DOJ: Epstein committed suicide, didn’t keep client list

A thorough government investigation found no evidence that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein kept a client list, the FBI and Justice Department said in a memo first published by Axios on Sunday. The unsigned memo also said investigators concluded Epstein committed suicide, despite popular theories that his 2019 death was the result of foul play.

Investigators searched physical storage spaces and over 300 gigabytes of seized data, according to the memo. The review didn’t uncover any evidence against any uncharged third party that would trigger prosecution, the memo said. The FBI and Justice Department won’t release any further information on the Epstein case, according to the memo.

What else did the memo say about Epstein’s death? Anyone entering Epstein’s cell would have passed through a surveilled common area of the Special Housing Unit where he was held in a New York prison, according to the memo. Video footage of the common area from the night of his death showed no one entering the space, the memo said. It included links to raw and enhanced versions of the 11-hour footage.

What did the White House say about the memo? Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s earlier comments to Fox News, which seemed to indicate that Bondi had the client list on her desk, actually referred to the entirety of the paper evidence she was investigating, not the client list in particular. The government isn’t releasing more material related to Epstein because it contains child pornography, Leavitt said.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the DOJ’s previous release of the Epstein files, which some viewed as lackluster.