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.

The news Wednesday that Attorney General Pam Bondi told President Donald Trump back in May that his name appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files isn’t that surprising, in context.

Here’s how Donald Trump’s position on Jeffrey Epstein has changed over the year, and how the fallout over the Epstein files poses a particular challenge for him.