Trump's team promised transparency on Epstein. Here's what they delivered.

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WASHINGTON – For years, members of President Donald Trump's inner circle have called on federal officials to release their files on Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Since Trump took office, Trump administration officials have propelled that campaign forward, suggesting new names from Epstein's purported client list and new accountability were in store.
"Absolutely," Alina Habba said when asked by British journalist Piers Morgan in February if "we are likely to see criminal actions being taken" in relation to Epstein. Habba was serving as counselor to the president and is now the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey. "To hide lists, to protect political friends, all of that, we don't have time for that."
"It's a new day, it's a new administration, and everything's going to come out to the public," Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a March interview.
Many who were eagerly awaiting the administration's next steps are now stewing in disappointment at what the Trump administration has delivered. In a July memo, the Justice Department and FBI said their "systematic review" of documents related to Epstein "revealed no incriminating 'client list.'"
"(W)hile we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein ... no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted," the offices said.
After his team made such concrete promises, the report this week was tough for many Trump loyalists to swallow. Some of the president's most ardent supporters were in uproar.
"I'm going to go throw up actually," said right-wing radio show host Alex Jones in a July 7 video post on X, as tears welled up in his eyes.
"Shut down the FBI," former Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington posted on X July 8.
"No one believes there is not a client list," Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a July 8 post on X.
The outrage comes after years of claims from Trump's inner circle that the government has been hiding information on Epstein's possible associates and the circumstances of his death.
More: Epstein case fallout reaches fevered pitch with reports FBI's Dan Bongino could resign
While conspiracy theories have mounted online that a political elite had Epstein killed so he couldn't reveal the identities of others involved in his alleged sex-trafficking crimes, New York's chief medical examiner ruled in 2019 that Epstein died by suicide. The Justice Department memo this week echoes that finding.
That hasn't stopped some right-wing commentators from speculating that the administration is perpetuating a cover-up.
"Why is Pam Bondi's Justice Department covering up Jeffrey Epstein's crimes and murder?" right-wing political commentator Tucker Carlson posted on X July 8.
USA TODAY combed through years of public statements that may shed light on why so many Trump supporters are angry. Trump allies and top-ranking members of his administration have long promoted theories that there was more to the Epstein story and that Trump, if re-elected, would reveal the full picture.
Here's a timeline of what they've said:
"Remember when we learned that our wealthiest and most powerful people were connected to a guy who ran a literal child sex trafficking ring? And then that guy died mysteriously in a jail? And now we just don't talk about it," the future vice president posted on X on June 4, 2021, a few weeks before announcing his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio.
"What possible interest would the US government have in keeping Epstein's clients secret? Oh…" Vance said in a post on X on Dec. 30, 2021. Vance pointed in his post to a right-wing activist's claim that Biden's Justice Department made a deal to keep a "little black book" of Epstein associate and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell's contacts secret.
"There are a lot of people who are knee-deep in the Washington swamp who are not telling you the truth about serious allegations out there that Epstein may have had video and audio of people out there doing things they shouldn't have been doing," said Bongino, who was speaking on the "The Dan Bongino Show" on May 1, 2023. The future deputy director of the FBI said at the time, "Jeffrey Epstein isn't with us anymore and nobody seems to want to talk about it outside of a few entrepreneurial media outlets saying, 'Hey, this is a big deal.'"
Kash Patel, who would become Trump's FBI director, told right-wing media personality Glenn Beck on Dec. 13, 2023, that the head of the FBI under Biden had direct control of Epstein's "black book." "That's why you don't have the black book," Patel added. "And, to me, that's a thing I think President Trump should run on. On Day 1, roll out the 'black book.'"
"It's the same thing with Epstein's list. It's like, what the hell are these Republicans doing?" Patel said to right-wing media personality Benny Johnson on Dec. 19, 2023, a few months after his "Government Gangsters" book on an alleged anti-Trump "deep state" was published. He said, "I don't care about the (Epstein) list itself, but release the names, right? What the hell are the House Republicans doing? They have the majority. You can't get the list?" He also said, "Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. We have an election coming up, and we need to adjudicate this matter at the polls." And he went on to say, "God knows the FBI and DOJ aren't going to do anything, but how are you going to reward the FBI with the new headquarters building ... and we can't even get basic documents out? This is why America hates Congress, and this is why I'm tired of the Republican majority saying they're going to get the job done and failing."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News' Jesse Watters on Dec. 5, 2023, during his 2024 presidential election campaign: "We should get real answers on what happened to Jeffrey Epstein and any of the high-level political people that he was involved with. All of that should be open to the public. It should be absolutely transparent." RFK Jr. now serves as Trump's secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He also told Watters, "I don't see why any of those records would have any redactions in them. Why would we be hiding that from the American public? I think that's outrageous."
