FBI personnel reportedly devoted more than 3,000 hours of overtime to obtaining and redacting the Epstein Files back in March, at the direction of FBI Director Kash Patel – only to have President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi throw cold war on the release.
After Attorney General Pam Bondi’s botched attempt to release “Phase 1” of the Epstein files in February, Patel ordered around 1,000 FBI agents to team up and dedicate extensive hours to adding more to “Phase 1” and preparing “Phase 2” of the files for release.
Emails and documents exchanged between FBI officials in March, recently obtained by Bloomberg, show that agents across multiple departments communicated consistently about progress and racked up more than $850,000 in overtime work between March 17 and March 22 alone.
In the emails obtained by Bloomberg, FBI officials received continuous updates on agents reviewing documents that needed to be redacted, surveillance photos the Justice Department took during its investigation into Epstein and the infamous video of the hallway outside of Epstein’s jail cell before he died.
By March 24, FBI personnel were preparing “Phase 2” for “final delivery” to the Department of Justice. That appeared to be completed around May 2, when FBI agents in New York sent the Information Management Division the “Epstein Overview FINAL.”
However, “Phase 2” was ultimately never released, and by July, the Department of Justice released a memo stating that “no further disclosures” were warranted after agents thoroughly reviewed the Epstein files.
Shortly after, Bondi and Trump urged the public to “move on.”
It was a sudden reversal from Trump’s claim on the 2024 presidential campaign trail that he would release the files and Bondi’s assurance in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.”
But officials and members of the public have not moved on from the long-promised release of files that contain information about the government’s investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. For years, Epstein ran a sex-trafficking ring that allegedly included children. Reports have accused numerous high-profile individuals of being part of Epstein’s crimes, or at least aware of them.
That includes allegations related to Trump – who was once friends with Epstein, but who maintains they cut ties in the 2000s, before Epstein was indicted by the federal government in 2019. Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing and has continuously said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes.
Bloomberg previously reported that the investigators who completed the final review of the Epstein files redacted Trump’s name, as well as other high-profile figures.
Trump’s refusal to release the remainder of the Epstein files has given Democrats leverage in accusing him of covering up a larger conspiracy to either protect himself or other high-profile individuals.
For months, Trump has gone on the defensive – accusing Democrats of creating a “hoax” to hurt him politically, alleging that Epstein’s “friends” were all Democrats, and claiming Democrats were using the Epstein files as a distraction from Republicans’ successes.
The FBI and Justice Department’s memo attests that Epstein did not keep a “client list” and shut down speculation that Epstein was killed in his prison cell, rather than taking his own life. They’ve maintained that the FBI completed a thorough review of all the documents related to the investigation into Epstein.
But the president’s urging to forget about the Epstein files, Bondi’s assurance that no other important information needs to be released, and memos from the Justice Department have not tempered the interest in “Phase 2.”
The government is now being given a second opportunity to release the documents, thanks to a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president this past month.
In yet another reversal, Trump appeared to give in to the inevitable release of the Epstein files, claiming he doesn’t “care” what documents Congress wants.
But it is ultimately up to the Justice Department what information to release.
The Independent has asked the FBI for comment.
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