WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department and FBI are struggling to contain the fallout and appease the demands of far-right conservative personalities and influential members of President Donald Trump’s base after the administration’s decision this week to withhold records from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

The move, which included the acknowledgment that one particular sought-after document never existed in the first place, sparked a contentious conversation between Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino at the White House earlier this week — threatening to shatter relations between the two law enforcement leaders. It centered in part on a news story by a conservative outlet that described divisions between the FBI and the Justice Department.

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