Attorney General Pam Bondi is demanding that FBI Director Kash Patel turn over additional documents related to the activities of human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, after social media influencers received some documents related to his case Thursday.
Saying she had requested “the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein,” Bondi alleged in a letter to Patel dated Feb. 27 that she had learned she had not received all the files.
“Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein,” Bondi wrote, reported Fox News.
“By 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including all records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients, regardless of how such information was obtained,” the former Florida attorney general added. “There will be no withholdings or limitations to my or your access.”
Bondi’s letter comes the same day a group of social media influencers received government documents related to Epstein.
Liz Wheeler, an author and host of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” posted on X that there was “nothing juicy in the 200 pages, just flight logs & a Rolodex of phone numbers. No ‘smoking gun.'” Bondi, she said, “smelled a rat”.
Wheeler blamed the “deep state” for withholding information about Epstein that Bondi had requested.
“[B]e very, very angry that deep state agents in the swamp at the SDNY are at this very moment defying President [Donald] Trump & AG Bondi & you who voted him into office, lying, and hiding the truth about Jeffrey Epstein because they don’t want their own corruption & weaponization of govt exposed,” she posted. “That’s the story.”
Pictures of social influencers leaving the White House midday with binders entitled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” quickly caused confusion on social media.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican who chairs a new oversight subcommittee committed to declassifying documents, criticized the delayed and limited release on X, writing, “I nor the task force were given or reviewed the Epstein documents being released today… A NY Post story just revealed that the documents will simply be Epstein’s phonebook.”
“THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!” she added.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, likewise expressed his confusion with the release.
“If the Epstein files are out, where do we find them? … What’s the difference between ‘phase 1’ and ‘phase 2?’” wrote Lee on X.
Mike Cernovich, a writer and social media personality who received one of the binders, said, “Yes. I can confirm this. AG Pam Bondi released what she had in her possession for the sake of transparency. Unfortunately some bad actors within SDNY and the FBI NYC field office with held documents. AG Bondi is working on this tirelessly.”
Cernovich later wrote in a cryptic post, “We got the binder at noon. SDNY and FBI held back the real information and AG Bondi directed Kash Patel to start kicking ass. AG Bondi handed what she had.”
Rogan O’Handley, another social media influencer who was also at the White House to receive a binder, posted a similar message.
“AG Bondi recently learned that thousands of Epstein Files are being secretly held in the SDNY FBI Office. She has demanded they be delivered to her by 8 AM tomorrow,” wrote O’Handley.
He later briefly started a livestream, in which he flipped through the pages of the binder, showing flight logs of Epstein’s plane.
“I don’t know what of this is new, but I know there’s a lot more evidence that is being secretly held at the Southern District of New York,” he said.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019.