ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Conspiracy theories have swirled around disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein since his death in a federal lockup in 2019. Attorney General Pam Bondi has repeatedly promised transparency on the Epstein case, both on his crimes and his death. Yesterday, her Department of Justice released a memo that reaffirmed previous conclusions, including that Epstein died by suicide. This has not sat well with many conspiracy theorists and far-right supporters of President Trump. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas has been following this, and he's here in the studio. Hey, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.
SHAPIRO: What does this DOJ memo say?
LUCAS: Well, first off, it's not long. It's just two pages, but it says the Justice Department and the FBI conducted what they call an exhaustive review of their investigative holdings related to Epstein. So they looked at databases, hard drives, network drives. They did physical searches of things like locked cabinets, desks, closets to try to make sure that they found everything that they have related to Epstein. And the memo says that there was not - there was no incriminating client list. There was no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent associates. No evidence that could serve as a basis to investigate any uncharged other persons. The memo also shoots down the conspiracy theory that Epstein was murdered in custody. It says the FBI did a thorough investigation and found that Epstein died by suicide in his cell at a federal lock up in Manhattan in August of 2019. That, of course, is consistent with the findings of the city's chief medical officer, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, as well as the DOJ's internal watchdog, who all looked into the matter previously. So, in other words, this memo knocks down many of the conspiracy theories that for six years now have swirled around Epstein and his death.
SHAPIRO: So it sounds like the news is no news. But back in February, the Justice Department released a batch of Epstein files and promised to release more later in the name of transparency. Did the department make more files public yesterday?
LUCAS: So, first off, most if not all of what Bondi released in February was already known. She took some flak from the far-right about that back then. And you're right, she did promise to release more. Now, though, the department memo says that's not going to happen. It says no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted. The department says a lot of the files that it has are child sexual abuse materials. It also says that a lot of the files aren't images or videos of Epstein or his victims - a lot of whom are minors or appear to be minors. And then there's also personal information of his victims. So things like names, birth places, employment history and so forth that's kind of mixed up throughout all of these items.
SHAPIRO: The department did release a video of the hallway outside Epstein's cell the night he died. What does it show?
LUCAS: Right, so we knew this video existed. The department put it out yesterday. It's hours long. It shows the hallway outside his cell the night he died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, and the department says it confirms that nobody entered the area the night of Epstein's death. But there is a timestamp in the bottom lefthand corner of the video, and a full minute is missing from basically 11:59 p.m. to 12 a.m. A lot of folks online noticed that. They jumped on that missing minute. Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to address the issue today when she spoke at a cabinet meeting. Here's what she said.
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PAM BONDI: What we learned from Bureau of Prisons was every year - every night, they redo that video. It's old from, like, 1999. So every night, the video is reset, and every night should have the same minute missing. So we're looking for that video to release that, as well, showing that a minute is missing every night.
LUCAS: That's her explanation. We shall see whether it quiets the doubters out there.
SHAPIRO: Yeah, we'll see. I mean, some of those doubters are people who are now senior administration officials in the Trump administration. For years, they promoted conspiracy theories over Epstein's death. Is any of this putting those theories to rest?
LUCAS: Not at all - people who have questions about Epstein, about his death point to things that Bondi herself has said. There's a Fox News clip from February that's made the rounds where Bondi is asked about an Epstein client list, and she replies, quote, "it's sitting on my desk right now to review." Now you have the Justice Department in this memo saying there is no client list. There's also the minute missing in the video that I just talked about. So some folks on the right are going after Bondi because of how she's handled this. Two conservative personalities - Laura Loomer and Glenn Beck, for example - are calling on her to resign or to be fired. And then there's Elon Musk who posted on X today, how can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won't release the Epstein files? So to answer your question, no, the conspiracy theories have not been put to rest.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thank you very much.
LUCAS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF JORJA SMITH SONG, "GREATEST GIFT (FT. LILA IKE)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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