Durbin Presses Bondi, Patel, Bongino On Rifts Between DOJ, FBI, White House On Epstein Files
Durbin files official oversight requests with Bondi, Patel, Bongino, as MAGA world continues imploding over the Epstein cover up and breaking reporting by the Wall Street Journal describes Trump sending a lewd letter to Epstein
CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino on apparent discrepancies regarding the handling of the Epstein files and findings from a July 7 Department of Justice (DOJ) memorandum and instructions reportedly received by FBI personnel to identify records mentioning President Trump.
In letters to Bondi, Patel, and Bongino, Durbin began by highlighting contradictions between its first finding revealing no “incriminating client list” and Bondi’s public statements, writing: “The first finding directly contradicts public statements Attorney General Bondi has repeatedly made. On February 21, 17 days after her confirmation as Attorney General, Attorney General Bondi was asked directly by Fox News’ America Reports host John Roberts: ‘DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients; will that really happen?’ She responded: ‘It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.’ On February 27, Attorney General Bondi released binders of documents related to Epstein to conservative influencers and commentators, but despite the major media event the White House staged around this release, these files were largely already publicly available. After intense blowback from this incident, Attorney General Bondi then appeared on another FOX News show, Life Liberty Levin, and claimed that a ‘whistleblower’ told her that ‘New York SDNY [was] sitting on thousands of pages of documents’; that ‘we will get everything’; that she was ‘assured’ there was more; and that the country would eventually see ‘the full Epstein files.’ She also claimed that the ‘FBI withheld all of those documents’ and you were providing a detailed report as an explanation for the FBI’s actions with respect to those materials.”
Durbin then invoked breaking reporting that Trump sent a bawdy letter to Epstein, writing: “Notably, in 2002, Mr. Trump said of Mr. Epstein, ‘I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy, He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.’ Just yesterday, it was reported that the Department previously reviewed a ‘leather-bound album’ comprised of dozens of letters from Mr. Epstein’s friends in celebration of his 50th birthday in 2003. The letters were collected by Mr. Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell and included one from President Trump that allegedly ‘contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker … and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist.’”
Durbin continued: “Despite tens of thousands of personnel hours reviewing and re-reviewing these Epstein-related records over the course of two weeks in March, it took DOJ more than three additional months to officially find there is ‘no incriminating ‘client list,’’ and the memorandum with this finding includes no mention of the whistleblower or additional documents, the existence of which Attorney General Bondi publicly claimed on February 27.”
Durbin then discussed public scrutiny over the memorandum’s second finding that Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide, writing: “The second finding in the July 7 memorandum does not contradict any official statement from DOJ and accords with the DOJ Inspector General’s investigation into the Bureau of Prisons’ custody of Jeffrey Epstein. However, public skepticism of the government’s transparency in this matter has been needlessly increased due to the release of surveillance video from outside of Jeffrey Epstein’s cell in the hours leading up to his death, which the July 7 memorandum described as ‘full raw’ footage; in fact, the footage was likely modified, according to the metadata embedded in the video.”
To Director Patel, Durbin wrote: “According to information my office received, the FBI was pressured to put approximately 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division (IMD) … on 24-hour shifts to review approximately 100,000 Epstein-related records in order to produce more documents that could then be released on an arbitrarily short deadline. This effort, which reportedly took place from March 14 through the end of March, was haphazardly supplemented by hundreds of FBI New York Field Office personnel, many of whom lacked the expertise to identify statutorily-protected information regarding child victims and child witnesses or properly handle FOIA requests. My office was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.”
To Deputy Director Bongino, Durbin wrote: “Prior to becoming FBI Deputy Director, you spent years as a private citizen making claims about the Jeffrey Epstein case. For example, you stated: ‘That Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal. Please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on it.’ On July 11, far-right activist Laura Loomer claimed that you and FBI Director Patel ‘[were] livid with [Attorney General Bondi] over her DOJ Memo and the lack of transparency from her office regarding the Jeffrey Epstein files.’ Subsequent public reporting indicates this apparent dispute came to a head at a meeting between White House, DOJ, and FBI officials that you and Director Patel attended, leading to claims that you may resign from your position over these issues. You have made no public statements since these reports have come out, but reports have emerged that the dispute may have been related to Attorney General Bondi accusing you of leaking to NewsNation a story critical of her for allegedly preventing the FBI from releasing more Epstein-related records.”
Durbin concluded with requests for information to be produced by August 1, 2025, citing “the serious questions about the veracity of Attorney General Bondi’s public statements regarding the Epstein-related records in DOJ’s possession and the effect those questions are having on the public’s ability to trust DOJ’s July 7 finding that there is ‘no incriminating “client list.”’”
For a PDF of the letter to Attorney General Bondi, click here.
For a PDF of the letter to Director Patel, click here.
For a PDF of the letter to Deputy Director Bongino, click here.
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