Trump comes to attorney general’s defence amid uproar from his base over Jeffrey Epstein files flop

This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. (New York State Sex Offender Registry/AP/File via CNN Newsource)

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump leapt to the defence of Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday in the face of mounting criticism from far-right influencers and conservative internet personalities over the U.S. 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.”

“At a time like this,” he added, “where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas, it just seems like a desecration.”

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 believe to be 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.

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 months-long 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.”

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, but 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.

Eric Tucker, The Associated Press