President’s spokesperson hits out at Democrats and ‘liberal media’ after report claiming Pam Bondi told Trump in May he was named in Epstein files. Key US politics stories from Wednesday 23 July

Donald Trump’s past ties to Jeffrey Epstein have come under renewed scrutiny since the justice department said it would not be releasing any additional files related to the Epstein case. Photograph: Kent Nishimura/Reuters

Donald Trump is facing a widening crisis amid a report claiming that his name appears in US justice department files about Jeffrey Epstein as Congress subpoenas testimony from Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

The White House sought to downplay the relationship between the US president and the disgraced financier while Trump’s spokesperson denied an account in the Wall Street Journal that the president was told in May by attorney general Pam Bondi that he is named in the Epstein files. The report says the president was told that many other high profile figures were also named and states that being mentioned in the records isn’t a sign of wrongdoing.

“The fact is that the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said. “This is nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.”

A federal judge, meanwhile, denied a justice department request to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein.