{"id":58365,"date":"2025-07-12T01:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T01:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/58365\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T01:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T01:44:11","slug":"fbi-deputy-director-dan-bongino-weighs-quitting-over-trump-admin-handling-of-jeffrey-epstein-client-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/58365\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino weighs quitting over Trump admin handling of Jeffrey Epstein ‘client list’"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino<\/a> butted heads with Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this week over the Trump administration\u2019s handling of its Jeffrey Epstein investigation \u2014 including a purported review of the late pedophile<\/a>\u2018s so-called \u201cclient list\u201d that officials now say never existed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The heated exchange prompted Bongino to take a personal day Friday and he is considering resigning after fewer than four months in his job, a source familiar with the matter told The Post, adding that Bongino\u2019s relationship with Bondi no longer appears salvageable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Dan comes back if Pam stays,\u201d this person said, even though both parties had publicly stated an internal review of the Epstein file yielded no smoking-gun information about his death, high-powered associates or sickening crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Dan comes back if Pam stays,\u201d a source told The Post of the FBI deputy director\u2019s plans. Getty Images<\/p>\n

A Justice Department official told The Post Friday evening that FBI Director Kash Patel might follow Bongino out the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cKash and Dan have always been aligned and it\u2019s unclear what would happen in that situation, but, you know, both of them have fought for transparency \u2014 and in a world where that\u2019s being stifled, it wouldn\u2019t be shocking to see them stand up for that,\u201d the official said.<\/p>\n

The White House has been reluctant to dismiss Cabinet officials like Bondi in Trump\u2019s second term, but \u201csomebody needs to get the president over that,\u201d added another administration official.<\/p>\n

Matters came to a head after the Department of Justice concluded a probe<\/a> into the circumstances surrounding Epstein\u2019s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Aug. 10, 2019, weeks after being charged with sex trafficking dozens of girls \u2014 some as young as 14 years old.<\/p>\n

That investigation included a pile of documents that Bondi told Fox News in February were on her desk at the Justice Department \u201cto be reviewed,\u201d appearing to confirm those papers included the perv\u2019s infamous \u201cclient list<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn February, I did an interview on Fox, and it\u2019s been getting a lot of attention because I said \u2014 I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, \u2018it\u2019s sitting on my desk to be reviewed,\u2019 meaning the [Epstein] file along with the JFK and MLK files as well,\u201d Bondi said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

President Trump said last September he\u2019d have \u201cno problem\u201d releasing all files related to\u00a0Epstein\u00a0if elected \u2014\u00a0including\u00a0the \u201cclient list.\u201d AP<\/p>\n

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, Duke of York, are just some of the powerful businessmen and politicians that had been photographed visiting with Epstein in the past.<\/p>\n

Trump partied with the financier years before his first run for public office in the 1990s \u2014 but\u00a0reportedly banned<\/a>\u00a0Epstein\u00a0from Mar-a-Lago in 2007 following an incident with a club member\u2019s teenage daughter.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the DOJ released some records from its investigation that showed flight logs and a contact list Epstein kept before his arrest in 2019, most of which had already been made public during the 2021 trial of his accomplice and now-convicted madam Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Right-wing social media influencers were also welcomed to the White House and handed binders titled\u00a0\u201cThe Epstein Files: Phase 1,\u201d<\/a> in an apparently show of transparency by the administration, which was later widely mocked after no new details of the case were disclosed.<\/p>\n

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton and the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, are just some of the powerful businessmen and politicians that had been photographed visiting with Epstein in the past. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Trump said during the 2024 campaign he\u2019d have \u201cno problem<\/a>\u201d releasing all files related to\u00a0Epstein<\/a>\u00a0if elected \u2014\u00a0including\u00a0the \u201cclient list\u201d\u00a0\u2014 saying he was \u201cnot involved\u201d and \u201cnever went to his island\u201d of Little St. James, where the deceased sex trafficker allegedly abused his underage victims.<\/p>\n

In addition to hinting months ago at a publication of the \u201cclient list,\u201d Bondi had also suggested the FBI\u2019s New York Field Office was \u201cin possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her department released a two-page memo Monday stating that a \u201csystematic review\u201d of evidence concluded the 66-year-old died by suicide after impacting \u201cover one thousand victims\u201d and there had been \u201cno incriminating \u2018client list.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,\u201d the memo noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked Tuesday whether Epstein was possibly an intelligence asset \u2014 which some commentators had put forward as\u00a0an explanation for the<\/a> terms of a slap-on-the-wrist plea deal he secured in 2008 following earlier sex charges involving minors \u2014 Bondi said: \u201cTo him being an [intelligence] agent, I have no knowledge about that. We can get back to you on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Miami US Attorney Alex Acosta, the architect of that plea deal, was quoted as saying while being considered for a position in the first Trump administration: \u201cI was told Epstein \u2018belonged to intelligence\u2019 and to leave it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right-wing influencers on social media were also welcomed to the White House and handed binders titled\u00a0\u201cThe Epstein Files: Phase 1,\u201d in a bid to tout transparency by the administration that was later widely mocked. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Bondi also shot down speculation that a missing minute of the 10-hour surveillance footage DOJ released along with the memo to show no one else entered Epstein\u2019s Manhattan lockup was due to the age of the equipment still in use by federal prisons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we learned from the Bureau of Prisons was, every year, every night, they redo that video. It\u2019s old, from like 1999, so every night the video is reset, and every night should have the same minute missing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re looking for that video to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, Bongino had also told Fox News\u00a0nothing in the\u00a0Epstein\u00a0file indicated<\/a>\u00a0he died of any cause other than suicide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence we have in our files clearly indicates that it was, in fact, a suicide. We do have video,\u201d the former Fox News host said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the greatest video in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before entering government service,\u00a0Bongino had suggested there was more to the case than officials were telling.<\/p>\n

The former Fox News host said last month there was no evidence indicating Epstein died of anything other than suicide. The Washington Post via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHis black book is definitely going to be damning,\u201d he said in an appearance on Fox News shortly after Epstein was found dead. \u201cAnd I know that there are people out there who know things. Let\u2019s just leave it at that. And the Epstein story hasn\u2019t ended.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 2021 episode\u00a0of his eponymous podcast, Bongino\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0he had been approached by an \u201cunimpeachable source\u201d who once flew on Epstein\u2019s \u201cLolita Express\u201d jet with Clinton.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very uncomfortable right away, because the women on the plane look underage,\u201d the host recounted. \u201cHe notices right away that these probably aren\u2019t this guy\u2019s daughters and they\u2019re definitely not his daughter\u2019s friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 2023\u00a0episode\u00a0 Bongino doubled down, saying that story was \u201ca big deal\u201d and lambasting residents of the\u00a0\u201cWashington swamp who are not telling you the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law and order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable, and delivering justice to victims. This work is being carried out seamlessly and with unity. Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all.\u201d White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told The Post. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino butted heads with Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this week over…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,9611,69,12783,15053,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,11335,80,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-58365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-department-of-justice","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-fbi","12":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-pam-bondi","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-us-news","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114837734398229182","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}