Trump officials come under fire for unfulfilled promises on Epstein documents

Justice Department leaders face sharp criticism and calls for resignation from supporters after investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking case without releasing new documents.

When those same leaders and other Republicans with huge platforms have promoted the existence of crimes of existence, non-public Epstein case archives, including his clients’ list of sexual predators, these angers may be related to several past instances.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino now say they don't matter to Epstein's case.

In an unsigned memorandum, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI said Monday that after detailed inquiries, 300 gigabytes of material related to the Epstein case were found, and they found no new signs of illegal activity by third parties.

Bondi, who has been behind the Justice Department, did not disclose Epstein's client list under siege

“We found no evidence that an uncharged third party could be investigated,” the memo read.

The memorandum states that “most of the material” related to the Epstein case was sealed by the court order, prohibiting the Justice Department from releasing it. The memo says that the customer list is an important discourse that does not exist.

Some of President Donald Trump’s supporters, Patel and Bongino’s large fan bases are now making it clear that they expect more. Here are 10 possible reasons.

1. Kash Patel said House Republicans should release “Epstein’s list” “pedophiles.”

Right-wing commentator Benny Johnson asked Patel why Johnson shared Patel before Patel became a director of the FBI and why the government did not release information about Epstein’s alleged clients.

“It's simple, because who's on the list,” Patel replied. “Don’t you think Bill Gates lobbied Congress at night and prevented disclosure of that list?”

Patel criticized the Republican-led house for failing to get “Epstein's list.”

“What are House Republicans doing? They have a majority. You can't get a list?” Patel asked, later adding: “We can't even get basic documents. That's why the United States hates Congress.”

“Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophile is,” Patel said.

2. Kash Patel told Glenn Beck that the FBI director had “direct control” over Epstein's address book.

In a December 2023 interview, Patel raised questions about Epstein's “Black Book” from Blazetv host Glenn Beck. Patel said the FBI has the book.

“This is the direct control of the FBI director,” the current FBI director said.

Patel added: “I think President Trump should keep moving forward. On the first day, launch the black book.”

Epstein's address book has long been the focus of censorship. His House manager tried to sell one, according to the 2009 FBI affidavit. Gawker published one of the address books in 2015 and edited the phone number. This version contains hundreds of well-known and obscure names. A judge allowed one of the address books to be sealed in court records during the 2021 Ghislain Maxwell deputy trafficking trial.

3. Trump told Fox News during the campaign that he plans to release Epstein’s archives.

When asked last year on Fox and Friends Weekend whether Trump would “explain the Epstein archives” if he was elected president, Trump replied that he would.

“Yes, I will. I think I will,” Trump said. “I think less, because you don't know if there's something fake inside, you don't want to affect people's lives because there's a lot of fake things in the whole world, but I think I'll do it.”

Trump refuted Epstein's topic when reporters asked him on Tuesday at a cabinet meeting.

“Are people still talking about this guy?” Trump said. “That’s incredible.”

4. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. insisted that there was a “list”, even if Bondi-Leed Doj said something else.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X this week: “Where is her little black book? The 97-page book contains names and contact information of nearly 2,000 people.”

Julie Brown of the Miami Herald, who has been covering Epstein's case for many years, said his claims about the list are suspicious.

“I don't know about the list of clients. My theory is that this is something conspiracy theorists monetize online,” Brown wrote in a 2024 response to social media users.

5. Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. Claiming “Epstein’s customer list” is “the key to helping us crack this trafficking ring”.

Senator Marsha Blackburn has released the Epstein archive as one of her top priorities in the past few years.

From promoting expected disclosures on the Senate ground to posting dozens of times about the matter on social media, Blackburn vowed “the production of responsibility for these predators is coming.”

“Epstein's list of clients and my request to disclose information about his colleagues and business deals is key to helping us crack this trafficking ring,” Blackburn wrote on social media in February.

