White House officials and other Trump allies said that the president, not the attorney general, has been the one having to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein.

The Justice Department formally requested Friday the unsealing of grand jury records tied to federal investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, according to a court filing.President Donald Trump announced the previous day that he ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the release of additional Epstein material following pushback from conservatives and others for more transparency in the case.

Amid a deepening furor from far-right supporters over his administration's reluctance to make public the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files, President Donald Trump on Thursday directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release "any and all" grand jury testimony related to the disgraced,

“He told me he has like 15 or 16 hours of videotape of Jeff. He was trying to help Jeff rehabilitate his reputation,” Mark Epstein said of Bannon. He said his meeting and conversation with Bannon took place in New York City after his brother’s death in prison — in either 2019 or 2020.

The lawsuit comes after The Wall Street Journal reported on a 50th birthday greeting to Jeffrey Epstein that Trump allegedly sent in 2003 that included a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.

The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal court to publicly release grand-jury transcripts from the sex-trafficking cases of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The $10 billion libel lawsuit was filed the same day that the Justice Department asked a judge to unseal grand jury transcripts tied to Jeffrey Epstein's case.

Despite recent claims by President Donald Trump that former Biden officials doctored files related to Jeffrey Epstein, many of the documents -- including those mentioning Trump and several prominent Democrats -- have been public for years.

Trump is facing mounting pressure from his MAGA base to publicly release Justice Department files from the Epstein case.

The Justice Department's July 18 motion to release Epstein grand jury transcripts followed a request Trump made to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

President Trump has filed a lawsuit over a story the Wall Street Journal published about an alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.

Calif., says President Trump should release the Epstein files but is silent on why Biden did not do so for four years. (Credit: Nicholas Ballasy)