By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – Few Americans, including just 21% of Republicans, think President Donald Trump’s administration has helped deliver justice in cases connected to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The results of the six-day poll, which closed on Monday, come as congressional investigators continue to probe the alleged crimes of Epstein, who served time in prison after pleading guilty in 2008 on prostitution charges including soliciting an underage girl. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
Just 10% of respondents in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said the Trump administration had helped efforts to hold people connected to Epstein accountable. Only one in five respondents said the alleged clients of Epstein have been held accountable.
Some of Epstein’s victims have claimed that rich and powerful people have been protected in official investigations.
The Trump administration fanned speculation with the release in January of millions of Justice Department investigation files that named or featured photographs of dozens of powerful people in business and government, including Trump himself.
Several corporate executives have stepped down this year after appearing in the files, but none have been charged with crimes.
Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of Microsoft, was one of those individuals and is scheduled to sit for a closed-door interview with congressional investigators on Wednesday.
The files released this year indicated that Gates and Epstein met repeatedly after Epstein pleaded guilty to the prostitution charges to discuss expanding Gates’ philanthropic efforts. A spokesperson for Gates’ philanthropy said in February that the billionaire “took responsibility for his actions” over ties to Epstein in a town hall meeting with employees.
The Epstein scandal has proven a persistent political headache for Trump, who long fanned the flames of suspicions around Epstein and has been dogged by criticism that his administration was failing to fully disclose all that the U.S. government knew about the case.
Some 84% of respondents in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll – including similar shares of Republicans, Democrats and independents – said the Epstein files showed that powerful people in America are rarely held accountable.
Three-quarters of the country think the federal government was probably still hiding information about Epstein’s alleged clients.
(Reporting by Jason Lange in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)
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