Jeffrey Epstein didn’t keep a “consumer checklist,” the U.S. Justice Division stated Monday, asserting that no extra recordsdata associated to the rich financier’s intercourse trafficking investigation can be made public, regardless of previous guarantees from Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists.
The acknowledgement that the well-connected Epstein did not have an inventory of purchasers to whom underage women had been trafficked represents a public walk-back of a idea the Trump administration had helped promote, with Bondi suggesting in a Fox Information interview earlier this 12 months that such a doc was “sitting on my desk” in preparation for launch.
Even because it launched video from inside a New York jail meant to definitively show that Epstein dedicated suicide, the division stated in a memo it was refusing to launch different proof investigators had collected.
For weeks, Bondi had recommended extra materials was going to be revealed, after a primary doc dump she had hyped angered President Donald Trump’s base by failing to ship revelations.
In February, conservative on-line personalities had been invited to the White Home and supplied with binders marked “The Epstein Recordsdata: Section 1” and “Declassified,” however they contained paperwork that had largely already been within the public area.
After the primary launch fell flat, Bondi stated officers had been poring over a “truckload” of beforehand withheld proof she stated had been handed over by the FBI. In a March TV interview, she claimed the Biden administration “sat on these paperwork.” She added: “Sadly, these folks do not imagine in transparency, however I feel extra sadly, I feel numerous them do not imagine in honesty.”
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffery Epstein pose for a photograph with Donald Trump and Melania Trump in 2000. (Getty Photographs)
However after a months-long evaluation of proof within the authorities’s possession, Monday’s memo says the Justice Division decided no “additional disclosure can be applicable or warranted.” The division famous a lot of the fabric was positioned underneath seal by a courtroom to guard victims and “solely a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”
Disappointment amongst some conservatives
The 2-page memo bore the logos of the Justice Division and the FBI, however wasn’t signed by any particular person official.
“One in every of our highest priorities is combatting youngster exploitation and bringing justice to victims,” the memo says. “Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of these ends.”
Virginia Giuffre, accuser of Epstein and Prince Andrew, useless at 41
Virginia Giuffre, the girl who accused Britain’s Prince Andrew and different influential males of sexually exploiting her as a youngster trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, has died. The 41-year-old died by suicide Friday at her farm in Western Australia, her publicist confirmed.
Conservatives who’ve sought proof of a authorities cover-up of Epstein’s actions and dying expressed outrage Monday over the division’s place.
Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec posted: “We had been all informed extra was coming. That solutions had been on the market and can be supplied. Unbelievable how completely mismanaged this Epstein mess has been.”
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote that “subsequent the DOJ will say ‘Truly, Jeffrey Epstein by no means even existed.'” Elon Musk shared a collection of photographs on X of a clown making use of make-up, showing to mock Bondi for saying the consumer checklist would not exist after suggesting months in the past that it was on her desk.
When requested concerning the consumer checklist on Monday, White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Justice Division spokesperson Chad Gilmartin stated Bondi had been referring to the Epstein recordsdata generally, not a consumer checklist particularly.
Among the many proof that the Justice Division says it has in its possession are pictures and greater than 10,000 movies and pictures that officers stated depicted youngster intercourse abuse materials or “different pornography.” Bondi had recommended earlier that a part of the rationale for the delay in releasing further Epstein supplies was that the FBI wanted to evaluation “tens of hundreds” of recordings she stated confirmed Epstein “with youngsters or youngster porn.”
Ghislaine Maxwell, seen right here in 2013, was convicted in December 2021 of 5 counts, together with intercourse trafficking minors. (Rick Bajornas/UN/The Related Press)
A number of individuals who participated within the felony instances of Epstein and his former British socialite girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell informed The Related Press they hadn’t seen and did not know of a trove of recordings alongside the strains of what Bondi had referenced. Indictments and detention memos additionally do not allege the existence of video recordings, and neither Epstein nor Maxwell had been charged with possession of kid intercourse abuse materials, despite the fact that that may have been simpler for prosecutors to show than the intercourse trafficking counts they confronted.
Epstein died in 2019
The AP did discover reference in a submitting in a civil lawsuit to the invention by the Epstein property of movies and footage that would represent youngster intercourse abuse materials, however legal professionals concerned in that case stated a protecting order prevents them from discovering the specifics of that proof.
Monday’s memo would not clarify when or the place these alleged movies are situated, what they depict and whether or not they had been newly discovered as investigators scoured their assortment of proof or had been identified for a while to have been within the authorities’s possession.
The Justice Division did not reply to an in depth checklist of questions from AP concerning the movies Bondi was referencing.
Epstein was discovered useless in his jail cell in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on intercourse trafficking fees, in a suicide that foreclosed the potential for a trial.
Conspiracy theorists have continued to problem that conclusion, however in 2019, then-attorney common William Barr informed the AP he had personally reviewed safety footage that exposed nobody entered the realm the place Epstein was housed on the evening he died. Barr had concluded Epstein’s suicide was the results of “an ideal storm of screw-ups.”
Extra lately, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have insisted in tv and podcast interviews the proof was clear that Epstein had killed himself.
