Trump comes to Bondi's defense amid uproar from his base over Jeffrey
Epstein files flop
[July 09, 2025]
By ERIC TUCKER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump leaped to the defense of
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday in the face of mounting criticism
from far-right influencers and conservative internet personalities over
the Justice Department's abrupt refusal to release additional documents
from the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation.
When a reporter attempted to ask Bondi about Epstein at a White House
Cabinet meeting, Trump headed off the questions and scolded the
journalist: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's
been talked about for years.”
“I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like
this, where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy
with what happened in Texas — it just seems like a desecration,” he
added.
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 “client list” 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.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, the former Trump adviser who has said he is
forming a new political party, posted Tuesday on his X platform, “How
can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the
Epstein files?”
The pressure is on Bondi
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 “The Epstein Files:
Phase 1” and “Declassified” 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 “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed
over by the FBI and raised expectations of forthcoming releases.
But after a monthslong review of evidence in the government’s
possession, the Justice Department said in Monday's memo that no
“further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” 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.”
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Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, listens as President Donald Trump,
right, speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday,
July 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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 “sitting on my desk” 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.
“That's what I meant by that,” she said.
She also defended her earlier public statements suggesting that the
FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands” of videos of Epstein with
“children or child porn.” 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 “downloaded videos and
images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.”
“They turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting
Jeffrey Epstein,” she said.
But she did not explain why the department could not release other
files from the “truckload” of evidence she said was delivered to the
agency months ago.
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