President Trump scolds reporter for asking about Epstein list during cabinet meeting.
President Trump scolded a reporter for raising Epstein during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, as Attorney General Pam Bondi defended DOJ findings and denied the existence of a client list or hidden videos.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a tense moment at the Cabinet meeting Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump sharply rebuked a reporter who asked about Jeffrey Epstein, calling continued questions about the disgraced financier a “desecration” that distracts from pressing national issues.
Trump, his tone curt and exasperated, responded after being asked yet again about Epstein-related investigations. “So are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” Trump said. “We have Texas. We have this. We have all of the things we — and people still talking about this guy, this creep. That is unbelievable.”
The president then urged reporters to move on: “Do you want to waste the time when you feel like — answer. I don’t mind answering. I mean, I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas.”
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The president went further, branding persistent inquiries as disrespectful. “It just seems like a desecration. But you go ahead,” Trump added, his words underscoring a deep frustration across his administration over what many see as fixation on old controversies.
His outburst came amid the Justice Department and FBI’s release last week of a memo concluding there is no evidence of a “client list,” no proof Epstein blackmailed powerful figures, and no signs that he was murdered—all while affirming that Epstein died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019. Authorities also disclosed a corrected version of surveillance footage from the Special Housing Unit that they say confirms nobody entered Epstein’s tier the night of his death.
Following Trump’s remarks, Attorney General Pam Bondi addressed the media, defending prior statements and clarifying recent developments. Beginning with her February comments, she told reporters: “In February, I did an interview on Fox, and … my response was, ‘It’s sitting on my desk to be reviewed,’ meaning the file — along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That’s what I meant by that.”
Bondi confronted the so-called “tens of thousands of videos” of Epstein that she mentioned earlier. “They turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein. Child porn is what they were,” she said. “Never going to be released. Never going to see the light of day.”
She also explained the controversy over a missing minute in the SHU videotape. “We released the video showing definitively that the video was not conclusive,” Bondi said. “But the evidence prior to it was showing he committed suicide … There was a minute that was off the counter.”
Bondi emphasized that missing frames are a longstanding technical quirk. “What we learned from Bureau of Prisons was every year, every night they redo that video. It’s all from like 1999. So every night the video is reset and every night should have the same minute missing,” she said. “So we’re looking for that video to release that as well, showing that a minute is missing every night. And that’s it on Epstein.”
Her comments come under renewed scrutiny, given that no independent evidence has surfaced to confirm the existence of hidden video troves. An AP investigation found no records to support Bondi’s claims of Epstein-related child pornography footage, and law enforcement officials in the Epstein and Maxwell cases said they were unaware of any secret caches
The Justice Department-FBI memo also made clear that a systematic review found no “client list” and no basis for charges against uncharged parties. That determination rebukes months of speculation and conspiracy theories.
Political reaction has been swift. Some House Democrats, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, have warned that critical files—including those related to Trump—remain sealed, accusing the office of shielding the former president . Meanwhile, conservatives have criticized the Epstein-file release earlier this year as a flop, with Attorney General Bondi accused of overpromising and underdelivering.
Ahead of midterm elections, Trump’s harsh rebuke of the reporter underscores his heightened dismissiveness of media focus on Epstein. His “desecration” remark highlighted a sense within the administration that the coverage is both tedious and emotionally charged.