Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

US attorney general Pam Bondi in a cabinet meeting today with President Donald Trump Alamy Stock Photo

Trump defends his AG from MAGA backlash after her U-turn on Jeffrey Epstein publication

Bondi has faced pressure after a first document dump that she had hyped failed to deliver revelations.

DONALD TRUMP HAS defended US attorney general Pam Bondi in the face of mounting criticism from far-right influencers and conservative internet personalities over the American justice department’s abrupt refusal to release additional documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

When a reporter attempted to ask Bondi about disgraced financier Epstein at a White House cabinet meeting, US President Trump headed off the questions and said to the journalist: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years.

“At a time like this, 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 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 US justice department acknowledged in a two-page memo on Monday that riled conservative critics who had been hoping for proof of a government cover-up.

Bondi has faced pressure after a first document dump that she had 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 quieten conspiracy theorists who believe he was killed.

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 on 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 from Monday did not suggest that the videos in the US 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,” Bondi 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.

Close
43 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tony
    Favourite Tony
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:32 PM

    Of course he did cause he’s all over the Epstein files.

    253
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kjg
    Favourite Kjg
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:55 PM

    @Tony: not the only US president

    84
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Housing Hunger Games
    Favourite Housing Hunger Games
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 10:39 PM

    @Tony: the Far-Right influencers are eating themselves lol

    58
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jack Dermody
    Favourite Jack Dermody
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 1:56 AM

    @Kjg: You have no proof of any wrong done by any President…
    But we do know Trump was a friend of Epstein, partied with him and is accused by multiple women of sexual assault and rape… We have him on tape saying that he gets away with sexual assault because he is famous…

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jack Dermody
    Favourite Jack Dermody
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 2:04 AM

    @Tony:
    Epstein replied, “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.”

    https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU08/20250227/117951/HHRG-119-JU08-20250227-SD006-U6.pdf

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute offside again
    Favourite offside again
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 4:07 AM

    @Jack Dermody: those people don’t have friends, it’s a sad, depressing, lonely life ; all the luxury that money can buy cannot fill the abyss. Money, power, sex ; nothing can satisfy them.
    Who cannot but wonder at the insanity of it all.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thesaltyurchin
    Favourite Thesaltyurchin
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 10:34 AM

    @Housing Hunger Games: Beautiful tears! ; )

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute HAC
    Favourite HAC
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:38 PM

    Any eejit that thought he was going to actually release those files, what would be wrong with you? He is not going to release them, when he is in them..and all those pedos can breathe a sigh of relief, you all got away with it and ghislaine maxwell is in prison for nothing? Funny that! And all the men walk free

    184
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Setanta O'Toole
    Favourite Setanta O'Toole
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 10:04 PM

    @HAC: Ghislaine Maxwell deserves to be in prison, but you are correct otherwise.

    115
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Desmond
    Favourite Dave Desmond
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 11:58 PM

    @Setanta O’Toole: I believe the point was that if the files don’t exist (which they do) and there was no client list (which there was), then why is she in prison?

    51
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Jordan
    Favourite David Jordan
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 1:01 AM

    @Dave Desmond: The evidence from Ghislaine Maxwell’s 2021 trial reveals a focused criminal enterprise, not the massive VIP blackmail scheme as is often portrayed.

    Every witness, “Jane”, “Kate”, “Carolyn”, Annie Farmer etc., who testified told a similar story; Maxwell recruited while Epstein was the primary abuser. Crucially, none testified in court that powerful people participated.

    The evidence against Maxwell showed she was Jeffrey Epstein’s partner in crime from 1994-2004.

    Victims testified that Maxwell identified and recruited vulnerable and isolated girls (13 to 15 years old) typically though newspaper advertisements in Florida, gained their trust with gifts and promises, then introduced them to Epstein as as his personal masseuse, who normalised sexual abuse. She managed all logistics, including scheduling and payments, and also directly participated in the abuse of children in some cases.

    Also, Epstein’s long-time associates, his lawyer and accountant, operating through shell companies, paid off victims and used legal intimidation keep them silent, shielding Epstein’s activities while maintaining the facade of a legitimate business. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George called them the “indispensable to Epstein’s trafficking enterprise”.

    Ironically, they are now the executors of Epstein’s estate and disbursed compensation to victims from the victim’s compensation fund. They were named as executors of Epstein’s estate in his updated Aug 8th Will, which he signed a little more than 24 hours before his suicide.

    https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/editorialfiles/2019/8/23/082019422423833-Jeffrey-Epstein-will.pdf

    The Will ordered, that after Epstein death, that his assets (€577 million in money, shares, property titles, art etc.) be moved offshore to the US Virgin Islands, and into The 1953 Trust, out of reach of Epstein’s many victims. It’s clear careful preparations were made by Epstein and his associates in anticipation of his demise.

    The Will initially required victims to sign broad releases promising not to pursue others involved, essentially bribing them into silence. Although the US Virgin Islands Attorney General later weakened these provisions after a long legal battle, the original intent was clear, to buy silence and immunity through the same tactics used while Epstein was alive.

    The conspiracy theories of VIP involvement largely stem from 2016 emails from one of Epstein’s many victim’s about “sex tapes”. However, she admitted in a 2019 New Yorker interview that she fabricated the allegations to attract media attention and force the DOJ to act, the revelation resurfaced when the 2024 court files involving Maxwell were unsealed. One other victims also claims VIP involvement, but these allegations were never tested in court, with some of those accused choosing to settle out of court.

    15
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Setanta O'Toole
    Favourite Setanta O'Toole
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 9:29 AM

    @Dave Desmond: She is in prison because she actively procured and transported victims to be sexually abused by Epstein and others. That is still a crime regardless of the existence of the files. Painting her as the victim in the whole thing is ridiculous.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SerotoninWars
    Favourite SerotoninWars
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 10:29 AM

    @HAC: Can’t agree re Ghislaine, but otherwise yes. Some of it is down to power and corruption. Other times it’s people’s inability to fully absorb the fact that someone who created art or music they love is a total POS.

    I was trying to be diplomatic at the weekend after the Sabbath farewell gig. The more people kicked back, the more I thought about it. It was actually a total disgrace some of the people who were invited. Perry, Axl Rose, Manson. This isn’t regular old Rock n roll behaviour we’re talking about, but super creepy stuff. If any of this was done by a normal Joe, they’d be thrown to the gutter. Fame provides so many opportunities to appear like a decent human or be somewhat relatable. People still don’t seem to get that you can present as decent and charismatic and also be a total monster.

    Trump has a schtick that really appeals to a certain type of person. He also makes it hard to focus on specific instances of woeful behaviour because he’s at it almost every single day. Flood, confuse and overwhelm until people are left in an apathetic stupor. There’s already more than enough on record to know Trump is a mega-slimeball.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute HAC
    Favourite HAC
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 3:38 PM

    @Setanta O’Toole: yes she does but the men that actually did the raping they are all free, that is wrong!

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mick McGuinness
    Favourite Mick McGuinness
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:55 PM

    The AG is saving Daddy Don as a Daddy’s girl does.

    63
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Noelyj
    Favourite Noelyj
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 10:48 AM

    @Mick McGuinness: He humiliated Gabbard in front of the world over the Iran intelligence and now he’s made Bondi out to be a liar in front of the whole world, and they still kiss his a*#s.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David O Brien
    Favourite David O Brien
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:38 PM

    If Maxwell has any conscience, she would hang them all out to dry.

    95
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat B
    Favourite Pat B
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:41 PM

    @David O Brien: and end up “accidentally “ choking, falling out of windows, balconies etc? Nah, not on her life would she………

    94
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David O Brien
    Favourite David O Brien
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:44 PM

    @Pat B: Well she will either be locked up for the rest of her life or she can bear her soul. At this stage she doesn’t have a lot to lose.

    48
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Pat B
    Favourite Pat B
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:51 PM

    @David O Brien: watch this space- a sweet deal will be done

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Numinous20111
    Favourite Numinous20111
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:57 PM

    @David O Brien: Honestly, I think Maxwell knows how the rich and powerful play the game. So she will keep quiet, hope for an early release and then make the most of whatever opportunities she can. She would be extremely vulnerable to threats and actual harm in prison.

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Setanta O'Toole
    Favourite Setanta O'Toole
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 10:06 PM

    @David O Brien: Even if she did Trump would just have his crooked judges say there is no case to answer. The man is teflon and beyond reproach to the goons that worship him.

