Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to calm the waters Tuesday after fresh outrage bubbled up on the right over a new Justice Department memo addressing the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier whose name remains synonymous with scandal and conspiracy.
On Monday, the Justice Department and FBI released an 11-hour surveillance video from outside Epstein’s jail cell. The footage was meant to put to rest doubts that Epstein died by suicide, but it didn’t exactly silence the skeptics. Online sleuths quickly pointed out a mysterious time jump between 11:58 p.m. and midnight. That one missing minute? It set off another round of wild speculation.
Bondi addressed the situation during a Cabinet meeting, trying to add some clarity to the controversy. “The video was not conclusive, but the evidence prior to it was showing he committed suicide,” she said. As for the skipped minute, Bondi explained that the Bureau of Prisons resets the video system every night, which results in the same minute being missing in each recording. “So we’re looking for that video to release that as well to show that a minute is missing every night. And that’s it on Epstein,” she added, reported The Hill.
Bondi also defended comments she made earlier this year in an interview where she mentioned having an Epstein “client list” on her desk. That remark set conspiracy circles ablaze. But on Monday, she clarified she was actually referring to a mix of files tied to the case, not some explosive name-and-shame list of elite Epstein associates.
The memo released by the DOJ and FBI on Monday backed her up. It stated flatly that no such “client list” exists. That hasn’t stopped right-wing personalities from stirring the pot. Figures like FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who once promoted Epstein conspiracies in the media, have been facing heat from within their own political circles, especially from voices in the MAGA movement who suspect there’s still more the government isn’t telling.
Adding fuel to the fire, Bondi acknowledged that thousands of hours of footage collected during the Epstein investigation contain graphic child sex abuse material and cannot legally be made public. For many conspiracy theorists, though, that announcement only fed suspicions of a broader cover-up involving the powerful and untouchable.
The memo also reconfirmed what official autopsies and investigations have long stated—that Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He had already pleaded guilty in 2008 to sexual misconduct involving minors, but new federal charges filed in 2019 alleged he ran a trafficking operation of underage girls from 2002 to 2005.
Still, despite the memo, the video, and Bondi’s explanations, some on the far right aren’t buying it. They point to the missing minute, the sealed files, and the powerful names whispered in connection with Epstein as proof that the real story has yet to come out.
Whether the latest DOJ disclosures close the book on Epstein or just open a new chapter in conspiracy lore, one thing is clear—this case still haunts the public imagination, and no amount of memos or grainy jail footage is likely to change that anytime soon.