The White House now claims no client list was left behind by late financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Fox News reported. This contradicts previous remarks Attorney General Pam Bondi made earlier this year.
Reporters inquired about the shifting narrative during a news conference on Monday. According to a memo from the FBI and the Department of Justice that day, a review of the case was completed over the weekend and revealed no client list exists for Epstein.
This contradicts remarks Bondi made in February about a list of people who may have patronized Epstein's island of ill repute. "It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that," the attorney general claimed at the time.
REPORTER: Will you really be releasing the Epstein files?
Pam Bondi: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review.”
IT’S HAPPENING pic.twitter.com/35THYYN9Fk
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 21, 2025
With such starkly conflicting information coming out of President Donald Trump's administration, reporters were not about to let White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt off the hook. Fox News' Peter Doocy quoted Bondi and asked Leavitt about her remarks in light of the recent memo.
"She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper, in relation to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, that's what the attorney general was referring to, and I'll let her speak for that," Leavitt claimed. She said the agencies held back evidence that was explicit.
"There was material they did not release because, frankly, it was incredibly graphic, and it contained child pornography, which is not something that's appropriate for public consumption," Leavitt said. This comes after Bondi had already promised to release the files.
Shortly after Trump took office, Bondi met with several influencers and presented them with binders supposedly containing information about the Epstein case. There was nothing new, which was disappointing at the time. However, those same people invited for the photo op held her feet to the fire on social media.
Some, like Rogan O'Handley, said the memo from the DOJ and FBI was a "shameful chapter in our country's history." Others like Liz Wheeler called for Bondi's ouster. "I'm supposed to be on vacation, but it’s time to fire Pam Bondi," Wheeler wrote.
The problem for the White House is that Bondi doubled down on claims of a client list. She said in May that they were sifting through "tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn, and there are hundreds of victims."
Instead, the memo said "files relating to Epstein" included "ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography." This distinction raises questions about all of Bondi's statements regarding the case.
Meanwhile, the White House is engaging in damage control, including a Department of Justice spokesperson who sidestepped the question of the conflicting reports. "We've delivered more transparency in 6 months than the Biden administration did in 4 years," the spokesperson deflected.
Besides the question about a client list and other materials, the memo addressed longstanding theories that Epstein did not commit suicide by hanging, as was previously reported. The memo claims that Epstein definitely killed himself while in jail, case closed.
Trump made many promises to his voters during the campaign, including that the Epstein client list would be released. Now the White House is telling people there's no such thing, and that isn't sitting well with people skepitcal of the claim.
