What Trump officials said about releasing the Epstein files
The Justice Department this week said “no incriminating ‘client list’” exists in connection with Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking case, spurring outrage among many Trump supporters who had been promised damaging revelations about the case against the late financier.
The Justice Department’s announcement contradicts claims repeated for months by top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, who said the public could expect a series of names, thousands of pages of evidence, and even criminal prosecutions linked to people associated with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 inside a Manhattan jail while facing charges of sex trafficking scores of minors.
The department also said there was not enough evidence to bring charges “against uncharged third parties,” and that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted” in the Epstein case.
Many right-wing commentators and conspiracy theorists - including some who now work for Trump - have accused the federal government of a massive cover-up to protect powerful people who may have abused teenage girls in the Epstein case. They have also questioned the official account of Epstein’s death.
Here is what top Trump administration officials previously said about the existence, and potential disclosure, of the “Epstein files.”
June 2, 2024
Fox & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy: “Would you declassify the Epstein files?”
Donald Trump: “Yeah, yeah, I would. I guess I would. I think that less so, because you don’t know - You don’t want to effect people’s lives if there’s phony stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phony stuff in that whole world.”
Sept. 3, 2024
Trump, to podcast host Lex Fridman: “Yeah, I’d certainly take a look at it. … Yeah, I’d be inclined to the do the Epstein, I’d have no problem with it.”
Oct. 22, 2024
Then-Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) to podcast host Theo Von: “Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing.”
Jan. 30, 2025
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee): “So, will you work with me on this issue so we know who worked with Jeffrey Epstein in building these sex trafficking rings?
Kash Patel, FBI director nominee: “Absolutely senator.”
Feb. 21, 2025
Fox News host John Roberts: “[You said recently that] DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients? Will that really happen?
Attorney General Pam Bondi: “It is sitting on my desk right now, to review.”
Feb. 26, 2025
Fox News host Jesse Watters: “You said you have the Epstein files on your desk.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi: “I do.”
Feb. 27, 2025
Journalist Piers Morgan: “Do you think that by releasing information from these files we are likely to see criminal actions being taken?”
Alina Habba, counsel to the president: “Absolutely. I think it would be negligent for us not to. You have to hold individuals who are indeed rapists, accountable. We have to have them tried, in my opinion.”
Feb. 28, 2025
Podcast host Joe Rogan: “It’s so frustrating to be sitting to be sitting in this situation where the list isn’t coming out.”
Elon Musk, head of the U.S. DOGE Service: “Well, it better come out, hopefully tomorrow. … I think the public will be rightly frustrated if no one is prosecuted for the Epstein client list, no one at all. At least, the top five or something? Some number, there should at least be an attempt at prosecution of the worst offenders.”
March 1, 2025
Fox News host Mark Levin: “So once all that’s gathered you’re just going to put it out in the public, with the obvious necessary redactions … but for the perpetrators I assume that we’ll see those names, yes?
Bondi: “Well, certainly, nothing can be withheld on that. …”
March 3, 2025
Bondi, to Fox News host Sean Hannity: “A truckload of evidence arrived. It’s now in the possession of the FBI. [FBI Director] Kash [Patel] is going to get me and himself really a detailed report as to why all these documents and evidence had been withheld.”
March 11, 2025
Habba, to media personality Benny Johnson: “I personally have checked in. They are going through it. You have to be patient. Because when you are wanting to prosecute and actually do something with the information that you have, you have to make sure that you save the integrity of the investigation so that we can bring these people to justice, so that we can hold grand juries, so that we can do certain things.”
March 25, 2025
Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, to Johnson: “You have to make sure also we bring valid cases … Those people that were crossing state lines and trafficking those girls or having sex with minors will be prosecuted.”
May 28, 2025
Patel to Fox News host Bret Baier: “I’m not going to withhold information from the American public, ever. … We are diligently working on that, and it takes time to go through years of investigations, years of political maneuvering, and years of cover-up.”
June 6, 2025
Rogan: “The narrative has always been that there’s video. Now, where’s the chain of custody? Is there evidence that there’s video? Is there evidence that it was moved around? Stored? Protected from people looking at it?”
Patel: “You’re going to get all that information. Like, that’s literally what we’re putting together. And we’re going to give you every single thing we have and can. And that’s the whole point. … Now we’re figuring out how to put it out.”