After a lengthy investigation into remaining questions about the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department and FBI on Monday released a memo declaring that, contrary to various popular conspiracy theories, he was not murdered but in fact killed himself. Investigators also concluded that he never had a “client list” used to blackmail celebrities and political elites.
Meanwhile, Trump‘s inner circle, knowing full well that some of the president’s loudest supporters refuse to accept either claim, braced for impact.
“As part of our commitment to transparency, the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted an exhaustive review of investigative holdings relating to Jeffrey Epstein,” the joint FBI and DOJ memo states. “This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
The memo further notes: “After a thorough investigation, FBI investigators concluded that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019,” adding that this is consistent with previous findings, including from an autopsy performed at the time. The Justice Department also shared more than 10 hours of CCTV video from the facility where Epstein had been held. It shows him being escorted by correctional officers across a common area to his cell, which is off-camera, on the evening of Aug. 9. From this footage, it appears nobody else entered his cell afterward.
As the Trump administration prepared to release this two-page memo, officials were acutely aware of the furor it would ignite in the fiercely conspiracist MAGA base.
“They’re gonna be so mad at us,” one Trump administration official tells Rolling Stone of the memo on the FBI and Justice Department conclusions. This insider was of course referring to the legion of prominent figures who have eagerly awaited Epstein bombshells since Trump returned to office, only to learn again and again that no new information is forthcoming.
This person, as well as two other Trump officials, described an administration that has spent an inordinate amount of time trying (and failing) to appease conspiracy theorists long obsessed with unfounded claims that Epstein was murdered to protect some of Trump’s enemies, including high-profile Democrats and liberal Hollywood stars. These ideas abound in MAGA world despite Trump’s own well-documented connections to Epstein.
After months of pushing federal law enforcement to produce some sort of acceptable sop for the MAGA Epstein conspiracists, Trump administration officials are now hoping to manage the intra-party disappointment. One of the three officials who spoke with Rolling Stone says that they’ve been fielding messages from “really upset” right-wing influencers and allies of the White House, doing their best to convince this group that the administration is being as transparent as possible on the matter. They are also reiterating that Epstein did in fact die by suicide while incarcerated and awaiting trial for the sex trafficking of minors.
Asked if these attempts to tamp down the backlash has worked, this Trump administration official says, simply, “No.”
Indeed, some far-right personalities were so incensed that the decided the memo had to be fake, pointing out the lack of a date or signature. It is, however, posted on the Justice Department website, which somewhat undercuts that argument.
Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump megadonor who has since turned on the president over his massive spending bill and pledged to form a new political party, was among those to make a stink. Having previously accused Trump of suppressing the so-called “Epstein files” because he is named in them (in posts that he later deleted), the world’s richest man on Monday shared memes on X, his social media platform, mocking the administration for not producing a client list. One image he posted was an “Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter” displaying zeros. He also shared a post from Republican Texas state delegate Sarah Fields, who wrote, “If the entire government is protecting pedophiles, it has officially become the government against the people.”
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s promises of major revelations in the Epstein case had already fizzled back in February. Despite appearing on Fox News to hype up the release of details on Epstein’s associates, she only managed to provide binders of already public information to a handful of right-wing influencers. To spread the blame for the inevitable disappointment of what she had sold to the MAGA faithful as “The Epstein Files: Phase One,” Bondi simultaneously issued a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, claiming that the bureau had withheld evidence she had requested. (No “Phase Two” documents have been released.)
The latest memo from the FBI and DOJ escalated the criticism of Bondi that erupted over that fiasco. Trump sycophant and conspiracist Laura Loomer repeatedly called for her resignation on Monday. “Hopefully someone at the White House press briefing today asks if President Trump plans on FIRING Pam Blondi,” she wrote in an X post, using her regular, dismissive nickname for the AG. “If she doesn’t get fired over this Epstein memo, people are going to be so black pilled.” Jack Posobiec, one of the influencers to receive the dud “Phase One” documents, wrote, “When will @AGPamBondi be filing to unseal the Epstein files from the criminal case? We were promised everything.”
Right-wing podcaster Tim Pool, meanwhile, accused Bondi of “keeping the tens of thousands of child porn videos for herself.” The Justice Department and FBI memo states that investigators reviewed “a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography.” The document clarifies that no videos of abuse of minors will be released by the government, while much of the rest of the content is under court seal “only to protect victims” and “did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed on Bondi’s previous claims to have an Epstein client list on her desk by Fox News’ Peter Doocy on Monday. “She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper, in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes,” Leavitt countered. “That’s what the attorney general was referring to, and I’ll let her speak for that.”
In May, conspiracy theorists had to account for why FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who as a podcaster had heavily implied that Epstein was murdered as part of a massive cover-up, was now insisting that he had died by suicide. “There’s no evidence in the case file indicating otherwise,” he posted on X that month. Patel, too, a known QAnon promoter, had once claimed that it would be easy for the FBI to “let us know who the pedophiles are,” but since taking over the bureau has not released any list of Epstein clients or associates.
Some top Trump appointees are rather sensitive to suggestions made by the president’s faithful that this administration — in failing to validate their conspiracy theories — is now infected by the same so-called “Deep State” that Republicans have spent years whining about. Two of the Trump officials say that Bongino is especially touchy about this. Loomer on Monday shared a post from Bongino from April 2024 implying that Bill Clinton was an Epstein client. “It’s amazing how much things have changed,” she wrote. “He knows deep down the DOJ is lying.”
In reality, while there is much we still don’t know about the Epstein case, there has never been any reference in court documents or from witnesses attesting to the existence of the fabled “client list” at the heart of the conspiracy theories once peddled by Bongino and Patel, which have come back to haunt them, Bondi, and other high-ranking Trump appointees. But the conspiracist set can enjoy a silver lining here: Because they will never get the answers they’re after, they’re free to keep making things up.
