Former Attorney General Pam Bondi triggered a crisis inside the Trump White House when she distributed binders containing Jeffrey Epstein files to conservative influencers without proper vetting, including references to the president’s name, according to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporters.

Influencer Briefing Derailed by Unvetted Documents

On February 27, 2025, the White House Communications Office organized a high-profile briefing for prominent MAGA influencers including Mike Cernovich, Liz Wheeler, Collin Rugg, and DC Draino. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio walked the group through the administration’s agenda in the Roosevelt Room. Trump himself presented the influencers with custom challenge coins in the Oval Office. One participant called it the best day of his life.

Then Bondi arrived with her team carrying boxes of binders. Her aides claimed the FBI had prepared the materials with revelatory details about Epstein. One staffer boasted the release would be epic. But nobody in the White House had reviewed the contents beforehand. According to the book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, panic erupted when officials realized what was being distributed.

Trump’s Name Discovered in Materials

White House officials frantically searched through the binders as Bondi’s staff handed them out. Within pages, one official found Trump’s name prominently displayed in the middle of a page. The timing created additional problems because British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was visiting the White House that same day for a scheduled press conference with Trump. If news broke about the Epstein files before the joint appearance, reporters would abandon questions about the diplomatic visit.

A Trump aide moved quickly to contain the situation, hustling the influencers out of the building. The official told them the binder contents were embargoed until after the Starmer press conference, promising follow-up discussions later. But the containment effort failed when influencers snapped selfies holding their binders in front of the White House and immediately posted the photos to social media.

Crisis Management Fails as Story Spreads

The social media posts created exactly the wave of anticipation and speculation about the Epstein files that White House officials had desperately tried to prevent. The lack of coordination between the Justice Department and White House communications team exposed internal dysfunction at the highest levels. The incident demonstrated how even carefully planned media events can spiral out of control when cabinet officials operate independently without proper oversight or approval from the president’s inner circle.