President Donald Trump on Friday suggested there is no "smoking gun" in the Jeffrey Epstein files as he seeks to downplay a case that's long animated his MAGA supporters."If there was a 'smoking gun' on Epstein,

“The calls for a special counsel are odd more generally because the special counsel regulations require an investigation into a criminal matter,” he said. “Epstein is dead and Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted. There’s no indication that there is any active DOJ criminal investigation here.”

Donald Trump has asked the US attorney-general to unseal grand jury transcripts relating to Jeffrey Epstein as the administration tried to contain a backlash over its handling of files related to the late convicted paedophile.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche filed motions urging the court to release the Epstein transcripts as well as those in the case against convicted British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell a day after President Donald Trump directed the Justice Department to do so.

The Trump administration’s chaotic handling of the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files continued Friday as the Justice Department asked a federal judge to make public years-old grand jury testimony made behind closed doors against the convicted sex offender.