In a heated confrontation on Monday, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt over the Department of Justice’s claim that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein did not keep a list of “clients” to whom he trafficked underage girls.
Some Trump supporters were left feeling betrayed this week after the DOJ and FBI said they found no evidence Epstein had a “client list,” contradicting Attorney General Pam Bondi’s comments earlier this year.
“It’s sitting on my desk right now to review,” Bondi told Fox News’ John Roberts in February when asked if the DOJ would be releasing Epstein’s client list. “That’s been a directive by President Trump.”
The Justice Department and FBI also said they found no evidence that Epstein was murdered. His 2019 death in a federal jail was ruled a suicide.
On Monday, Doocy asked Leavitt, “So, what happened to the Epstein client list that the attorney general said she had on her desk?”
“Well, I think if you go back and look at what the attorney general said in that interview, which was on your network, on Fox News—” Leavitt began before Doocy interrupted her with Bondi’s quote.
A seemingly frustrated Leavitt pushed back that in Bondi’s February comments, she was referring to “the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.”
Bondi has faced massive backlash, particularly from those on the right, since the DOJ and FBI memo was first reported by Axios Sunday.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who previously claimed that his former ally President Donald Trump was “in the Epstein files,” lashed out at the memo’s findings.
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer has also repeatedly called for Bondi’s resignation and an investigation into the attorney general, claiming “she has completely undermined the Trump administration” and “direct statements” made by Trump and Vance.