Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing scrutiny for remarks she made this year about Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking case after the Department of Justice and FBI brought their Epstein inquiry to an abrupt close over the weekend.
The White House was grilled by reporters Monday about Bondi's remarks, which appeared to contradict a memo the DOJ and FBI released earlier in the day stating that their Epstein review was complete and that they had nothing further to share with the public about it.
Fox News's Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about Bondi apparently confirming in February that a nonpublic list of Epstein's sex-trafficking clients existed.
"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 said.
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The question was a reference to Fox News's John Roberts asking Bondi during a television interview if the DOJ planned to release a "list of Epstein's clients."
"It's sitting on my desk right now to review," Bondi said at the time. "That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that."
Asked for comment, a DOJ spokesperson pointed to Leavitt's remarks and said the Trump administration has been more transparent than its predecessor.
"We've delivered more transparency in 6 months than the Biden administration did in 4 years," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The newly released DOJ and FBI memo quashed theories about a nonpublic Epstein list, which was promoted for years by a vocal faction of Trump supporters, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino before they joined the bureau. The list was said to include names of powerful figures who were sexual predators associated with Epstein.
"This systematic review revealed no incriminating 'client list,'" the memo read.
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Bondi first drew criticism in February after teasing the release of damaging evidence related to Epstein. The attorney general, however, failed to deliver any new information to the public and blamed the FBI's New York field office for withholding "thousands of pages of documents" from her.
At the time, the Trump administration invited a group of right-wing social media influencers to the White House and gave them binders of what appeared to be a first look at the highly anticipated Epstein-related material.
Widely circulated photos showed the White House visitors smiling with the binders, which were labeled "classified" and the "Esptein Files: Phase 1." The Epstein information, later published online, was largely a compilation of public court documents.
Some of the same influencers took to X to express incredulity over the new memo and call for Bondi's replacement.
"I'm supposed to be on vacation, but it's time to fire Pam Bondi," Liz Wheeler wrote.
Mike Cernovich wrote that "nobody can even understand" why the FBI and DOJ put out the memo and that "everyone is p*****."
Rogan O'Handley called the memo a "shameful chapter in our country's history."
In response to a question from another reporter, Leavitt said nonpublic material was too explicit to release.
"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.
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The DOJ and FBI's memo also reiterated what the FBI and DOJ inspector general found in 2023, that Epstein died by suicide.
Following the botched rollout of the files, Bondi raised eyebrows once again by claiming to reporters in May that there were "tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn, and there are hundreds of victims."
But public court filings and the newly released memo do not corroborate that statement. The memo stated, however, that "files relating to Epstein" included "ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography."
Epstein was indicted in 2019 for allegedly recruiting dozens of women and girls as young as 14 and engaging in sexual relations with them at his homes in Manhattan, Palm Beach, and elsewhere. He allegedly sexually abused some of them.
Authorities confirmed that Epstein hanged himself in his prison cell in New York City in 2019, before he could stand trial. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of conspiring to sexually abuse minors and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
