clayton learned of the assignment from the X post or had agreed to take it on.

A spokesman for SDNY declined to comment.

The Southern District, which has long held a reputation for its independence from Washington, will have its independence tested again, but the office is very familiar with the Epstein issue.

SDNY prosecutors during Trump’s first administration prosecuted Epstein and his accomplice and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking minors. They interviewed dozens of survivors and did not find evidence to support charges against anyone else, people familiar with the investigation said.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking girls with Epstein in the early 2000s. She is serving a 20-year sentence. During her interview this summer with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Maxwell did not implicate anyone in sex trafficking.

Geoffrey Berman, who was US attorney for SDNY when it brought charges against Epstein, told CNN’s Jake Tapper in 2022, “The Southern District of New York doesn’t pull punches. And I can assure you if there was a chargeable case against anybody else it would have been brought,” He added, “If the Southern District didn’t bring a case there was no case to be brought.”

Prosecutors also had sought to interview Epstein’s long-time friend Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former British prince, who had been accused by Virginia Giuffre of sexual assault, but were rebuffed by his lawyers. The former prince denied any involvement but settled with Giuffre.

Clayton, a former partner at New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell who has served on several corporate boards, was selected by Trump earlier this year to lead the office. While the Senate did not advance his nomination, in August, the district judges voted for him to serve in the role. His relationship with Trump dates back several years — they’ve golfed together and Clayton served as the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term.

Since taking over SDNY, Clayton has kept a low profile. He assumed the position after the office weathered a public exodus of experienced prosecutors, including the interim US attorney after the Justice Department, who revolted when the Justice Department dropped criminal public corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

This summer, Clayton faced his first firestorm when the Justice Department officials in Washington fired Maurene Comey, an experienced and well-liked prosecutor in the office and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. Comey, who was one of the prosecutors who worked on the Epstein and Maxwell investigations, has sued the Justice Department over her termination. Clayton flew to Washington to try unsuccessfully to save her job, one person with knowledge of the matter said.

At a securities regulation conference last week, Clayton used the forum to tout a case aligned with the Trump administration’s agenda, a take-down of drug dealers in New York’s Washington Square Park.

The White House has struggled to tamp down the Epstein story. The House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate this week unleashing a wave of headlines. Some Republicans are expected to break ranks and vote next week for a bill calling for the Justice Department to release its Epstein case files.

On Thursday, DOJ’s Blanche accused Epstein’s estate of hiding documents, which they called “inaccurate.”

The Justice Department hasn’t explained why it directed Clayton to open the investigation into those specific associates of Epstein and JPMorgan Chase. In July, the FBI and Justice Department issued a statement saying they conducted a “systematic review” of the case files and “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

By reopening the investigation, it could give DOJ grounds to stop the public release of its Epstein case files since they may now relate to an ongoing investigation.

Former prosecutors say the statute of limitations has likely run out on any possible crimes other than sex trafficking of minors. The latest trove of records, which included emails between Epstein and Summers and other emails that reference Trump and Clinton, did not suggest any of them were involved in criminal activity.

Previously JPMorgan Chase was sued for ignoring red flags and continuing to bank with Epstein even as they filed suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department. The bank terminated the relationship in 2013, several years after Epstein pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges.

In 2023 the bank paid $290 million to settle a class action lawsuit from survivors of Epstein who alleged the financial institution turned a blind eye to unusual cash transactions they allege enabled Epstein’s sex trafficking. JPMorgan Chase also paid $75 million to settle with the US Virgin Islands. The bank did not admit or deny any wrongdoing in either settlement.

On Friday, Patricia Wexler, a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase, said, “The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks. We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts.”

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