US President Donald Trump was briefed that his name appears in the Epstein files, according to reports.
Trump was told by US Attorney General Pam Bondi that he appears in the files related to investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during the US Department of Justice's review of the case in May.
Reports in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the New York Times and CNN cited unnamed anonymous sources, and did not specify the context of the references to Trump's name in the documents.
It is typical for law enforcement to collect information about people who are not suspected of any wrongdoing while following leads during a criminal investigation.
But asked earlier this month if Bondi had told him he was mentioned in the files, Trump told reporters: "No, no. She's given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen."
The reports have been branded "fake news" by the White House, as communications director Steven Cheung said Trump had ejected Epstein from his Florida club Mar-a-Lago for "being a creep".
Cheung said: "This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by the Wall Street Journal."
He was referring to the WSJ's recent report which alleged he sent Epstein a crude letter featuring a drawing of a naked woman to mark the convicted paedophile's 50th birthday in 2003.
Trump has denied writing the letter or drawing the picture, and has since filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the WSJ as well as Rupert Murdoch.
The US president has also removed the WSJ from the press pool covering his upcoming visit to Scotland.
Trump is widely known to have been friendly with Epstein during the 1990s and 2000s, and once described him as a "terrific guy" who liked women "on the younger side".
In 2019, Trump told reporters that he had not spoken to Epstein in 15 years after a "falling out" between the pair.
The reports that Trump's name is included in the Epstein files have increased pressure on his administration to release more material about Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
However, the WSJ reports that Trump was told back in May that the Justice Department did not plan to release anymore documents related to the investigation into Epstein because the material contained child pornography and victims' personal information.
Billionaire Twitter/X owner Elon Musk, a former ally of Trump, claimed last month that Trump was in the Epstein files, just minutes after Trump had suggested on his social media platform Truth Social that he would cancel all of Musk’s US government contracts.
