
Department of Justice leaders are facing sharp criticism and resignation calls from a faction of their supporters after they ended their inquiry into Jeffrey Epsteinâs sex trafficking case without releasing new files.
The outrage, emanating largely from the right, can be tied to several past instances when those same leaders and other Republicans with large platforms once promoted the existence of incriminating, nonpublic Epstein case files, including a supposed list of sexual predators who were his clients.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino now say they have nothing further to share with the public about Epsteinâs case.
In a joint, unsigned memo, the DOJ and FBI said Monday that after an exhaustive inquiry uncovering 300 gigabytesâ worth of material related to Epsteinâs case, they found no signs of illegal activity by any new third parties.Â
âWe did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,â the memo read.
The memo stated that âmuch of the materialâ related to the Epstein case was subject to court-ordered seals, prohibiting the DOJ from releasing it. The client list, a point of significant discourse, does not exist, the memo said.
Some of President Donald Trumpâs supporters and Patelâs and Bonginoâs massive fan bases are now making it clear that they expected more. Below are 10 possible reasons for that.
1. Kash Patel said House Republicans should release âEpsteinâs listâ of âpedophiles.âÂ
Right-wing commentator Benny Johnson asked Patel why the government had not released information about Epsteinâs purported clients, according to a clip Johnson shared in December 2023, before Patel became FBI director.
âSimple, because of whoâs on that list,â Patel replied. âYou donât think that Bill Gates is lobbying Congress night and day to prevent the disclosure of that list?â
Patel criticized the Republican-led House for failing to obtain âEpsteinâs list.â
 âWhat the hell are the House Republicans doing? They have the majority. You canât get the list?â Patel asked, later adding, âWe canât even get basic documents out. This is why America hates Congress.â
âPut on your big boy pants, and let us know who the pedophiles are,â Patel said.
2. Kash Patel told Glenn Beck that the FBI director has âdirect controlâ of Epsteinâs address book.
In an interview in December 2023, Patel addressed questions from BlazeTV host Glenn Beck about Epsteinâs âblack book.â Patel said the FBI had the book.
âThatâs under direct control of the director of the FBI,â the now-FBI director said.
Patel added, âThatâs a thing I think President Trump should run on. On day one, roll out the black book.â
Epsteinâs address books have long been a point of scrutiny. His house manager tried to sell one, according to a 2009 FBI affidavit. Gawker published one of the address books in 2015 with phone numbers redacted. That version contains hundreds of both well-known and obscure names. A judge allowed one of the address books to be entered under seal into the court record during his associate Ghislain Maxwellâs sex trafficking trial in 2021.
3. Trump told Fox News during his campaign that he plans to release the Epstein files.
When asked on âFox & Friends Weekendâ last year if Trump would âdeclassify the Epstein filesâ if he were elected president, Trump replied that he would.
âYeah, yeah I would. I guess I would,â Trump said. âI think less so because you donât know, you donât want to affect peopleâs lives if itâs phony stuff in there, because thereâs a lot of phony stuff with that whole world, but I think I would.â
On Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting, Trump brushed off the topic of Epstein when asked by a reporter about him.
âAre people still talking about this guy, this creep?â Trump said. âThat is unbelievable.â
4. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., insisted there is a âlist,â even after the Bondi-led DOJ said otherwise.
âWhat about her little black book? The 97-page book, contains the names and contact details of almost 2,000 people including world leaders, celebrities and businessmen,â Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote this week on X. âNo one believes there is not a client list.â
The Miami Heraldâs Julie Brown, who followed and reported on Epsteinâs case for years, has said claims about the list are dubious.
âThere is no client list that I am aware of. My theory is it was something conspiracy theorists cooked up to monetize their podcasts online,â Brown wrote in response to social media users in 2024.
5. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., claimed âEpsteinâs client listâ was âkey to helping us crack this trafficking ring wide open.â
Sen. Marsha Blackburn has made the release of the Epstein files one of her top priorities over the past couple of years.
From promoting anticipated disclosures on the Senate floor to posting dozens of times about the matter on social media, Blackburn has vowed that âaccountability for these predators is coming.â
âEpsteinâs client list and the information I requested to reveal his associates & business dealings are key to helping us crack this trafficking ring wide open,â Blackburn wrote on social media in February.
