Days after Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department announced that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and that there was no client list, Republicans and conservatives online are calling foul, and they’re not alone.
On Thursday, a Democratic senator quietly introduced an amendment in the Senate Appropriations Committee to “retain, preserve, and compile” any records tied to Epstein and his case, and it passed unanimously, Scripps News reported.
The amendment came from Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who saw the chance to get something on the books before more evidence disappears.
It also comes just days after Bondi faced backlash from both sides over her earlier comments suggesting that there was a possible client list investigators were looking into, something she has now walked back.
Elon Musk added fuel to the fire when he claimed in a now-deleted post that President Trump was on the list, an accusation that has already been widely disputed.
But the confusion and contradictions opened the door for Van Hollen to push for transparency. And that’s exactly how he’s framing it.
“The goal is transparency,” Van Hollen told Scripps News on Thursday. “I think all of us, and I think the public, have an interest in knowing exactly how this case has been handled over the years. So that amendment does two things. It requires that all the documents be preserved. And second, it requires that they present a detailed report.”
Asked whether he believed there was a cover-up, Van Hollen said, “I just want to get the facts. My view is that we should just have all the facts laid out so the public can have confidence.”
Even though the committee passed it with no opposition, it is still unclear whether this amendment will survive in the final version of the funding bill or if President Trump will sign it into law when it reaches his desk.
Epstein’s final known message, sent just hours before he was found hanging in his Manhattan jail cell, stated that he was “still hanging around.”
“I believe that I got the last message from him before he died,” journalist Michael Wolff revealed on an episode of “The Daily Beast Podcast” airing Thursday.
“And this came through one of his lawyers on a Friday evening. He died on Saturday morning,” Wolff continued.
“His message to me hours before this happened was — and it was just in response to me asking how he was — and he said, ‘Still hanging around,’” the Donald Trump biographer said, as reported by the New York Post.
The chilling detail emerges as the Department of Justice confirmed this week that there is no evidence Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in custody, despite years of speculation and conspiracy theories suggesting otherwise.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center on August 10, 2019, while awaiting trial on multiple sex-trafficking charges.
Author Michael Wolff revealed that Epstein had asked him to write his biography in 2014—a request he declined. Nevertheless, the two remained in contact.
When asked for his own theory on Epstein’s death, Wolff suggested that it will likely remain a mystery. “I don’t know,” he said.
“He could not, as described, have killed himself,” he said — while also noting, “As the circumstances presented, he could not have been murdered.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi immediately came under fire after the Department of Justice issued a statement earlier this week claiming there was no proof that Epstein retained a “client list” or was killed.
A memo obtained by Axios said investigators found “no incriminating ‘client list’” and “no credible evidence … that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.”
It also stated that video evidence from the Manhattan jail where Epstein was detained when he died backed a medical examiner’s conclusion that he committed suicide.