The US Department of Justice and FBI concluded that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein did not have a so-called client list that could implicate high-profile associates, and that he did take his own life – contradicting long-held conspiracy theories about the infamous case.
While campaigning last year, President Donald Trump promised to release files relating to the disgraced financier.
But since he returned to office in January, some of his supporters have grown frustrated with the administration’s handling of the case and for failing to deliver new revelations.
The issue re-emerged earlier this year amid a public spat between Trump and his former adviser Elon Musk.
Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was more than a decade after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.
According to a two-page Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI memo, investigators found no “incriminating list” of clients and “no credible evidence” that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.
Investigators also released footage they say supports the medical examiner’s conclusion that Epstein died by suicide while being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.
Some conspiracy theorists have suggested that Epstein was murdered to stop him from implicating government officials, celebrities and other business tycoons who were involved in his crimes.
FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino had previously questioned the official narrative regarding Epstein’s death – although since joining the Trump administration, both have acknowledged that Epstein took his own life.
The memo adds that investigators “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties”.
The memo was met with disbelief from some supporters of Trump and his Make America Great Again (Maga) movement.
In a post on X, right-wing commentator Rogan O’Handley called it “a shameful coverup to protect the most heinous elites”.
Some have claimed the conclusions reached in the memo contradict statements from Attorney General Pam Bondi in a Fox News interview that aired in February.
“The DoJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients, will that really happen?”, Bondi was asked on Fox, to which she replied: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review”.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday the attorney general was referring to all the files that are related to Epstein’s crimes, rather than a specific list.
Some conservative supporters of Trump had already voiced frustration with the administration’s handling of disclosures regarding the Epstein files, particularly after Bondi released a tranche of case documents that had already been available publicly.
“This is not what we or the American people asked for and a complete disappointment,” conservative lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna wrote on X at the time. “Get us the information we asked for.”
Following the disclosure, Bondi accused federal investigators of withholding thousands of documents related to the case.
More recently, she told reporters at the White House that the FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn”, although she did not provide further details.
The White House said on Monday that some files related to Epstein were withheld due to their “incredibly graphic” nature.
In late April, Trump was asked when new information regarding the case would be released.
“I don’t know. I’ll speak to the attorney general about that,” Trump responded. “I really don’t know.”
Debate about the Epstein case broke out again last month – amid a public spat with the president – tech billionaire Musk claimed, without evidence, that Trump appears in unreleased government files linked to the late sex offender.
The White House rubbished those claims, and the post was deleted by Musk. He later said he regretted some of the content he posted about Trump online during their row, saying he went “too far”.
By BBC News
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