Epstein ‘client list’ doesn’t exist, Justice Department says, walking back theory Bondi had promoted

By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER WASHINGTON AP Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a client list the Justice Department acknowledged Monday as it mentioned no more files related to the wealthy financier s sex trafficking probe would be made general despite promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represents a community walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote with Bondi suggesting in a Fox News interview earlier this year that such a document was sitting on my desk in preparation for release Even as it circulated video from inside a New York jail meant to definitively prove that Epstein committed suicide the department also commented in a memo that it was refusing to release other evidence investigators had collected Bondi for weeks had suggested that more material was going to be revealed It s a new administration and everything is going to come out to the general she revealed at one point after a first document dump she had hyped angered President Donald Trump s base by failing to deliver revelations That episode in which conservative internet personalities were invited to the White House in February and provided with binders marked The Epstein Files Phase and Declassified that contained documents that had largely already been in the masses domain has spurred far-right influencers to lambast and deride Bondi After the first release fell flat Bondi reported authorities were pouring over a truckload of previously withheld evidence she disclosed had been handed over by the FBI In a March TV interview she claimed the Biden administration sat on these documents no one did anything with them adding Sadly these people don t believe in transparency but I think more unfortunately I think a lot of them don t believe in honesty But after a months-long review of evidence in the cabinet s possession the Justice Department determined that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted the memo says The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect casualties and only a fraction of it would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial The two-page memo bore the logos of the Justice Department and the FBI but was not signed by any individual official One of our highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to casualties the memo says Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends Conservatives who have sought proof of a cabinet coverup of Epstein s exercises and death expressed outrage Monday over the department s position Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec posted We were all advised more was coming That answers were out there and would be provided Incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been And it didn t have to be Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote that next the DOJ will say Definitely Jeffrey Epstein never even existed calling it over the top sickening Elon Musk shared a series of photos of a clown applying makeup appearing to mock Bondi for saying the client list doesn t exist after suggesting months ago that it was on her desk Among the evidence that the Justice Department says it has in its possession are photographs and more than videos and images that bureaucrats mentioned depicted child sex abuse material or other pornography Bondi had earlier suggested that part of the reason for the delay in releasing additional Epstein materials was because the FBI needed to review tens of thousands of recordings that she revealed evidenced Epstein with children or child porn The Associated Press published a story last week about the unanswered questions surrounding those videos Related Articles Wegovy and Zepbound prices fall but access to the obesity drugs still isn t guaranteed Man killed after shooting at a US Edge Patrol facility in southern Texas American kids have become increasingly unhealthy over nearly two decades new evaluation finds A Vermont dairy farm was raided The mixed messages from Washington since then have increased fears Girls camp grieves loss of campers and counselors in Texas floods that killed nearly people Multiple people who participated in the criminal cases of Epstein and former British socialite girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell recounted AP that they had not seen and did not know of a trove of recordings along the lines of what Bondi had referenced Indictments and detention memos also don t allege the existence of video recordings and neither Epstein nor Maxwell were charged with possession of child sex abuse material even though that would have been easier for prosecutors to prove than the sex trafficking counts they faced The AP did find reference in a filing in a civil lawsuit to the discovery by the Epstein estate of videos and pictures that could constitute child sex abuse material but lawyers involved in that affair commented a protective order prevents them from discovering the specifics of that evidence The Justice Department did not respond to a detailed list of questions from AP about the videos Bondi was referencing Monday s memo does not explain when or where they were located what they depict and whether they were newly determined as investigators scoured their collection of evidence or were known for a few time to have been in the regime s possession Epstein was discovered dead in his jail cell in August weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges in a suicide that foreclosed the possibility of a trial The department s disclosure that Epstein took his own life is hardly a revelation even though conspiracy theorists have continued to challenge that conclusion In for instance then-Attorney General William Barr notified the AP in an interview that he had personally reviewed safety footage that revealed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he died and Barr had concluded that Epstein s suicide was the product of a perfect storm of screw-ups More in recent weeks FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have insisted in television and podcast interviews that the evidence was clear that Epstein had killed himself