Despite public dismissals, why Trump and his team were privately obsessed with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal

WASHINGTON — A forthcoming book by two New York Times correspondents pulls back the curtain on the Trump administration’s internal battle to manage the Jeffrey Epstein files, revealing a White House that publicly dismissed the controversy as settled history while privately scrambling to contain it.

“Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan is set to publish in two weeks, and based on an hour-long interview with the former president in March, the work details how Trump and his aides repeatedly convened in the White House Situation Room to mitigate a crisis they told the country was old news.

The book’s reporting shows that despite repeatedly telling allies and the public that the Epstein matter was a relic of the past, officials gathered repeatedly to plot strategy. Vice President JD Vance was among the most vocal in urging the team to get ahead of forthcoming allegations, arguing that more detailed claims about the president were bound to surface and that the White House should move first. Some aides came away thinking Vance appeared panicked, while Chief of Staff Susie Wiles privately told colleagues he was a conspiracy theorist. Vance, however, insisted that Congress would ultimately force the release of the complete Epstein files regardless of what the White House did.

Another session focused on whether the president should pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking of a minor. Communications Director Steven Cheung cautioned that pardoning Maxwell would create a huge public-relations problem for the administration.

The internal tension spilled over into the Justice Department. President Trump asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue release of grand jury testimony related to the Epstein files, noting the enormous media attention the case had drawn. Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, a podcaster who had long demanded the files’ release, confronted Bondi during a meeting last summer, telling her she had mismanaged the Epstein files from the outset and calling the public discussion a charade filled with empty promises and talk about files sitting on a desk. FBI Director Kash Patel joined Bongino in urging a White House official that Bondi needed to resign.

A follow-up meeting with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was called to calm the waters, but Bongino accused the White House of ignoring his earlier warnings and predicted the exact sequence of events that unfolded. He stormed out of the Situation Room, resigned in December, and returned to his podcasting career — where he has said he felt he had given up millions of dollars. Trump fired Bondi in April.

The Epstein files also came up at a conservative gathering, where the president scolded activist Charlie Kirk for allowing one of his events to turn into a gripe session over the documents. Kirk was killed in September.

Separately, the book reports a second-hand allegation that has drawn media attention but is viewed by officials as lacking credibility. A woman identified by The New York Times claimed in an email that she knew another woman who alleged former president Trump had a special focus on nipples. One aide close to the White House described the exchange as extraordinary and difficult to parse.

Beyond the headlines, the reporting captures a broader dynamic: Trump resisted his advisors’ recommendations at every turn. By last summer, he was publicly calling the Epstein matter a scam and a hoax orchestrated by Democrats, while privately fretting about the political fallout. He warned fellow Republicans pushing for full document release that they were weaklings and later helped remove them in primary contests. Aides debated whether to post the documents online, but Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche warned the files included child pornography that barred public release. A memo from Trump’s pollster, Tony Fabrizio, indicated that “Epstein files” ranked as the sixth most-mentioned negative issue in focus groups — behind inflation and foreign policy, but ahead of crime and the military.

The controversy also reached the national stage when Bill Gates testified before congressional panels this week. The Microsoft co-founder said he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes but acknowledged poor judgment in his association with the financier. Gates told lawmakers he was pressured by Epstein after the financier discovered Gates had been unfaithful to his wife; the two are now divorced.

The book’s release is expected to reignite debate over the Epstein files and the Trump administration’s handling of the matter. One political analyst said the new reporting ensures the issue won’t fade from the headlines quietly.