(CNN) — Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s pick to run the US attorney’s office in Manhattan, is facing his biggest test yet.

Late Friday, after a week of negative headlines, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on X that Clayton will lead a federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats. It came hours after Trump directed Bondi, on Truth Social, to investigate Epstein’s relationship with “Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”

The assignment is the latest test for a US attorney’s office to carry out Trump’s political desires, further blurring the line that historically separated the White House from the Justice Department.

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