Vance, Bondi, Patel to huddle at VP residence for Epstein strategy meeting

Vice President JD Vance is hosting senior Trump administration officials at his residence in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday evening for a strategy dinner to discuss how the administration should handle the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein fallout and move forward, Fox News has learned.

Vance has invited U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to dinner at the sprawling, 12-acre residence. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is also expected to be in attendance, according to sources familiar. 

News of the dinner was first reported by CNN. It comes after weeks of unsuccessful attempts by senior Trump officials to quell mounting public pressure to release more information related to the Epstein investigation — underscoring the sticking power of the Epstein scandal despite a fast-moving news cycle. It has also earned sustained attention from some Trump supporters, who have been among the leading voices in demanding the release of additional information.

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The Justice Department and the White House have also struggled to coordinate their messaging on the ongoing fallout from the Epstein scandal.

Most recently, the White House and DOJ have been at odds over whether to release an audio file and transcript from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s interview with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell late last month, senior administration officials confirmed.

It is unclear how long the tape and transcripts from the interviews between Blanche and Maxwell are, but they do exist, Fox News has learned, and discussions are underway today involving whether — and when — to release them. 

Anything released by the Trump administration would almost certainly involve heavily redacting any identifying information of individuals named in the transcript in order to protect victims — something Bondi has stressed in public on multiple occasions.

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Pressure to release information has been unrelenting in the weeks since July 7, when the Justice Department said in an unsigned memo that it did not plan to release more information about the investigation. The Justice Department and FBI said in a memo last month that investigators had not found a so-called client list from Epstein, as had been suggested widely online and apparently by some Trump officials earlier this year. 

Asked on Fox News in February about news that DOJ would release “the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients,” and when that would happen, Bondi replied, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.” 

Fox News Digital reported yesterday that DOJ officials have both the audio and transcript and, as of yesterday, they were considering releasing the full transcript of the Blanche/Maxwell interview in Tallahassee.

This is a developing news story. Check back for updates.