WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that she was unaware of whether the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset — while downplaying a missing minute of prison surveillance footage from the night of his death in 2019.
Bondi released the jailhouse footage Monday along with a two-page memo asserting that Epstein kept no “client list” — despite her prior remarks indicating she had such a list “on my desk.”
“To him being an [intelligence] agent, I have no knowledge about that. We can get back to you on that,” the AG said during a cabinet meeting.
She was responding to former Miami US Attorney Alex Acosta allegedly explaining a 2008 plea deal by saying, “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone.”
Bondi said that the missing minute of tape that showed an area outside Epstein’s cell was down to the use of old equipment.
“What we learned from the Bureau of Prisons was, every year, every night, they redo that video. It’s old, from like 1999, so every night the video is reset, and every night should have the same minute missing,” she said.
“So we’re looking for that video to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night.”
Unprompted, Bondi also defended herself against a torrent of criticism for suggesting she was poised to release damning files on Epstein, whose close associates included Prince Andrew, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton.
“In February, I did an interview on Fox, and it’s been getting a lot of attention because I said — I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, ‘it’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed,’ meaning the [Epstein] file along with the JFK [and] MLK files as well,” Bondi said.
“That’s what I meant by that. Also to the tens of thousands of videos, they turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein — child porn is what they were,” added Bondi, who promised that those are “never going to be released.”
‘Do you want to waste the time?’
President Trump interjected to offer to allow Bondi to side-step the topic entirely asking: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years.”
Trump, 79, is a former acquaintance of Epstein and his alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell but the men had a falling out years before Epstein’s final public disgrace.
“And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time?” Trump asked the AG.
“I mean, I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy, with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.”
The president previously turned heads in 2020 when asked to comment on Maxwell’s arrest to face charges for aiding Epstein.
“I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly,” Trump said at the time.
“I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach and I guess they lived in Palm Beach, but I wish her well.”
He later explained the well-wishes by saying he was thinking about Epstein’s death in prison.
Bondi’s Monday memo sought to slam the door on fevered speculation about a cover-up in the case — saying her department had completed a “systematic review” of evidence and concluded the 66-year-old died by suicide.
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” the memo reads. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
