Washington, 8 July

Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a “client list,” the Justice Department acknowledged Monday as it said no more files related to the wealthy financier's sex trafficking investigation would be made public despite promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The statement is a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote, with Bondi suggesting in a Fox News interview earlier this year that such a document was “sitting on my desk” for review.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Justice Department spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said Monday that Bondi was referring to the overall Epstein case files.

Even as it released video from inside a New York jail meant to definitively prove that Epstein killed himself, the department also said in a memo that it was refusing to disclose other evidence investigators had collected.

Bondi for weeks had suggested more material was going to be revealed — "It's a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public,” she said at one point. Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI. In a March TV interview, she claimed the Biden administration “sat on these documents,” adding: “Sadly these people don't believe in transparency.”

However, the Justice Department determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”.  The two-page memo bore the logos of the Justice Department and the FBI but was not signed by any individual official.

Conservatives who have sought proof of a government cover-up of Epstein's activities and death expressed outrage.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote that “next the DOJ will say actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed”. Elon Musk shared a series of photos of a clown applying makeup appearing to mock Bondi.