Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) put new pressure on Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Jeffrey Epstein case by dumping a road map to the pedophile's financial network into her lap as President Donald Trump begged his followers to move on from the scandal.
The Oregon Democrat and his investigators have been probing the late financier's networks and discovered four big banks had flagged $1.5 billion in suspicious money transfers to the Treasury Department involving Epstein that appeared to be linked to his sex-trafficking ring. Wyden went public with those findings last week and then handed his evidence to Bondi, reported The New Republic.
“I am convinced that the DOJ ignored evidence found in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Epstein file, a binder that contains extensive details on the mountains of cash Epstein received from prominent businessmen that Epstein used to finance his criminal network,” Wyden writes in his letter to the attorney general.
Wyden suggested seven lines of inquiry that DOJ investigators could follow to expose Epstein's financial ties with global elites, and his letter notifies Bondi that the federal government is already in possession of much of that evidence.
"Epstein clearly had access to enormous financing to operate his sex trafficking network, and the details on how he got the cash to pay for it are sitting in a Treasury Department filing cabinet," the senator told Bondi.
Banks file suspicious activity reports, or SARS, with the Treasury Department, and Wyden said his staff has documented filings on more than 4,725 wire transfers involving Epstein's accounts. His letter to Bondi makes clear the Trump administration is sitting on a mountain of evidence just waiting to be investigated.
"I'm handing Trump's DOJ a ready-made case with seven different lines of investigation for them to follow the money on Jeffrey Epstein," Wyden tweeted. "Trump's DOJ needs to demand more documents and more answers from banks that worked with Epstein. That includes investigating how Epstein used shady, sanctioned Russian banks to send hundreds of millions of payments likely linked to sex trafficking."
"My investigators also found that several ultra-wealthy Wall Street financiers, including Leon Black, paid Jeffrey Epstein hundreds of millions of dollars," the senator added. "There's a clear paper trail here between Epstein and these guys, and DOJ needs to follow the money to figure out why."
A Treasury spokesperson claims that Wyden never asked the Biden administration for the documents he now wants released, but an in-camera review by the senator's staff shows he sought that information from President Joe Biden and was given access – but a Republican senator blocked him from seeking a subpoena for their release.
"A Wyden aide tells [The New Republic] that in 2024, soon after Wyden’s staff viewed these Treasury documents in camera, Wyden actively moved to get the Senate to subpoena their release," wrote TNR's Greg Sargent. "Because Finance Committee rules require bipartisan support for subpoenas, Wyden sought the backing of several GOP senators on the committee, including now-chairman Mike Crapo and Marsha Blackburn. But none would support a subpoena, the aide says."
"That also has very dark implications, and you’d think MAGA would now intensify pressure on Senate Republicans to seek access to these Treasury documents as well," Sargent added.
MAGA influencers have traded on Epstein conspiracy theories for years, hinting that the convicted sex trafficker had evidence to destroy Trump's opposition, but now some of them – including FBI Director Kash Patel and Turning Point USA head Charlie Kirk – are losing their enthusiasm for the matter, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) just sent lawmakers home rather than face another vote for the files' release.
"That’s why moves like this one by Wyden are important, and why Democrats should use their limited power to do more of them," Sargent wrote. "This would keep the spotlight focused where it counts: The Trump administration possesses large amounts of information about Epstein’s corrupt and depraved dealings with unidentified members of the global elite, and Trump and his top advisers — with active GOP acquiescence — are now all in on the elite cover-up."