White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has pushed back on claims that Attorney General Pam Bondi ever claimed there was a Jeffrey Epstein “client list.”
It comes after the Justice Department and the FBI concluded there was no evidence that the convicted sex offender had such a list, or blackmailed people, or was murdered, according to a memo first reported by Axios.
Back in February amid pressure to release Epstein documents, Bondi appeared to claim on Fox News that the client list was sitting on her desk, but Leavitt said on Monday that’s not what she meant.
“What happened to the Epstein client list that the attorney general said she had on her desk?” Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Leavitt during Monday’s briefing.
The press secretary suggested he go back and look at what exactly Bondi said in the interview, but Doocy, who came prepared with the exact quote ready, cut her off.
“John Roberts said ‘DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Esptein’s clients. Will that really happen?’ And she said ‘it’s sitting on my desk right now to review.’” Doocy read back to her.
“Yes, she was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes,” Leavitt claimed. “That’s what the attorney general was referring to, and I’ll let her speak for that.”
Leavitt went on to insist the Justice Department and FBI were committed to “bad people being put behind bars” as she changed the subject away from Epstein and toward crime in general.
She then referred Doocy to the Justice Department for any further details.
After Trump returned to office in January, his supporters had hoped they would get new details on the case as conspiracy theories have been floating about for years surrounding Epstein’s crimes.
The president had said on the campaign trail that he had “no problem” releasing the files related to Epstein.
After taking office, Bondi indicated more information would be released as the president vowed transparency, but right-wing activists have been disappointed in what has been released so far.
The newly revealed two-page memo claimed not only that there was no client list, but it also ruled out that Epstein was murdered in jail, throwing cold water on the conspiracy theories that have floated around for years.
“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,” the memo read.
It noted the conclusion is consistent with previous findings including the autopsy from the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General.
The memo indicated investigators reviewed video from the Manhattan prison that supports the medical examiner’s finding that the 66-year-old disgraced financier took his own life.
It also indicated that there would be no further charges in the case, suggesting additional information would not come to light at potential future trials.
After Bondi’s Fox News response in February, it was widely reported that the potential material that could be released did include a client list.
A month later, Bondi clarified on Fox News that the FBI had only turned over “a couple of hundred pages of documents.” She mentioned “there were names, victims’ names,” but did not get into the existence of a client list.
The revelations in the memo have caused an uproar in MAGA world with some Trump supporters accusing Bondi of lying. They’ve called for her to resign or be fired by the president.
The latest development in the case comes after billionaire Elon Musk blew up his relationship with Trump last month in a dramatic fashion with a bombshell accusation.
“[Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk wrote on X at the time.
Musk posted early on Monday about there being no additional arrests in the Epstein case after the memo was revealed.
Trump last year denied any connection to Epstein in a social media post as old images of the pair together continued to haunt him.
The president wrote he had never been on the convicted sex offender’s plane or on his island.
The post Karoline Leavitt Grilled Over Jeffrey Epstein Client List appeared first on The Daily Beast.
