Attorney General Pam Bondi insists more Jeffrey Epstein files are being released – despite disastrous ‘phase 1’
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Attorney General Pam Bondi has again proclaimed that America will get “the full” Jeffrey Epstein files after the highly-anticipated “first phase” contained no major new allegations about the convicted sex offender nor his associates.
The nation’s top law enforcement officer publicly released about 200 pages of files Thursday, including a series of flight logs from Esptein’s private jet, a partly-redacted “contacts list,” and a fully blacked-out list of “masseuses.” Later Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice accused the FBI of withholding “thousands of pages” of Epstein documents, as Bondi wrote a letter to the bureau’s newly-confirmed director Kash Patel demanding that all material related to the disgraced financier be turned over to her office by Friday morning.
On Saturday, Bondi told Fox News host Mark Levin that Americans will “get the full Epstein files” thanks to Donald Trump being the “most transparent president.”
“New York City SDNY (Southern District of New York), they’re sitting on thousands of pages of documents regarding Epstein. Thousands, thousands. And of course, you’ve seen the very strong letter,” she said.
“We will get everything. We will have it in our possession. We will redact it, of course, to protect grand jury information and confidential witnesses. But the American people have a right to know. And Donald Trump is the most transparent president in our nation’s history.”
Bondi also promised that documents surrounding the assassinations of former President John F Kennedy and civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr will also be declassified.
“So not only will America get the full Epstein files, they will get JFK, they will get Martin Luther King,” she said.
The hyped declassification of “all” of the Epstein documents was met with backlash from conservatives after Bondi teed up their release Wednesday and told Fox News that the details “will make you sick.”
A cohort of MAGA influencers elaborately unveiled binders containing “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” at the White House Thursday before the DoJ made the documents publicly available online.
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Much of the material released was previously published material from the prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s girlfriend and close confidant, two years after the disgraced financier took his own life while in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on new charges of trafficking teenage girls.
Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, Epstein’s criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests.
In January 2024, a court unsealed the final batch of documents collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.
“It was released in an unprofessional manner with paid, partisan social media influencers to curate their binders for us,” right-wing media pundit and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer tweeted Thursday. “I can’t trust anything in the binder. Neither should you.”
Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, head of a new congressional task force to declassify “federal secrets,” added: “THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!
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Later Thursday, Bondi instructed Patel to conduct an “immediate” investigation into the bureau’s failure to deliver the “full set” of the Epstein files and a two-week-long investigation launched into why her orders were not followed.
The FBI director took to X and wrote: “There will be no cover-ups, no missing documents, and no stone left unturned — and anyone from the prior or current Bureau who undermines this will be swiftly pursued.
“If there are gaps, we will find them. If records have been hidden, we will uncover them.”
The Independent has reached out to the FBI and DoJ for more information.