Pam Bondi ‘scrambled' to find Epstein material to appease MAGA after Phase 1 release flopped, report claims
Attorney General Pam Bondi 'scrambled' to find Epstein material to appease the far right over the failed Phase 1 release of the files, but 'found little', according to a report.
Since vowing to carry out President Donald Trump's executive order demanding the government make documents related to cases of national interest public, including Jeffrey Epstein, Bondi has been under intense pressure, particularly from the right, to release the files on the disgraced financier.
Epstein was accused of sex trafficking of minors in a decades-long scheme. Epstein, who had links to a number of high-profile names, died behind bars awaiting trial in 2019.
A botched release of the 'Phase 1' files saw MAGA influencers descend on the White House for what turned out to be a photo opportunity. Right-wing influencers posed, clutching binders containing information that was already in the public domain.
According to The New York Times, Bondi made moves to appease the right by deploying staff from the Department of Justice's National Security Division to scour through files.
'After 'Phase 1' of the Epstein Files flopped, Pam Bondi diverted staff from the NatSec Division, an elite DOJ unit, to scour archives for any material to appease the far right,' Glenn Thrush, the newspaper's D.C. correspondent, posted on X. 'They found little.'
'Phase 2, when (or if) it happens, is likely to be a dud too,' Thrush added, citing sources.
The Independent has contacted the Department of Justice for comment.
Bondi reportedly pushed the FBI and her own agency to urgently review and declassify more files, with the FBI enlisting thousands of agents to help with the effort, ABC News reported last month. But nothing materialized.
FBI Director Kash Patel was quizzed about the Epstein files on May 8 during a Senate Appropriations hearing and said the bureau was 'working through' releasing the files.
Patel suggested their release would be 'in the near future.'
'We've been working on that and we're doing it in a way that protects victims and also doesn't put out into the ether information that is irrelevant,' Patel told the panel.
Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York on Monday accused Bondi of deliberately delaying the release of the Epstein files.
'I write to express my grave concern about what appears to be a concerted effort by you to delay and even prevent the release of the Jeffrey Epstein Files in their entirety – potentially at the direction of the sitting President of the United States, Donald J. Trump,' Goldman's letter to Bondi said.
'President Trump's well-documented affiliation with Epstein, and his view that the Department of Justice is his personal law firm raises serious questions about whether President Trump has intervened to prevent the public release of the Epstein Files in order to hide his own embarrassing and potentially criminal conduct,' Goldman added.
Trump was quizzed by a reporter on April 22 about when the public could expect to see the release of more documents.
'I don't know, I'll speak to the attorney general about that, I really don't know,' Trump said.
A few days later, Virginia Giuffre, one of the first and most prominent survivors of Epstein's abuse to speak out, died by suicide.
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