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President Donald Trump sprang to the defense of Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday amid increasing criticism from far-right influencers and conservative internet figures regarding the Justice Department’s sudden decision not to release more documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking probe.
During a White House Cabinet meeting, when a reporter attempted to question Bondi about Epstein, Trump interrupted and reprimanded the journalist: âAre you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This topic has been covered for years.â
âI find it surprising that you’re asking about Epstein at such a time, when we’re witnessing significant achievements and, unfortunately, tragedy like what happened in Texas â discussing it now feels inappropriate,â he continued.
The comments appeared to signal continued job security for Bondi and amounted to a striking rebuke of members of Trump’s base who have called for her resignation and mocked her for what they say is her failed commitment to release incriminating files from the Epstein investigation.
A supposed Epstein âclient listâ that Bondi once intimated was sitting on her desk for review does not exist, the Justice Department acknowledged in a two-page memo Monday that further riled conservative critics who’d been hoping for proof of a government cover-up.
Bondi has faced pressure after a first document dump she hyped failed to deliver revelations.
Far-right influencers were invited to the White House in February and provided with binders marked âThe Epstein Files: Phase 1â and âDeclassifiedâ that contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain.
After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were poring over a âtruckloadâ of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI and raised expectations of forthcoming releases.
But after a months-long review of evidence in the governmentâs possession, the Justice Department said in Monday’s memo that no âfurther disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.â
The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and âonly a fractionâ of it âwould have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.â
The only evidence disclosed as part of the memo was a video meant to definitively prove that the wealthy financier had taken his own life in jail in 2019.
Even that disclosure did little to quiet conspiracy theorists who believe he was killed.
It’s not a happy development for online detectives
The department’s client list revelation was especially dismaying for conservative influencers and online sleuths, given that Bondi in a Fox News interview in February had intimated that such a document was âsitting on my deskâ for review.
Bondi insisted Tuesday that she had been referring to the Epstein case file as being on her desk, as opposed to a specific client list.
âThat’s what I meant by that,â she said.
She also defended her earlier public statements suggesting that the FBI was reviewing âtens of thousandsâ of videos of Epstein with âchildren or child porn.â
The Associated Press published a story last week about the unanswered questions surrounding those videos and the Justice Department’s refusal to provide clarity.
The memo Monday did not suggest that the videos in the government’s possession depicted Epstein with children, instead referring to images of Epstein as well as more than 10,000 âdownloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.â
âThey turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein,â she said.
But she did not explain why the department could not release other files from the âtruckloadâ of evidence she said was delivered to the agency months ago.