Politics

Pam Bondi Cornered on Her Epstein Files Hype at Trump Cabinet Meeting

DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS

The attorney general has taken heat for flip-flopping on the release of government information about the sex offender.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was put on the spot about the so-called “client list” of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein at President Donald Trump’s Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

Bondi, who has taken heat for shutting down conspiracies about Epstein’s clientele and death months after previously inflaming them, took the chance to defend herself.

“In February, I did an interview on Fox that is getting a lot of attention because I was asked a question about the client list. And my response was, ‘It is sitting on my desk to be reviewed,’ meaning the files, along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That is what I meant by that.”

Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was pressed about the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein. Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS

Asked specifically about a claim that Epstein was a U.S. intelligence asset, Bondi said: “I have no knowledge and we can get back to you on that.”

Bondi also torpedoed a conspiracy about missing footage from jailhouse surveillance tapes in Epstein’s cell block on the night of his death, which was ruled a suicide.

She said that that same minute—from 11:59 to midnight—is missing on all tapes from the prison’s tapes.

“We’re looking for that video, to release that as well, to show that a minute is missing every night,” Bondi said.

“And that is it on Epstein,” she concluded.

MAGA has raged at Bondi since the Justice Department and FBI released a memo, which leaked on Sunday, denying both that the Epstein files contained a client list and that there was any chance the disgraced financier was murdered.

In February, Bondi orchestrated a much-publicized release of files related to Epstein, giving them directly to right-wing influencers. She said on Fox News that the files were sure to “make you sick.”

When the released files featured no bombshells and contained information that was mostly previously released, high-profile MAGA figures began to call for her head.

At the Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump intervened when Bondi was asked about Epstein, attempting to shut down the question.

Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump.
Trump at first tried to shut down the question to Pam Bondi about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

“Are you still talking about Jeffery Epstein?” Trump asked. “This guy’s been talked about for years... We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”

“Do you want to waste the time, and you feel like answering?” he asked Bondi.

Concerns about Trump’s ties to Epstein have long swirled, in part due to photos and videos from long before Trump was president showing the two men together. There is no evidence Trump was aware of Epstein’s offending.

Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1997.(Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
Concerns about Trump’s ties to Epstein have long swirled, as the two have been photographed together. Davidoff Studios Photography/Getty Images

The controversy was reignited in June, when Elon Musk alleged that Trump was in the Epstein files and that was why they hadn’t been released.

The allegation was made in a social media post—which the former Department of Government Efficiency head later deleted—during the two men’s messy break-up.

The Daily Beast exclusively published tapes in November 2024, recorded in 2017, in which Epstein claimed that he was Trump’s “closest friend.”