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The Justice Department and the FBI have reportedly found no evidence that convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was murdered or had a “client list” of powerful figures he could potentially black mail ― contradicting earlier claims made by mostly right-wing conspiracy theorists and the agencies’ own leadership.
In an unsigned memo first obtained Sunday by Axios, the DOJ said that authorities did not find an “incriminating ‘client list’” that the deceased financier was rumored to have used as blackmail on high-profile associates he helped victimize dozens of women.
The DOJ also included 10 hours of security footage from outside Epstein’s Manhattan jail cell, where he died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. The memo said that the footage ― which appears to show no one entering his cell in the hours before his death ― confirms previous reports that Epstein died by suicide.
The DOJ confirmed the authenticity of the memo in a Sunday request from HuffPost.
Davidoff Studios Photography via Getty Images
The agency’s reported findings follow years of conspiracy theories about the New York financier’s death and his ties to prominent men, including President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Trump maintains that he did not have a relationship with Epstein for at least a dozen years before his death, and Monday’s memo said authorities “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Before they became the top two officials in Trump’s FBI, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino were prominent conservative voices who helped spread the conspiracy theory suggesting powerful figures had killed Epstein in order to prevent their connections to him from being exposed. They’ve since changed their tune and said they believe he died by suicide.
The memo also said that Epstein was confirmed to have harmed more than 1,000 victims, and that the files reviewed by DOJ officials included more than 10,000 “downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.”
“One of our highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to victims,” the memo read. “Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends.”
The conclusion that Epstein did not have a rumored “client list” directly contradicts Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comments in February, in which she told Fox News that she was in possession of such a list and ready to review it as part of “a directive by President Trump.”
“So what happened to the Epstein client list that the attorney general said that she had on her desk?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday.
“She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes,” Leavitt responded. “That’s what the attorney general was referring to, and I’ll let her speak for that.”
Mehmet Eser/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images
Bondi has already been facing scrutiny from the right for the delay in releasing files related to the financier ― especially after giving Trump-supporting influencers binders in February that contained Epstein case files mostly full of already publicly available information. She then reportedly pressured Patel’s agents to quicken their review of the files to avoid more backlash.
Monday’s memo has already led to outrage from the right ― especially from former Trump ally Elon Musk, who weeks ago accused the president of being in Epstein’s alleged client list. The billionaire has published multiple posts on X since the memo’s release, including an image of a zeroed-out scoreboard labeled, “The Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter.”
“What’s the time? Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again,” Musk posted.
Other right-wing voices also blasted the memo, with some even calling for Bondi’s resignation as attorney general.
“So Epstein was trafficking these underage girls to nobody? Is Pam Bondi serious?” conservative activist Robby Starbuck said on X. Another Jan. 6 rioter, Alexander Sheppard, said, “Dan Bongino either lied to us on his podcast for several years or he is lying to us now.”
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