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tasty k
    Favourite Tasty k
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:33 PM

    Trump’s presidency will be eaten by the monstrous ignorance and fear that he stoked to get it.

    99
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute barry williams
    Favourite barry williams
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:57 PM

    They were never going to be released sure ol Donald would be up to his neck in them

    56
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute KTH
    Favourite KTH
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 10:54 PM

    “Are you still talking about this???”
    Trumps go-to answer…
    Jeffrey Epstien?
    The palace in the sky?
    Illegal deportations?
    Canada as 51st state?
    Greenland?
    Stock market crash?
    Tariffs?
    Trump riviera in Gaza?
    Putin?
    Zelensky?
    Iran?
    Houthis?
    Elon Musk?
    War group chat leaks?
    Etc.
    Etc.
    Etc.

    44
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute P. V. Aglue
    Favourite P. V. Aglue
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:57 PM

    “Get some rest Pam, you look tired”

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute You Cant Be Serious
    Favourite You Cant Be Serious
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 4:51 PM

    @P. V. Aglue: it is all that bondiage she has been involved in has her tired

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lewis Armstrong
    Favourite Lewis Armstrong
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 10:45 PM

    Israel all over the Epstein scandal. Another reason to hate them.

    42
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Jordan
    Favourite David Jordan
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 10:24 PM

    The evidence from Maxwell’s 2021 trial reveals a focused criminal enterprise, not the massive VIP blackmail scheme as is often portrayed. Every witness who testified under oath told a similar story; Maxwell recruited while Epstein was the primary abuser. Crucially, none testified in court that powerful people participated directly.

    The conspiracy theories largely stem from 2016 emails from on of Epstein’s many victim’s about “sex tapes”. However, it was admitted in a 2019 New Yorker interview that she fabricated allegations of VIP involvement to attract media attention, a revelation that resurfaced when the 2024 court files involving Maxwell were unsealed. One other victims also claims VIP involvement, but these alligation were never tested in court, some of those accused choose to settle out of court.

    What actually, more likely existed, was cover-up orchestrated by Epstein’s long-time associates, his lawyer and accountant. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George called them “indispensable to Epstein’s trafficking enterprise.” They operated through shell companies, paid off victims, acted as bagmen buying silence.

    Epstein’s final Will, signed on Thursday August 8th the day before his suicide (Aug 9-10th), exemplifies the familiar pattern of self-protection. Epstein’s inner circle, aware of his suicidal state, helped craft this document to serve the dual purposes of personal financial gain and legal immunity.

    The Will ordered, after Epstein death, that his assets (€577 million in money, shares, property titles, art and other assets) be moved offshore to the US Virgin Islands, and into The 1953 Trust, out of reach of Epstein’s many victims. It’s clear careful preparations were made by Epstein and his associates in anticipation of his demise.

    https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/editorialfiles/2019/8/23/082019422423833-Jeffrey-Epstein-will.pdf

    Epstein’s lawyer and accountant were named executors in the Will, they received $250,000 each for this role,. and siphoned off millions more as “legal expenses” from the opaque 1953 Trust that lacks oversight and does not list its beneficiaries. More troubling, the Will initially required victims to sign broad releases promising not to pursue others involved, essentially bribing them into silence. Although the US Virgin Islands Attorney General later weakened these provisions after long legal battles, the original intent was clear, to buy silence and immunity through the same tactics used while Epstein was alive.

    Ironically, while VIP involvement allegations may have initially helped bring Epstein and Maxwell to justice by generating intense public interest and forcing DOJ action, they now hinder investigation of the inner circle. The widespread belief that Epstein was murdered for his involvement in a VIP bribery scheme, deflects attention from the people who benefited financially and legally from his Aug 8 Will and his convenient suicide.

    While I believe he committed suicide, permitted by a chronic staff shortages and a lack of discipline (one of the prison guards that night was on his 5th straight night over overtime, 16 hour days and worked 80 hours that week, and he wasn’t a prison guard but normally worked in stores. The other guard was on mandatory overtime) … I am open to the possibility that he was allowed to take his own life, as I wonder who ordered his cellmate, Efrain “Stone” Reyes to be moved to another jail on Friday Aug 9th, leaving Epstein on his own for the first time in weeks.

