U.S. Lawyer Common Pam Bondi on Tuesday afternoon clarified earlier remarks on recordsdata associated to the late intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, saying that earlier feedback she had made had been about paperwork associated to the case, not a “consumer checklist” that officers this week mentioned was nonexistent.
Throughout a Cupboard assembly with President Donald Trump and different administration officers, Bondi was requested questions by reporters concerning the Epstein case.
“Are you continue to speaking about Jeffrey Epstein? This man has been talked about for years. … I can’t consider you’re asking a query about Epstein,” Trump interjected within the White Home assembly earlier than Bondi began to talk.
Bondi then mentioned that she needed to make clear an interview with Fox Information in February through which she was requested concerning the Epstein checklist, and she or he replied, “It’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed” together with recordsdata regarding the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. She mentioned that the desk remark was referring to “the recordsdata” and never a “consumer checklist.”
Referencing the movies and proof she reviewed, she mentioned they “turned out to be youngster porn downloaded by” Epstein and that the pornography will “by no means see the sunshine of day.”
Bondi then mentioned that she has “no data” about Epstein being a authorities agent, which was requested by a reporter. She additionally mentioned that the video footage from his August 2019 dying in a New York Metropolis jail confirmed that he dedicated suicide.
Responding to complaints {that a} minute was taken off the Epstein cell surveillance video counter, Bondi mentioned that it’s regular and {that a} minute is lacking from jail footage each evening. She indicated that video footage can be launched to indicate that.
Through the information convention, Bondi gave the impression to be responding to complaints on-line after each the Division of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI this week revealed in a memo that Epstein didn’t have a consumer checklist and maintained that he killed himself in jail whereas awaiting new federal intercourse trafficking costs. There was additionally no proof that Epstein allegedly blackmailed people, the companies mentioned.
“As a part of our dedication to transparency, the Division of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have carried out an exhaustive overview of investigative holdings regarding Jeffrey Epstein,” the FBI and DOJ mentioned within the memo, confirmed by White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday.
However federal officers concluded that Epstein had “harmed over one thousand victims” and famous that “every suffered distinctive trauma.”
“To make sure that the overview was thorough, the FBI carried out digital searches of its databases, arduous drives, and community drives in addition to bodily searches of squad areas, locked cupboards, desks, closets, and different areas the place responsive materials could have been saved,” the memo reads.
Earlier this 12 months, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino mentioned in an interview with Fox Information that Epstein, who was additionally recognized to have owned an island within the Caribbean and a personal jet, died through suicide in his jail cell.
Epstein’s dying has been the topic of hypothesis attributable to his ties to rich, highly effective, and well-known people. His brother, Mark Epstein, has for years claimed that Epstein didn’t kill himself.
Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and affiliate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted on intercourse trafficking costs in 2021 and was sentenced to twenty years in jail in 2022.
Epstein in 2008 had pleaded responsible to state costs in Florida of soliciting a prostitute and procuring a minor for prostitution, finally serving 13 months in jail and was in a position to go away jail as a part of a work-release program.
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