Washington (AP) In the face of growing criticism from conservative online personalities and far-right influencers over the Justice Department’s sudden refusal to release more documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation, President Donald Trump jumped to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s defense on Tuesday.
At a White House Cabinet meeting, Bondi was asked about Epstein by a reporter. Trump interrupted and reprimanded the reporter, asking, “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” People have been talking about this guy for years.
He said, “It seems like a desecration that you’re asking a question about Epstein at a time like this, when we’re experiencing some of the greatest success and tragedy with what happened in Texas.”
The remarks, which seemed to indicate Bondi’s job security going forward, were a scathing jab at Trump supporters who have demanded her resignation and ridiculed her for allegedly breaking her pledge to make damaging documents from the Epstein investigation public. The Justice Department stated in a two-page memo Monday that there is no such thing as an Epstein client list, which Bondi once hinted was on her desk for review. This further infuriated conservative opponents who had been looking for evidence of a government cover-up.
Elon Musk, a tech tycoon and former Trump advisor, announced on his X platform on Tuesday that he is starting a new political party. If Trump refuses to make the Epstein files public, how can anyone expect them to trust him?
RELATED | According to the Justice Department, Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide and there is no client list.
The pressure is on Bondi
Following the failure of her first, much-anticipated document dump to yield disclosures, Bondi has been under pressure. In February, binders labeled The Epstein Files: Phase 1 and Declassified, which included materials that were essentially already in the public domain, were given to far-right leaders who had been invited to the White House.
Bondi stated that officials were looking through a truckload of previously suppressed evidence that she claimed the FBI had turned over after the initial release failed, which increased hopes for future releases.
However, the Justice Department stated in a memo released on Monday that no more disclosure would be acceptable or justified following a months-long evaluation of the information that was in the government’s possession. According to the police, just a small portion of the data would have been made public had Epstein been tried since a court sealed off a large portion of it to protect the victims.
The document only included a video that was intended to provide conclusive proof that the affluent banker had committed suicide while incarcerated in 2019. Even that revelation didn’t stop conspiracy theorists who think he was murdered.
It s not a happy development for online detectives
Given that Bondi had hinted in a February Fox News interview that such a document was on my desk for review, the department’s client list release was particularly upsetting to conservative influencers and internet detectives. Instead of mentioning a specific client list, Bondi said on Tuesday that she had been referring to the Epstein case file as being on her desk.
She said, “That’s what I meant by that.”
She also supported her previous public claims that the FBI was looking through tens of thousands of tapes showing Epstein with kids or engaging in child porn. The Justice Department’s reluctance to offer clarification and the unresolved issues surrounding those films were covered by the Associated Press last week.
The letter released on Monday made reference to over 10,000 downloaded movies and photographs of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography, but it made no indication that the recordings in the government’s possession showed Epstein with children.
She claimed that they were child porn that Jeffrey Epstein, who is nasty, had downloaded.
She claimed that a truckload of evidence was handed to the agency months ago, but she did not explain why the department was unable to provide additional files from that evidence.
