The Epstein Files Backdoor

Pam Bondi
“What I would like the public to understand is that there’s a secret case that [Pam] Bondi and others are not acknowledging. So while they’re talking about working on transparency, they have continued the eight years of stonewalling,” says First Amendment attorney Dan Novack. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
July 27, 2025

Tout Washington, and much of the media and MAGAworld, has become consumed with the status of the so-called Epstein files and the mystery of Trump’s broken pledge to release more information to the public. There are any number of unsatisfying explanations: The Justice Department claims that an “exhaustive review” of the files this spring didn’t uncover any “client list,” and other materials couldn’t be disclosed without violating agreements with witnesses and victims. There are also, of course, the reports that F.B.I. employees reviewing the files were told to flag any references to Trump—a not-insignificant sensitivity given the years-long friendship between the president and the sexual predator who died mysteriously in jail. (Trump was one of dozens of prominent people, along with Bill Clinton and Leon Black, who allegedly sent celebratory notes and poems that appear in a book put together by Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s 50th birthday.)