{"id":81175,"date":"2025-07-18T11:02:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=81175"},"modified":"2025-07-18T11:02:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T15:02:54","slug":"why-there-wont-be-a-special-prosecutor-for-epsteins-case-despite-what-trump-supporters-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/why-there-wont-be-a-special-prosecutor-for-epsteins-case-despite-what-trump-supporters-want\/81175\/","title":{"rendered":"Why there won\u2019t be a special prosecutor for Epstein\u2019s case, despite what Trump supporters want"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"text-token-text-primary w-full\" dir=\"auto\" data-testid=\"conversation-turn-30\" data-scroll-anchor=\"true\">\n<div class=\"text-base my-auto mx-auto pb-10 [--thread-content-margin:--spacing(4)] @[37rem]:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(6)] @[72rem]:[--thread-content-margin:--spacing(16)] px-(--thread-content-margin)\">\n<div class=\"[--thread-content-max-width:32rem] @[34rem]:[--thread-content-max-width:40rem] @[64rem]:[--thread-content-max-width:48rem] mx-auto flex max-w-(--thread-content-max-width) flex-1 text-base gap-4 md:gap-5 lg:gap-6 group\/turn-messages focus-visible:outline-hidden\">\n<div class=\"group\/conversation-turn relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn\">\n<div class=\"relative flex-col gap-1 md:gap-3\">\n<div class=\"flex max-w-full flex-col grow\">\n<div class=\"min-h-8 text-message relative flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 text-start break-words whitespace-normal [.text-message+&]:mt-5\" dir=\"auto\" data-message-author-role=\"assistant\" data-message-id=\"db98038a-fd51-46fc-8c64-8a088d246b40\" data-message-model-slug=\"gpt-4o\">\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[3px]\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full break-words dark\">\n<p data-start=\"248\" data-end=\"525\">The Trump administration is facing growing pressure from far-right supporters to appoint a special prosecutor to take over the case files related to Jeffrey Epstein. But despite the public outcry, there are major legal and constitutional reasons why that probably won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"527\" data-end=\"948\">According to <em data-start=\"540\" data-end=\"550\">Politico<\/em>, top officials at the Department of Justice, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputies, are firmly against the idea. They argue that appointing a special counsel in this situation would go against the U.S. Constitution. DOJ leaders like Todd Blanche, Stanley Woodward, and Emil Bove have made it clear they don\u2019t support creating independent prosecutors without a strong legal basis.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"950\" data-end=\"1463\">When asked about the idea, former President Donald Trump distanced himself, saying he had \u201cnothing to do with\u201d the decision. He placed the responsibility squarely on Bondi. Later, his press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump \u201cwould not recommend\u201d appointing a special counsel to investigate Epstein\u2019s files. Bondi herself has faced controversy in the past, including allegations of improper foreign ties and questionable political relationships, which have only added fuel to the fire for her critics.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"950\" data-end=\"1463\">\n<h2 data-start=\"1465\" data-end=\"1515\"><strong>So, why can\u2019t a special counsel just be appointed?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p data-start=\"1517\" data-end=\"1895\">Under current Department of Justice rules, special counsels are only used in active criminal cases <em data-start=\"1616\" data-end=\"1621\">and<\/em> when there\u2019s a clear conflict of interest that would prevent the DOJ from handling the case fairly. But Epstein died in 2019, and his criminal case is technically closed. Also, there\u2019s no evidence that Trump\u2019s DOJ has a conflict of interest in the matter, legally speaking.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1897\" data-end=\"2404\">Calls for a special counsel ramped up after Bondi said earlier this year that she had seen a so-called \u201cEpstein client list\u201d and was reviewing it. When she didn\u2019t make those files public, far-right commentator Laura Loomer demanded Bondi\u2019s removal and pushed for an outside prosecutor to take over. At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee began pressuring the DOJ to release Epstein-related documents, especially ones that name Trump, even calling the department\u2019s handling of the case a \u201ccoverup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2406\" data-end=\"2790\">Trump\u2019s own history with special counsels makes this situation even more complex. He\u2019s been the target of multiple high-profile investigations by special prosecutors, including Robert Mueller\u2019s Russia probe and Jack Smith\u2019s inquiries into the 2020 election and classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. After those experiences, Trump remains highly sceptical of the special counsel process.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"2792\" data-end=\"3144\">Legal scholars, such as Josh Blackman from South Texas College of Law, say that even <em data-start=\"2877\" data-end=\"2881\">if<\/em> a special counsel were appointed, it wouldn\u2019t change much. That\u2019s because the special counsel would still report to Bondi, meaning she\u2019d have the final say on what the public sees, or doesn\u2019t see. In short, it would be the same leadership, just with a new face.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"3146\" data-end=\"3373\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">So while the demand for transparency around Epstein\u2019s files isn\u2019t going away, the legal roadblocks and internal resistance from Trump\u2019s own DOJ make it very unlikely that a special prosecutor will be appointed anytime soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Trump administration is facing growing pressure from far-right supporters to appoint a special prosecutor to take over the case\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":81176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[168,750],"class_list":["post-81175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-trump"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}