Journalist who exposed Epstein says there’s no ‘list’ but clients are in those blacked-out FBI files – We Got This Covered
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Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1997. (Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images)
Photo by Davidoff Studios/Getty Images

Journalist who exposed Epstein says there’s no ‘list’ but clients are in those blacked-out FBI files

The co-conspirators were reportedly granted immunity.

Nobody wants to hear this, but Jeffrey Epstein’s case is much more complex than it seems. It’s understandable that people expected a major splash — a big list naming all the influential clients tied to his multi-nation sex trafficking ring. But it’s not that simple. There’s no evidence any such list exists, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t co-conspirators.

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Every Trump staff member, from FBI Director Kash Patel and Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi to J.D. Vance, flirted with the idea that if they got back into the White House, they would expose all the famous people involved in Epstein’s conspiracy. Pam Bondi even claimed that the client list was already sitting on her desk. And when the moment came to finally release it? There suddenly was never a list, and Epstein’s suicide was, in fact, properly investigated and reported.

Immediately after the new marching orders, MAGA loyalists like Charlie Kirk rushed to X to contain backlash over the move. Kirk went from posting clips of Bondi back in February claiming she would release information tied to Epstein that included “a lot of names,” to now parroting MAGA talking points, asking why, if Trump was in the “files,” Biden wouldn’t just release them. Meanwhile, Ben Shapiro and other conservative commentators — who usually thrive on unverifiable conspiracies about vaccines — are suddenly urging their audiences to trust the evidence and believe what the government says.

One person who has long insisted there is a list, Elon Musk, has been busy questioning why Ghislaine Maxwell — currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors — is in jail at all. Musk has claimed to have seen this list and insists Trump is on it, a questionable claim considering the FBI files are heavily redacted. According to CNN, Julie K. Brown, the journalist who first exposed Epstein, has already said, “There is no evidence Epstein kept a ledger or a list of clients who were involved with his sex trafficking operation.”

This is where the story gets complex. If there’s anyone to trust on Epstein, it’s Julie K. Brown. Her 2018 investigative reporting uncovered Epstein’s seedy world of sex crimes against minors in Florida. Epstein managed to wiggle out of that with a controversial plea deal negotiated by Alex Acosta, which reportedly included “granted immunity to any possible co-conspirators.” Acosta later served as Trump’s Secretary of Labor during his first term.

Julie K. Brown took to X to explain that the obsession with an alleged “list” was always a red herring. The award-winning journalist told her followers that countless DOJ and FBI files concerning the case still haven’t been released, and those that are available are so heavily redacted they’re nearly indecipherable. According to Brown, dozens of women were interviewed, and within those files, she hypothesizes, there are indeed names of co-conspirators.

So while most people continue arguing about whether the list exists, that’s exactly where the Trump administration would prefer the debate to stay, instead of shifting to the unredacting of the FBI files they already have.


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Author
Image of Fred Onyango
Fred Onyango
Fred Onyango is an entertainment journalist who primarily focuses on the intersection of entertainment, society, and politics. He has been writing about the entertainment industry for five years, covering celebrity, music, and film through the lens of their impact on society and politics. He has reported from the London Film Festival and was among the first African entertainment journalists invited to cover the Sundance Film Festival. Fun fact—Fred is also a trained pilot.