Before the Justice Department released a small portion of the documents in February, Blackburn said: “It will be the 'Phase 1 release. There will be more.”

Trump asks reporters who “crawl” Jeffrey Epstein at Cabinet Meeting

The Trump administration first released a batch of information from right-wing social media influencers in February, which had no new revelations. They appeared in photos of the White House, where the Trump administration gave them photos tagged as “Category” and “Epstein Archives: Stage 1.”

Blackburn also turned to Patel at this year's confirmation hearing, saying he would release Epstein's archives.

6. Bondy suggests having an Epstein's list on her desk.

Host John Roberts asked Bondi to release a “Epstein client list” in a Fox News interview in February.

“Now is sitting at my desk for review,” Bondy said. “That was President Trump's instructions. I'm reviewing it.”

Bondy clarified her remarks at a cabinet meeting with Trump on Tuesday, saying she was referring to Epstein’s entire case file.

“In February, I had an interview on Fox and it attracted a lot of attention because I said, I was asked a question about the list of customers and my answer was, ‘It was sitting on my desk,’ [Epstein] “That's what I mean,” Bondy said.

7. Bondy told Sean Hannity that the Justice Department had a “truck” Epstein evidence.

After the initial documents were released, Bondy mistakenly stated that the FBI's New York office had intentionally withheld her documents.

In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity in March, Bondy claimed that “sources” told her that the case files were in New York and that Epstein was indicted in 2019.

“I gave them a Friday 8 a.m. deadline to get us all,” Bondy said. “Therefore, we're going to get them all, and we hope all of them are Friday 8 a.m., thousands of pages of documents.”

Ag Pam Bondi on Epstein's document: “The public has the right to know”

“The director of Patel will provide us with a detailed report on why the FBI withheld all of these documents,” Bondi said. Bondi added that the Justice Department “had a lot of evidence arrived” after she asked for documents from New York.

The Attorney General then made a long tidbit about transparency and again questioned why the case was in New York.

8. Bongino told his podcast listener that “Epstein’s client list is important.” “There's a reason they hide it,” he said.

Bongino predicted in a September 2024 podcast that “Epstein’s client list” (he said it doesn’t exist), “will rock the Democrats.”

“The Epstein client list is a huge sum, guys,” Bongino said.

“The reason why Epstein client lists are revealed is so important because I want you to understand that there is a kind of Bekightened people … they are not following the same rules you have,” Bongino said.

The former podcast star warned: “You're going to see a lot of names in it, guys. … It's going to rock the political world. There's a reason they hide it.”

Bongino pushed the theory that Epstein's death in his prison cell in 2019 was not suicide, despite the Justice Department's inspector general and medical examiner.

Bongino said Epstein was “deceased in at least suspicious circumstances,” Bongino said.

In a new FBI and the Justice Department memo, they concluded that Epstein's death was caused by suicide.

9. Bondy said she had briefed Epstein’s archives and could not talk about them.

Bondy told Benny Johnson in February that she briefed the matter and was unable to comment.

“Where are we on the Jeffrey Epstein list? These documents? Kash has made a lot of public statements about this,” Johnson asked.

“I briefed this yesterday,” Bondy said. “I can't talk about this publicly. But President Trump has made a very strong direction that will be followed.”

10. Patel said in November that “restore of trust” by federal agencies could include providing the public with “Epstein’s list.”

Patel told Johnson last November that the “most important thing” is to “restore trust in our institutions and departments.”

“The way to do this is to give the American people literally the truth,” Patel said. “That's their concerns about Donald Trump. He'll come there, maybe give them Epstein's list, maybe give them P. Diddy's list… They're scared.”

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Epstein was indicted in 2019 for allegedly recruiting dozens of women and minors under the age of 14 and had sex with them in his luxury homes in Florida, New York and elsewhere. He allegedly sexually abused some of them.

He was found to be unresponsive in a prison cell in New York City in 2019. She appealed during the trial of the case.