Ex-AG Bill Barr recounts the moment when Trump was informed about Epstein’s death

WASHINGTON, DC: Former Attorney General Bill Barr offered an account of the moment he informed President Donald Trump about convicted offender Jeffrey Epstein being found dead while in federal custody. Barr recalled calling the president immediately and recounted Trump’s blunt and shocking reaction to the inmate’s apparent s**cide. 

Donald Trump's reaction to Jeffrey Epstein's death

Appearing on the ‘Ruthless’ podcast posted on Friday, Barr, who headed the Department of Justice under Trump from 2019 to 2020, recounted the moment when he informed Trump about Epstein’s death. 

"I called him as soon as I heard about it. I was sitting in my library at home, and my chief of staff called and said, 'Hey Bill, there’s been a real f**k up,’" Barr said through laughter. 

"He said, ‘It appears he committed suicide,’ and he was an important prisoner… Jesus Christ, what the hell’s going on here?  And we went through what he knew, which wasn’t much," Barr continued.

"So I called the president. The FBI was already looking at it. I called the inspector general and said, ‘Get all over this, investigate it.' The Bureau of Prisons was investigating, but, of course, it was their own system."

Barr said he informed Trump and said, "You won’t believe this, but Epstein committed suicide, he said, ‘Whaaaat?"

Donald Trump's outrage and aftermath

Co-host Josh Holmes assumed Trump was likely outraged when he heard the news.

"Yeah, he was outraged. I mean, he [said], ‘How in the hell did that happen?’ But he had been president long enough to know that the government is capable of these kinds of things," Barr said, laughing while recounting the episode.

"See, that’s the thing for the conspiracy theorists," Holmes said. "Anytime you think there is more sophistication than there is." 

Barr said that a mentor early in his career always said, "Don’t ascribe malice where stupidity is a sufficient explanation."

The newly released Epstein files

Trump’s Department of Justice released a trove of 'Epstein files' on Friday. The release included thousands of pages of investigative records tied to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, marking one of the most extensive disclosures related to the case so far.

The documents were published ahead of a statutory deadline set by Congress and include a sprawling digital archive of court filings, correspondence, and photographs. Some of the images had not previously been made public and were partially redacted.

According to the Justice Department, several images were described as graphic in nature, though no additional context was provided about when or where the photos were taken.

The newly released photographs showed Epstein and Maxwell socializing with high-profile figures, including Bill Clinton and pop star Michael Jackson. Officials did not clarify the circumstances surrounding those interactions.