Epstein Data Wiki

J.D. Vance

Properties2
tagsperson, politician, us-senate, ohio, vice-president, epstein-files-release
aliasesJD Vance, J. D. Vance, James David Vance, Senator Vance, Vice President Vance

8 min read

BornAugust 2, 1984, Middletown, Ohio1
OfficesUnited States Senator from Ohio, January 3, 2023 to January 10, 2025;1 Vice President of the United States from January 20, 202523
Contact with EpsteinNo document cited on this page, and none returned by a search of the release under the name variants given in the lede, records contact between Vance and Epstein
July 2025Reported by CNN to have spent a weekend mediating between the Attorney General and the FBI’s leadership over the handling of the files4
July 2025Reported to have said the Wall Street Journal “should be ashamed” for its story on a 2003 letter5
August 2025A dinner reported to have been planned at his residence, and a White House meeting he was reported to have attended, both said to concern the administration’s handling of the case; his office denied each report67, and Vance himself, asked about the dinner, said “We’re not meeting to talk about the Epstein situation.”8

James David Vance (born August 2, 1984) is an American politician and lawyer who has been Vice President of the United States since January 20, 202523 and who was a United States Senator from Ohio from January 3, 2023 to January 10, 2025.1 He grew up in Middletown, Ohio, served in the United States Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007, studied at Ohio State University and Yale Law School, and published the memoir Hillbilly Elegy in 2016.1 No document cited on this page records any contact between Vance and Jeffrey Epstein. A full-text search of the released files for the name variants “JD Vance” (19 pages), “J.D. Vance” (1 page), “James David Vance” (0), “Senator Vance” (0) and “Vice President Vance” (45 pages) returned, for the Vice President, the Federal Bureau of Investigation daily news briefings and New York Field Office situation reports described below; routine White House and Senate schedule listings noting that no public schedule had been announced; briefings summarising other, unrelated coverage of Vance (among it his defense of the federal investigation of former national security adviser John Bolton, a planned trip to an artificial-intelligence summit in Paris, and comment on the Trump–Zelensky meeting); and a small number of pages of correspondence to federal officials that fall under none of those headings. A further search for the bare surname “Vance” returned 770 pages across 478 documents; most concern Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a different person described below, and the rest are split between other people who share the surname (among them a federal appellate judge, a former U.S. Attorney, and citations in bibliographies and a deposition index) and OCR fragments. None of these results records contact between Vance and Epstein. Federal Bureau of Investigation daily news briefings and New York Field Office situation reports of July and August 2025, released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, summarise press coverage of his part in the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files.4567

July 2025: reported mediation between senior officials

An FBI daily news briefing of July 15, 2025 summarised a CNN report of the previous day about the position of FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino following a dispute with Attorney General Pam Bondi “over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.”4 According to that summary, President Trump had spent the weekend “fuming” over Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel, while Vance spent the weekend “attempting to mediate” among Patel, Bongino and Bondi.4 The briefing records no comment from Vance on that account, and no statement from him about it appears in any document cited on this page.4

July 2025: statement about the Wall Street Journal

A New York Field Office situation report of July 18, 2025 summarised an Associated Press report of July 17 on the Wall Street Journal’s story of the same day, which described a 2003 letter said to bear President Trump’s name and to have been collected by Ghislaine Maxwell for a birthday album for Epstein.5 The summary records that Trump denied writing the letter, calling it “false, malicious, and defamatory,” and had promised to sue the newspaper, and that Vance criticized the newspaper for publishing the story without showing the letter to the Trump administration beforehand, saying it “should be ashamed.”5

