Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review, July 14, 2025
“… if such a list existed, it would have become public during the extensive investigation, grand jury proceedings, indictments of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the lengthy trial and appeals of Maxwell, and the post-trial litigation, during which a trove of theretofore nonpublic information was disclosed, adding to the already mountainous public record of the case.”
President Trump has attempted to quell a MAGA mutiny and infighting between two of his top law enforcement officials, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, whose politicized hyping of supposedly suppressed investigative files from the Jeffrey Epstein case, coupled with the administration’s inept handling of them, has caught up with them – with all the resulting finger-pointing that implies.
A former cop and Secret Service agent who is not a lawyer, Bongino had never worked at the FBI prior to being appointed by Trump. The president liked his work as a fiery podcaster during the Biden years — work that included Bongino’s suggestion that Epstein did not commit suicide, and that Epstein’s “client list” was being “hidden” because its disclosure would “rock the world.” Bondi, while supporting Trump for reelection in 2024, expressed exasperation on Fox News that release of the government’s Epstein files had been slow-walked, nonsensically claiming that there was “no legal basis” to keep names private unless a person was “a child, a victim, or a cooperating defendant.” (Apparently, as attorney general, she has recently become better informed.)
Bongino took Friday off after being dressed down by Bondi at the White House on Wednesday in the presence of several top administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel — a former government lawyer who has a history of claiming that the Biden administration was suppressing the Epstein files to protect the “pedophiles,” and who publicly anticipated that, once back in office, Trump would immediately “roll out” Epstein’s “black book.”
Bondi is said to have accused Bongino of leaking information to media sources — blaming her for the mishandling of the Epstein disclosures, which Bondi initially intimated would be disclosed by the “truckload.” It now turns out that there will be no further disclosure, according to a joint DOJ-FBI memo released in recent days, which formally closed the case. ….SOURCE