President of the United States Donald Trump CNN reportedly said it had launched a “massive leak hunt” within the company. White House A forthcoming book claims that several senior administration officials held secret meetings about Jeffrey Epstein’s files without Trump’s knowledge.
Controversy sparks after New York Times publishes excerpt Regime Change: Donald Trump’s Imperial Presidency Forthcoming book.
According to excerpts, a group of Trump’s top officials met in the White House Situation Room on July 17, 2025, just days after the Justice Department and FBI released a memo saying that no Epstein “client list” existed and reiterating that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide.
Who reportedly attended the meeting?
The book states that Vice President J.D. Vance, White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Communications Director Steven Chang, and the then Attorney General Pam BundyThen-Deputy Attorney General Todd Branch and FBI Director Kash Patel were also present.
Haberman and Swann said the group met to discuss how to appease Trump’s MAGA base following backlash over the administration’s handling of the Epstein documents.
“This is a problem in itself, because he clearly is not,” the authors wrote, describing concerns within the administration that Trump seemed unsympathetic to demands for greater transparency.
The report also claimed that Vance offered to set up interviews with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. According to the excerpt, Maxwell’s goal was to publicly state that Trump had nothing to do with any alleged Epstein client list or criminal activity.
Trump has always denied wrongdoing related to Epstein and has not been charged with any crime by law enforcement authorities.
Pursuit of White House leaks intensifies
After the excerpt was published, CNN reported that Trump had begun actively searching for the source behind the leak.
The leaks sparked turmoil within the government, particularly because several officials allegedly discussed politically sensitive strategies without informing the president, Mirror America reported.
The book further claims that Vance “appeared panicked” by the political fallout surrounding the Epstein documents, which reportedly led to divisions within Trump’s support base.
Haberman and Swann also wrote that some senior officials believe Vance embraced conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein and an alleged elite network protected by powerful people.