August 2025: a reported dinner and a White House meeting

A New York Field Office situation report of August 7, 2025 summarised CNN and Fox News reports of the previous day under the heading “Planned Dinner for Trump Officials to Discuss Epstein Appears to Have Been Moved Amid Media Scrutiny.”6 According to that summary, a dinner scheduled at Vance’s residence, expected to include Bondi, Patel, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, was intended as an informal setting in which the administration could discuss its handling of the Epstein case and craft a unified response.6 The summary states that the dinner’s status was uncertain and that administration officials said it might be called off, moved or rescheduled because of media coverage, “despite Vance’s office denying that the meeting was ever scheduled.”6 The administration’s handling of the case, including whether to publish an audio recording and transcript of Blanche’s conversation with Maxwell, was expected to be a main focus of the dinner, with Vance “playing a peacemaker role” to help the officials present a unified front.6 CNN’s own article, on which the situation report drew, also records Vance’s communications director calling the account “false” and states that Vance himself, asked about it that same afternoon during an unrelated Oval Office event, said in his own words: “We’re not meeting to talk about the Epstein situation.”8

A situation report of the following day, August 8, 2025, summarised a CNN report of August 7 under the heading “Top Trump Officials Discussed Epstein at White House Meeting Wednesday Night.”7 According to that summary, Bondi, Patel and Vance met at the White House to discuss the Epstein case, and Vance “had attempted to mediate” between Bondi and Patel and Bongino.7 The summary adds that “despite the meeting taking place, Vice President Vance’s office denied on Wednesday that a meeting on the Epstein case was occurring.”7 Beyond his office’s denials recorded in each situation report and the Oval Office remark quoted above, no further statement from Vance about either report appears in the documents cited on this page.67

Coverage

  • CNN, July 14, 2025, on the Bongino-Bondi dispute and Vance’s reported mediation, as summarised in an FBI daily news briefing.4
  • Associated Press, July 17, 2025, and the Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2025, on the 2003 letter and Vance’s reported comment on it, as summarised in a New York Field Office situation report.5
  • CNN and Fox News, August 6, 2025, on the reported dinner at Vance’s residence, as summarised in a New York Field Office situation report.6
  • CNN, August 7, 2025, on the reported White House meeting, as summarised in a New York Field Office situation report.7

Footnotes

  1. Congressional Biographical Directory, “VANCE, James David (J.D.),” Bioguide ID V000137, https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/V000137 (Biography and Congresses tabs, for birthplace, education, military service, Senate term dates and resignation, and election as vice president; Bibliography tab, for Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, New York: Harper, 2016). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. U.S. Senate, “Vice Presidents of the United States,” https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/vice-president/vice-presidents.htm (listing J.D. Vance, Republican, under President Donald Trump, 2025–present). ↩ ↩2

  3. U.S. Constitution, amend. XX, § 1, as reproduced in Congress.gov, Constitution Annotated, https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-20/ (“The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January…and the terms of their successors shall then begin.”). ↩ ↩2

  4. FBI Daily News Briefing, July 15, 2025, summarising CNN of July 14, 2025, under the heading “Continued Reporting: Deputy Director Bongino Still in Limbo.” https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00163687 p.3. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. FBI New York Field Office situation report, July 18, 2025, summarising the Associated Press of July 17, 2025, under the heading “Continued Reporting: President Trump Won’t Recommend Special Counsel in Epstein Investigation.” https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01649361 p.1. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. FBI New York Field Office situation report, August 7, 2025, summarising CNN and Fox News of August 6, 2025, under the heading “Planned Dinner for Trump Officials to Discuss Epstein Appears to Have Been Moved Amid Media Scrutiny.” https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01654399 p.2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  7. FBI New York Field Office situation report, August 8, 2025, summarising CNN of August 7, 2025, under the heading “Continued Reporting: Top Trump Officials Discussed Epstein at White House Meeting Wednesday Night.” https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01654395 p.2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  8. Kristen Holmes and Alayna Treene, “Planned dinner for Trump officials to discuss Epstein appears to have been moved amid media scrutiny,” CNN, August 6, 2025 (updated), https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/06/politics/jd-vance-dinner-epstein-scandal. ↩ ↩2

  9. Transcript, People v. Jeffrey Epstein, Sex Offender Registration Act hearing, Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County, January 18, 2011, https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01659328 pp.2–3 (caption page naming “CYRUS R. VANCE, JR., ESQ., New York County District Attorney”; appearances and the People’s position). ↩

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