White House officials and other Trump allies said that the president, not the attorney general, has been the one having to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein.

Donald Trump has grown weary of defending Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Justice Department’s Jeffery Epstein files and wants her to take responsibility for cleaning up the mess, according to four people familiar with White House deliberations.

“One thing that’s been clear is his feelings about it,” one White House official told NBC News. “This now resides within the DOJ.”

The administration’s refusal to disclose the full contents of the government’s investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in jail while awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking minors in 2019, has caused a deep rift between Trump and significant elements of his MAGA base.