Amid Donald Trump facing pressure from his own support base, here's everything you need to know about his alleged ties with Jeffrey Epstein and more...

1.Inception of the Epstein case

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Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy American financier, was first charged with serious sex offences in 2006 after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police that he had molested their daughter in his Florida home. But at that time, he avoided federal charges, which could have seen him face life in prison, due to a controversial plea deal with prosecutors that saw him serve just 13 months in prison.

2.Arrested again in 2019

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In July 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was again arrested in New York and charged with trafficking dozens of minor girls and engaging in sex acts with them in exchange for money. Epstein pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. On August 10, 2019, while in custody awaiting trial, authorities said he was found dead in his prison cell after hanging himself.

3.What is Epstein file?

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The convinced child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein created an elite social circle, consisting of politicians and celebrities, many of whom have not been identified. This fueled various conspiracy theories that Epstein kept a list of his clients, which he later used to blackmail them as part of an international sex trafficking ring. The Epstein files also refer to the court documents relating to Epstein, some of which have been publicly released.

4.Trump and Epstein files connection

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During the latest presidential campaign, Trump promised to release files relating to Epstein and has faced mounting pressure from his supporters to share new information. A lack of transparency over the US investigations into serious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has created a rift between Donald Trump and his loyal Republican base. The current president was dragged into this case when his former advisor, Elon Musk, claimed in June, in a deleted X post, that Trump was "in the Epstein files".

5.FBI agents were told to flag documents mentioning trump

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FBI agents were reportedly assigned earlier this year to review investigative files in the criminal case against scandalous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and were instructed to “flag” any documents that mentioned President Donald Trump, Sen. Richard Durbin said on July 18.

6.What comes next for this?

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Donald Trump has said that he supports the release of any "credible files related to Epstein while dismissing the case as "pretty boring stuff". Meanwhile, Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, has not followed Trump's line on the issue and has instead urged the Justice Department to make public any documents linked to Epstein.

7.Trump sues Wall Street Journal

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The Wall Street Journal and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, were reportedly sued by U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday for at least USD 10 billion after the newspaper revealed that his name appeared on a 2003 birthday greeting for Jeffrey Epstein that contained a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets they shared.