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TRUMP ADMINISTRATION officials are on the defensive over questions about convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following a Department of Justice (DOJ) report that found the disgraced financier did not have a “client list” and died by suicide.

At an open-press Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump erupted at a reporter who asked for clarifications about the DOJ report, which was released in conjunction with the FBI.

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump scolded. “This guy’s been talked about for years…are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That’s unbelievable.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi stepped in to address lingering questions about the evidence in the case, including her remarks from a February interview in which she said the Epstein client list was "on my desk."

Bondi on Tuesday clarified that the client list was never on her desk, but rather she was referring to the entire Epstein case file, which she said was primarily made up of “tens of thousands” of pornographic videos involving children that are “never to see the light of day.”

The DOJ also released roughly 11 hours of video surveillance footage to show that Epstein was not murdered in his jail cell. However, internet sleuths discovered that about one minute had been cut out of the video.

“The video was not conclusive, but the evidence prior to it was showing he committed suicide,” Bondi said Tuesday.

The attorney general explained the Bureau of Prisons uses the same surveillance video and that every night they “redo the video,” so the same minute is always missing.

“So we’re looking for that video to release that as well to show that a minute is missing every night. And that’s it on Epstein.”

MAGA OUTRAGE

The administration is trying to tamp down outrage from some of Trump’s most vocal allies, who have expressed anger and disbelief in the wake of the DOJ and FBI findings.

Many on the right have aimed their frustrations at Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. For years, Patel and Bongino have called for the release of all information pertaining to Epstein and his alleged clients.

“I’m looking at this memo. It says there’s no client list,” said Fox News host Will Cain. “Well, I don’t know what that means. There’s no printed-out piece of paper with lists of names on it, but there are clients, right?”

“So, am I to believe that it was all just Jeffrey Epstein and the victims on those videos? It’s just hard to accept there’s nothing more to see here,” Cain added.

Trump praised Patel and Bongino in a social media post amid the furor, although he did not mention the Epstein case specifically.

“We have the Greatest Law Enforcement professionals in the World, but ‘Politics’ and Corrupt Leadership often prevented them from doing their job. That is no longer the case, and now, they have been unleashed to do their jobs, and they are doing just that,” Trump wrote.

Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly slammed Bondi, who earlier this year invited a group of right-wing influencers to the White House and gave them binders with information on the Epstein case. The influencers proudly paraded around the White House grounds with the binders, although the information contained within had long been public.

“[They] did not deserve the humiliation that she heaped upon them,” Kelly said on an episode of the “After Party” podcast.

Elon Musk is among those who weighed in voicing frustration at the findings, calling it the “final straw.” Musk had previously alleged that Trump wanted to keep the Epstein files secret because he was implicated in them — a charge Trump has repeatedly denied.

Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday called on the DOJ to release any potential references to Trump that might exist in the Epstein case files, while accusing Bondi of shielding potentially damaging information about him.

“This Administration has repeatedly claimed that President Trump is ‘the most transparent and accessible president in American history’,” Rep Jamie Raskin (Md.), the top Democrat on the panel, wrote in a letter to the DOJ. “So far, your DOJ has not only failed to live up to this promise, but you have also consistently hidden from the American public materials and information that may be damaging to President Trump.”

“Your conduct is particularly worrisome as it appears to be part of a pattern of using the DOJ to cover up evidence of criminal wrongdoing by President Trump, including information allegedly contained in the Epstein files,” he continued.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Fla.) said “the American people deserve to know the truth” regardless of “who........

© The Hill