US Attorney's office 'bewildered' by Pam Bondi's Jeffrey Epstein directive: report

Longtime investigators in the high-profile Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office are skeptical about what is expected of them now that Attorney General Pam Bondi has instructed them to pursue Democrats over possible ties to sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

According to a report from Politico’s Erica Orden, newly appointed U.S. Attorney Jay Claytonhas been directed by Bondi — at Donald Trump’s insistence — to target the president’s critics in what is clearly a political attack.

Noting that Clayton has never prosecuted a case, Politico is reporting that the people who now serve under him are approaching the investigation with a mixture of “bewilderment and trepidation,” according to insiders.

Orden is reporting, Clayton, “will face several dilemmas in handling the high-profile and politically sensitive case. Those include whether he’ll recuse himself, since he previously represented one of the targets of the probe, and how he’ll handle material if it incriminates Republicans.”

An additional complication is the upcoming release of the so-called Epstein files “that could reveal potentially embarrassing information about the very people Clayton is investigating.”

There are also concerns that Clayton will be answering directly to the president.

Politico is reporting, “Trump’s directive comes at a crucial time for Clayton, as the prosecutors who work for him are on edge about his ability to insulate the office from political interference,” with former prosecutor Rebecca Roiphe, who teaches criminal law and ethics at New York Law School, suggesting, “The question is how faithfully he plans to interpret his marching orders.”

Mimi Rocah, a respected former federal prosecutor, claimed Clayton may find resistance if he tries to use his staff as political “pawns,” adding, “I don’t know what the right thing is yet, but I know what is the wrong thing. The thing that was referred to SDNY by the attorney general is a limited look at certain people and not other people based on their political party. And that’s just obviously wrong.”

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