Jeffrey Epstein 'client list' does not exist, US Justice Department says

Australia Broadcast Center

18 hours ago

The US Justice Department says Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a "client list" and it will not be releasing any more files publicly about the wealthy financier's sex trafficking investigation.
The acknowledgement 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 the Trump administration had helped promote, with Attorney-General Pam 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 prove definitively that Epstein killed himself, the department also said in a memo that it was refusing to disclose other evidence investigators had collected.
For weeks, Ms Bondi had suggested more material would be revealed.
"It's a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public," she said.
However, the first document dump angered US President Donald Trump's base by failing to deliver any new 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 mostly already been in the public domain.
After the first release fell flat, Ms 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".
"Sadly, these people don't believe in transparency, but I think more unfortunately, I think a lot of them don't believe in honesty," she said.
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".
It said in a memo that much of the material was sealed by a court to protect victims and "only a fraction" of it would have been aired publicly if Epstein had gone to trial.
"One of our highest priorities is combating child exploitation and bringing justice to victims," the memo said.
"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 on 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, which appeared to mock Ms Bondi for saying the client list did not exist after suggesting months ago that it was on her desk.
Among the evidence that the Justice Department says 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 provide details on what was in the videos, when they were taken, or whether they were newly discovered by investigators.
Multiple people who participated in the criminal cases of Epstein and socialite former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell said they had not seen and did not know of a trove of recordings along the lines of what Ms Bondi had referenced.
Indictments and detention memos also do not 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.
AP found a 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 prevented them from discovering the specifics of that evidence.
The Justice Department did not respond to questions about the videos.
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 said 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.
AP