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The Latest Jeffrey Epstein Development Isn't Going to Sit Well With Some People

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  July 07, 2025 6:55 AM

The drama over Jeffrey Epstein has been a years-long odyssey. The damning stories about the deceased New York financier and convicted child predator are endless. The man was friends with or acquainted with some of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful families and individuals. In the summer of 2019, he was arrested by federal agents on sex trafficking charges.  

On August 10, 2019, he was found dead in his cell. The circumstances surrounding his death are peculiar, like how the guards meant to look after him falsified records, the footage from a previous suicide attempt is missing, and several officials at the prison knew Epstein shouldn’t have been left alone. 

Now, an internal memo from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department that Axios obtained shows that Mr. Epstein committed suicide, and there was no client list used for blackmail. They also released hours of video footage of the suicide attempt that was successful (via Axios): 

President Trump's Justice Department and FBI have concluded they have no evidence that convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, kept a "client list" or was murdered, according to a memo detailing the findings obtained by Axios. 

The administration is releasing a video — in both raw and "enhanced" versions — that it says indicates no one entered the area of the Manhattan prison where Epstein was held the night he died in 2019. 

The video supports a medical examiner's finding that Epstein committed suicide, the two-page memo claims. 

Why it matters: The findings represent the first time Trump's administration has officially contradicted conspiracy theories about Epstein's activities and his death — theories that had been pushed by the FBI's top two officials before Trump appointed them to the bureau. 

As social media influencers and activists, Kash Patel (now the FBI's director) and Dan Bongino (now deputy director) were among those in MAGA world who questioned the official version of how Epstein died. 

Patel and Bongino have since said Epstein committed suicide. But it has become an article of faith online, especially on the right, that Epstein's crimes also implicated government officials, celebrities and business leaders — and that someone killed him to conceal them. 

The memo says no one else involved in the Epstein case will be charged. (Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and related offenses.) 

FBI Director Kash Patel has insisted for weeks that Epstein killed himself, though that hasn’t quieted those who think there’s a broader conspiracy. How can you blame them? This case was bungled when Attorney General Pam Bondi jumped the gun, promised new Epstein documents, and then released information that was already publicly available.  

To say this is a slow-burn is an understatement. The lack of a signature at the end of the memo presents an issue regarding authenticity, but this whole case has truly been bungled now:

And yes, it's well that everyone is a bit irritated. 

Let's hope this clears up, because if this is a real memo, Ms. Bondi has to answer some questions about that client list. She said she possessed it:

UPDATE: The memo is authentic.