A dinner scheduled Wednesday night at Vice President JD Vance’s residence was seen as an opportunity for Trump administration officials to realign amid the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal, according to four people familiar with the situation. That would include a potential chance for Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, who had been at odds over the response, to clear the air.
As of Wednesday afternoon, administration officials familiar with the meeting said the dinner was now in flux, given its intense coverage, and it was unclear whether it would ultimately be called off, moved to another location or rescheduled.
Bondi and Patel’s tense relationship was thrown into the spotlight last month after a contentious White House meeting with chief of staff Susie Wiles over the handling of the Epstein case. That meeting also prompted questions about FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s future with the administration.
In the hours and days after the blowup, Vance tried to smooth over the conflict, fielding calls from Bondi, Patel and Bongino in between rides with his family at Disneyland. The vice president achieved his mission, one person familiar told CNN, and Bongino went back to work the next Monday — though three administration officials said they believe he will likely eventually leave his post and return to hosting his podcast once the Epstein blowback subsides.
Vance was expected to reprise his peacemaker role again Wednesday. Sources told CNN the dinner would be a good opportunity to realign.
“It’s a way to get everyone together in an informal, low-stakes situation,” one source briefed on the dinner told CNN.
CNN previously reported that Wiles, Bondi, Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche were expected to gather at Vance’s residence Wednesday evening as the administration weighs whether to publish an audio recording and transcript of Blanche’s recent conversation with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The administration’s handling of the Epstein case, as well as the need to craft a unified response, was expected to be a main focus of the dinner.
Vance’s office denied such a meeting was taking place.
“As we’ve said publicly, there was never a supposed meeting scheduled at the Vice President’s residence to discuss Epstein Strategy. Any reporting to the contrary is false,” William Martin, Vance’s communications director, said in a statement.
The Justice Department declined to comment, deferring to the vice president’s office. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite talks of canceling the dinner, two officials said it could still take place, though the location may change. They argued the focus of the meeting would likely be broader than solely discussing the administration’s handling of the Epstein case.
The Bondi-Patel-Bongino feud
The group sitdown, if it moves forward, comes after Patel had been traveling for several weeks, opening field offices in New Zealand and Australia. Some officials said they believe this could be the ideal time for a reset, as the White House seeks to reclaim the narrative around the Epstein case and present a unified front after weeks on the defensive.
Months before the Department of Justice released a memo on the Epstein case that contradicted many of the conspiracy theories surrounding the investigation, tension was already quietly building between the FBI and Department of Justice, multiple sources told CNN. FBI leadership griped behind closed doors that Bondi was spending more time on Fox News talking about the Epstein files than actually reviewing them, despite the agency having delivered the files to her office weeks prior, those sources said.
FBI officials cringed when Bondi indicated in a Fox News interview in February that the Epstein client list was sitting on her desk, those sources added, as it had already been determined that there was no official client list that would be released.
And when the memo — which contradicted many of the conspiracy theories circulating in far-right circles about Epstein — was finally released, it was Patel and Bongino who bore the brunt from the MAGA right, after they’d repeatedly promised full transparency.
During the meeting with Wiles last month, Bondi, Patel and Bongino clashed over the handling of the investigation and Bongino was accused of leaking negative stories about Bondi. The deputy director denied the allegations and stormed out of the meeting, later telling Patel and others that he might not return to his post.
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