Ankush Khardori is a senior writer for POLITICO Magazine and a former federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice. His column, Rules of Law, offers an unvarnished look at national legal affairs and the political dimensions of the law at a moment when the two are inextricably linked.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump in May that his name appeared in investigative files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book wasn’t the only time that Donald Trump left a personalized note for the child sex trafficking kingpin. A book from Epstein’s personal collection featured the president’s signature sharpie scrawl,