Epstein files: AG Pam Bondi sends letter to Kash Patel accusing FBI of withholding docs

Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a fiery letter to FBI Director Kash Patel on Thursday accusing federal investigators in New York of withholding thousands of pages of Jeffrey Epstein documents she has vowed to make public.

Bondi said she had requested the full Epstein case file before Patel was confirmed as the head of the FBI and received about 200 pages of files — far less than the number of pages released last year in a civil lawsuit connected to Ghislaine Maxwell, the trafficker's former lover and convicted accomplice.

"I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents," Bondi wrote. "Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein."

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She said the FBI had never disclosed the existence of those files and demanded they be turned over by Friday morning.

"By 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including all records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients, regardless of how such information was obtained," Bondi wrote. "There will be no withholdings or limitations to my or your access."

Read the letter:

The FBI, which is currently embroiled in a lawsuit alleging it failed to properly investigate credible allegations against Epstein decades ago, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But Patel, the new director, wrote on X that the bureau is primed for "a new era."

"There will be no cover-ups, no missing documents, and no stone left unturned — and anyone from the prior or current Bureau who undermines this will be swiftly pursued," he wrote. "If there are gaps, we will find them. If records have been hidden, we will uncover them. And we will bring everything we find to the DOJ to be fully assessed and transparently disseminated to the American people as it should be."

EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST RELEASE COULD BE IMMINENT

In a statement released later Thursday evening, Bondi's office said the attorney general had asked the FBI for "the full and complete" Epstein files. She got 200 pages and said she later learned there were thousands of additional pages that had not been disclosed. She demanded them delivered to her office by Friday morning.

Sensitive information about the victims will still be redacted before anything is publicly released, she added. She also ordered an internal investigation into the issue and told Patel to propose "personnel action" within two weeks.

Bondi said previously that a batch of Epstein-related documents would be released sometime Thursday afternoon.

It was not expected to contain much new information, however.