    And this, the day the evidence against him was unsealed, 2,000 pages of evidence which he and his layers pored over, the day after his sign his final Will; Epstein releasing, this time, there was no way out but on a stretcher.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Luan Willis
    Favourite Luan Willis
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 12:48 AM

    @David Jordan: tl;dr

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Jordan
    Favourite David Jordan
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 1:45 AM

    @Luan Willis: Epstein’s longtime lawyer and accountant, who helped cover up his abuse, likely drafted his updated Will in anticipation of his demise.

    The Will moved his assets offshore into an inaccessible trust they controlled, they then attempted to use the Victim’s compensation fund to shield themselves and others in Epstein’s orbit by pressuring victims into hush-money settlements.

    The arrangement was thwarted by the hard work of AG of U.S. Virgin Islands, Denise George:

    https://www.wtjx.org/blogs/local-news/virgin-islands-attorney-general-denise-george-settles-sex-trafficking-case-against-estate-of-jeffrey/

    The claim Epstein was murdered deflects from deeper scrutiny.

    TLDR: people are looking in the wrong direction.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute FoxyBoiiYT
    Favourite FoxyBoiiYT
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 11:48 PM

    She literally said she had the Epstein client list in her hands approx 4 months ago. Now she’s claiming it never existed. Such blatent liar’s

    43
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute PhiBo
    Favourite PhiBo
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 12:01 AM

    Mossad

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute M Nevins
    Favourite M Nevins
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 12:38 AM

    Republicans and Democrat s are in this along with some of the most powerful people on the planet..
    This was never going to be released and never will..
    It is what it is, democracy apparently ha

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Rico
    Favourite Rico
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 12:02 AM

    Another Win For Numpty Trumpty, The threat of job security seems to be a great bargaining chip for employment retention, despite Looking Like A National Fool….. Just to keep That Yoke Smirking like the Petulant Child That He Is….

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Name Surname
    Favourite Name Surname
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 9:55 PM

    Haha MSXWEL DONT WANT TO MEET EPSTEIN
    OF COURSE THERE IS NO LIST JUST PICTURES

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Keego
    Favourite Keego
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 10:10 AM

    Hahahahaa tell me he’s on the list or in the video, without telling me he’s on the list and on ththe video

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin O Brien
    Favourite Kevin O Brien
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 9:59 AM

    Epstein was a Israeli Mossad agent who are now in total control of USA UK and EU

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona
    Favourite Fiona
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 10:14 AM

    The woman will probably end up dead. MAGATS need blood.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thomas molloy
    Favourite thomas molloy
    Report
    Jul 8th 2025, 11:45 PM

    While trying to discuss the flood deaths in Texas reporters range chasing tabloid filth headlines. Trump put them in their place. , “we have so many other things to urgently deal with ,” Mr. Trump said, referring to deadly flooding in Texas. “And are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable.”

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute offside again
    Favourite offside again
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 12:14 AM

    @thomas molloy: words come out of his mouth. I understand cats better.
    Whatever sound they make it means either ; let me in or out, or, I want food.
    Simple stuff really.
    Trump is the champion of bs. It’s the world we live in.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute SerotoninWars
    Favourite SerotoninWars
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 10:43 AM

    @thomas molloy: Christ. Is there anything you won’t defend or try to obscure? Just because some time has passed does not mean this story should be buried. You just know that if this involved regular people or people from a different background, you would be raging. The rich white guy dynamic really does hold incredible sway still in the minds of some. They’ll go to hell and back to find excuses.

    Also, it’s completely normal for people in positions of enormous power, such as a US President’s to field questions on multiple topics.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DAN TEDSON
    Favourite DAN TEDSON
    Report
    Jul 9th 2025, 6:03 PM

    Hilarious. They stoked up a hornets nest of outrage among the yokels, now they’re complaining that the peasants are revolting?

    It’s interesting that the first time Epstein was arrested for raping underage girls. He was let off because he was ‘connected with intelligence’.

    And what’s Ghilane Maxwell in prison for then? The eyewitness testimony of several of the victims says she was the pimp for a lot of Epsteins’ ‘Friends’.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds