Welcome to The Beat. I'm Antonia Hilton in for Ari Melbert tonight.

We start with breaking news on Donald Trump's name reportedly appearing in the Epstein Files.

Today, explosive new reporting, rocking the political world.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department told Trump in May that his name is in the Epstein files.

It comes as Trump, who previously helped Stoke Epstein conspiracy theories, suddenly tries to tamp down questions about that guy.

The journal reports, quote, when Justice Department officials reviewed what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a truckload of documents related to

Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year. They discovered that Donald Trump's name appeared multiple times,

according to senior administration officials. In May, Bondi and her deputy informed the president

at a meeting in the White House that his name was in the Epstein files, the officials said.

Many other high-profile figures were also named, Trump was told.

Being mentioned in the files, in the records, isn't a sign of wrongdoing.

It's new context for Bondi's claims about potentially revealing documents, including the

ever-elusive client list.

Here's what she said in February and March, weeks before reportedly informing Trump,

his name was in the files.

The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients.

Will that really happen?

It's sitting on my desk right now.

A lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information.

But it's pretty sick what that man did.

We will get everything.

We will have it in our possession.

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