Epstein 'client list' doesn't exist, Justice Department says, walking
back theory Bondi had promoted
[July 08, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a “client list,” the
Justice Department acknowledged Monday as it said no more files related
to the wealthy financier's sex trafficking investigation would be made
public 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 public
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” for review.
Even as it released video from inside a New York jail meant to
definitively prove that Epstein killed himself, the department also said
in a memo that it was refusing to disclose other evidence investigators
had collected. Bondi for weeks had suggested more material was going to
be revealed — "It’s a new administration and everything is going to come
out to the public,” she said 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 far-right influencers were invited to the White
House in February and provided with binders marked “The Epstein Files:
Phase 1” and “Declassified" that contained documents that had largely
already been in the public domain, has spurred conservative internet
personalities to sharply criticize Bondi.
After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were poring over
a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said 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 government'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 victims and “only a fraction" of it “would have been
aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”
“One of our highest priorities is combating child exploitation and
bringing justice to victims," the memo says. "Perpetuating unfounded
theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends."
The two-page memo bore the logos of the Justice Department and the FBI
but was not signed by any individual official.
Conservatives who have sought proof of a government cover-up of
Epstein’s activities and death expressed outrage Monday over the
department's position. Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec posted: “We
were all told 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
‘Actually, 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.
[to top of second column]
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Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to the media, Friday, June 27,
2025, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. (AP
Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The client list hubbub began when Bondi was asked in a Fox News
interview whether the department would release such a document.
She replied: “It's sitting on my desk right now to review.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Justice Department
spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said Monday that Bondi was referring to
the overall Epstein case files.
Among the evidence that the Justice Department said Monday it has in
its possession, and will not be releasing, are images of Epstein,
“images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be
minors,” and more than 10,000 "downloaded videos and images of
illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.”
The memo does not explain when or where the videos were located, who
and what they depict and whether they were newly found as
investigators scoured their collection of evidence or were known for
some time to have been in the government’s possession.
The Associated Press published a story last week about unanswered
questions surrounding possible video evidence after Bondi cited the
existence of “tens of thousands” of videos that she said showed
Epstein “with children or child porn.”
Multiple people who participated in the criminal cases of Epstein
and socialite former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell told 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
case said a protective order prevents them from discovering the
specifics of that evidence and the Justice Department did not
respond to a detailed list of questions from AP about the videos
Bondi was referencing.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019, 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 November 2019, for instance, then-Attorney General William Barr
told the AP that he had reviewed security footage that revealed that
no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he
died, and expressed confidence that Epstein's death was a suicide.
More recently, 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.
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