"Yeah, yeah, I would (declassify the Epstein files)," Trump said on Fox & Friends Weekend on June 3, 2024. "I think that less so because, you know, you don't know if, you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, cause there's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would." He also said, "Certainly about the way he (Epstein) died, it would be interesting to find out what happened there because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn't happen to be working, etcetera, etcetera. But yeah, I'd go a long way toward that one."
"How is it that my father can be convicted of 34 crimes, but no one on Epstein's list has even been brought to light?" Donald Trump Jr. said at a Turning Point Action convention on June 17, 2024, as he was campaigning on behalf of his father. "It's almost like they're trying to protect those pedophiles for some reason. I can't imagine why. We're not allowed to say they're groomers, but when they act a lot like groomers (it) sort of tells you everything you need to know, right?"
"A lot of big people went to that island. But fortunately, I was not one of them," former President Donald Trump said on podcaster Lex Fridman's show on Sept. 3, 2024. Trump added that the list of Epstein's clients who went to that island "probably will be" made public. "I'd certainly take a look at it."
"Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list, Vance, then a U.S. Senator and Trump's vice presidential pick, said on Oct. 22, 2024, on podcaster Theo Von's show. "That, that is an important thing."
Asked whether the Justice Department might release the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News host John Roberts Feb. 21, 2025, "It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that." When asked if she had seen anything yet that caused her to say, "Oh my gosh," Bondi said, "Not yet." (At a July 8, 2025 Trump cabinet meeting, Bondi said of her remarks to Roberts: "I was asked a question about the client list and my response was, 'It's sitting on my desk to be reviewed,' meaning the file," not the client list.)
Bondi told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Feb. 26, 2025, "I think tomorrow, Jesse, breaking news right now, you're going to see some Epstein information being released by my office." She said, "What you're going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information."
Asked about Bondi's promise to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, then-counselor to the president Alina Habba said, "We are going to be promises made, promises kept," in comments on Piers Morgan's show on Feb. 27, 2025. "In this case, in Epstein's case, it is incredibly disturbing. We have flight logs, we have information, names that will come out." Habba, who is now the acting U.S. attorney for New Jersey, also said, "I won't say they're guilty until they go through their time in court, but again, now it's time for accountability."
When Piers Morgan said no man associated with Epstein has been put in prison and asked whether "we are likely to see criminal actions being taken," Habba responded, "Absolutely. I think it would be negligent for us not to." Habba added that, "You have to hold individuals who are indeed rapists accountable. We have to have them tried." She said, "To hide lists, to protect political friends, all of that, we don't have time for that."
The Justice Department released documents on Feb. 27, 2025, that it said had previously been leaked, but were never formally released by the government. The department called the move the "First Phase" of declassifying Epstein files. It said that "thousands of pages" of never-before-disclosed documents had been left out when Bondi previously requested all the files. The FBI was being ordered to deliver the remaining documents swiftly. "The Department remains committed to transparency and intends to release the remaining documents upon review and redaction to protect the identities of Epstein's victims," according to the press release.
Bondi told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Mar. 3, 2025, that an order she issued in February resulted in a "truckload" of Epstein files being delivered by the FBI. "Thousands of pages of documents. I have the FBI going through them," Bondi said. "We believe in transparency, and America has the right to know."
"Sadly, these people (the Biden administration) don't believe in transparency. But I think, more unfortunately, I think a lot of them don't believe in honesty. And it's a new day, it's a new administration, and everything's going to come out to the public," Bondi told Hannity."It's really, it's not sad, it's infuriating that these people thought that they could sit on this information, but they can't. It's a new day, and we believe in transparency, and it's going to come out."
On July 7, the Justice Department, which Bondi leads as attorney general, released a memo stating that a "systematic review revealed no incriminating 'client list'" and that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide. "Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither" to combat child exploitation nor bring justice to victims, according to the memo. "No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted," it said.
After the years of statements from Trump and his circle indicating there were hidden associates of Epstein and the new administration would be naming them, Trump expressed bewilderment on July 8 when a reporter asked Bondi at a cabinet meeting about lingering mysteries in the wake of the Justice Department's Epstein memo. "Are people still talking about this guy, this creep?" the president asked. "That is unbelievable."
(This story has been updated to correct a spelling error.)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Timeline of Trump officials' promises about Epstein files