Ahead of the DOJ releasing a small tranche of files in February, Blackburn said âthis will be a âphase 1â release. There will be more to come.â
The Trump administration first released that batch of information, which contained no new revelations, in February to right-wing social media influencers. They appeared in photos at the White House with binders the Trump administration gave them that were labeled âclassifiedâ and âEpstein files: Phase 1.â
Blackburn also secured a promise from Patel during his confirmation hearing this year that he would publish Epstein files.
6. Bondi suggested an Epstein list was on her desk.
Bondi was asked by host John Roberts during a Fox News interview in February if she planned to release a âlist of Epsteinâs clients.â
âItâs sitting on my desk right now to review,â Bondi said. âThatâs been a directive by President Trump. Iâm reviewing that.â
Bondi clarified her remarks during the Cabinet meeting with Trump on Tuesday, saying she was referencing Epsteinâs entire case file.
âIn February, I did an interview on Fox, and itâs been getting a lot of attention because I said, I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, âItâs sitting on my desk to be reviewed,â meaning the [Epstein] file along with the JFK and MLK files, as well,â Bondi said. âThatâs what I meant by that.â
7. Bondi told Sean Hannity that the DOJ has a âtruckloadâ of Epstein evidence.
After the initial document release flopped, Bondi falsely said the FBIâs New York office was intentionally withholding documents from her.
During an interview with Fox Newsâs Sean Hannity in March, Bondi claimed a âsourceâ told her the case files were in New York, where Epstein was indicted in 2019.
âI gave them a deadline of Friday at 8 a.m. to get us everything, and a source had told me where the documents were being kept, Southern District of New York, shock,â Bondi said. âSo we got them all by, hopefully all of them, Friday at 8 a.m., thousands of pages of documents.â
âDirector Patel is going to get us a detailed report as to why the FBI withheld all of those documents,â Bondi said, adding that a âtruckload of evidence arrivedâ at the DOJ after she requested the documents from New York.
The attorney general then went on a tirade about transparency and again questioned why the case files were in New York.
8. Bongino told his podcast listeners the âEpstein client list is a huge deal.â There is âa reason theyâre hiding it,â he said.
Bongino predicted on his podcast in September 2024 that the âEpstein client list,â which he now says does not exist, âis going to rock the Democrat Party.â
âFolks, the Epstein client list is a huge deal,â Bongino said.
âThe reason the Epstein client list being revealed is so important is because I want you to understand that there is a class of bekightened folks ⊠who are not subjected to the same rules you are,â Bongino said.
The former podcast star warned, âFolks, youâre going to see a lot of names on that. ⊠Itâs going to rock the political world. Thereâs a reason theyâre hiding it.â
Bongino pushed the theory that Epsteinâs death in 2019 in his jail cell was not a suicide, despite the DOJ inspector general and a medical examiner saying it was.
Epstein âis deceased under, at a minimum, suspicious circumstances,â Bongino said.
In the FBI and DOJâs new memo, they concluded that Epsteinâs death was caused by suicide.
9. Bondi said she was briefed on the Epstein files and could not talk about them.
Bondi told Benny Johnson in February that she was briefed about the matter and unable to comment on it.
Johnson asked, âWhere are we at with the Jeffrey Epstein list? The documents? And Kash has made a lot of public statements about this.â
âI was briefed on that yesterday,â Bondi said. âI canât talk about that publicly. But, President Trump has given a very strong directive, and thatâs going to be followed.â
10. Patel said in November that ârestoring trustâ in federal agencies could include giving the public the âEpstein list.âÂ
Patel told told Johnson last November that what is âmost importantâ is ârestoring trust in our agencies and departments.â
âThe way to do that is to literally give the American people the truth,â Patel said. âAnd thatâs what they feared about Donald Trump. Heâs going to come in there and maybe give them the Epstein list and maybe give them the P. Diddy list ⊠and they are terrified.â
Epstein was indicted in 2019 for allegedly recruiting dozens of women and minors as young as 14 and engaging in sexual relations with them at his lavish homes in Florida, New York and elsewhere. He allegedly sexually abused some of them.
He died after being found unresponsive in his prison cell in New York City in 2019. Maxwell, his associate, was convicted of conspiring to sexually abuse minors and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She has an appeal in her case pending.