The FBI’s top two officials have repudiated one of the most persistent conspiracy theories on far-right social media: that accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein did not take his own life. Their statements, however, stirred even more doubt among many who believe Epstein was the victim of shadowy forces that control the federal government.
In an interview that aired Sunday, May 18, on Fox News, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino said they are certain the politically connected financier died by suicide at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center six years ago.
They spoke in response to questions by Fox host Maria Bartiromo, who told the pair, “You said Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. People don’t believe it.”
“Well, I mean, listen, they have a right to their opinion,” Patel said, “but as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor, who’s been in that prison system, who has been in the Metropolitan Detention Center, who’s been in segregated housing, you know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was.”
Bongino was more direct.
“He killed himself,” he said, adding, “I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”
‘Sell-outs’: Social media criticism
After the interview aired, Bongino elaborated on X.
“Jeffrey Epstein killed himself,” Bongino wrote. “There’s no evidence in the case file indicating otherwise. I’m not asking you to believe me, or not. I’m telling you what exists, and what doesn’t. If new evidence surfaces I’m happy to reevaluate.”
Far-right influencers, who have long claimed Epstein was killed to cover up the involvement of political figures in sex trafficking, berated Bongino.
“You are not a serious person,” podcaster Joe Oltmann responded, according to the Daily Beast. “You are not being an honorable person. You want to stand up clowns while betraying the very people who have served the people.”
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An inspector general’s report found “numerous and serious failings” surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s death, but no evidence of criminal activity.
Mindy Robinson, whom the Daily Beast described as a “MAGA influencer,” called Patel and Bongino “sell-outs” in a social media post that also alluded to another conspiracy theory.
“Epstein didn’t kill himself,” she wrote on X, “and the Las Vegas sho*ting was committed and covered up by our own damn government.”
More than 8,400 people responded directly to Bongino on X. While some accepted his conclusion about Epstein’s death, others attacked him and Patel.
“WHO has bought the both of you?” one X user wrote. “UNBELIEVABLE.”
Another called Bongino a “traitor,” and others demanded that he release Epstein’s purported “client list” of powerful men who participated in sex trafficking. Officials have said no such list exists.
“They really think we are this ignorant,” an X user from Kentucky wrote. “Who/what are they trying to hide? To me, they are losing their credibility with ‘We The People.’”
Mainstream conservatives defended Patel and Bongino.
“If there were any two figures who would be intensely motivated to investigate and prove a plot by some sort of powerful figure (particularly on the Democratic side of the political spectrum) to murder Epstein in his cell and make it look like a suicide, Patel and Bongino are the guys,” Jim Geraghty wrote in the National Review. “They apparently have examined the existing case files and concluded there is no evidence, or anything that warrants further investigation.”
‘No evidence’ of criminality
Guards found Epstein’s body in his jail cell early on Aug. 19, 2019, just 36 days after his arrest on federal sex trafficking charges. A medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide by hanging.
That finding was confirmed four years later by a Department of Justice investigation.
A report by the department’s inspector general cited “numerous and serious failings” by the jail’s staff. It said Epstein was not monitored and left alone in his cell for about eight hours with “an excessive amount of bed linens,” even though he had suggested he was suicidal.
However, the inspector general concluded, there was “no evidence contradicting the FBI’s determination that there was no criminality associated with Epstein’s death.”
‘Obviously powerful people’
Among those who questioned the department’s findings was Bongino, a former Secret Service agent who promoted conspiracy theories on his popular podcast.
As recently as Feb. 7, less than two weeks before President Donald Trump announced his appointment as deputy FBI director, Bongino asserted that former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were “knee deep in involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and no one can figure out what the level of entanglement is.”
“It’s time to start overturning that rock and seeing what’s underneath,” Bongino said. He added, “The Jeffrey Epstein case, you do not know all the details of this thing, I promise. There are a lot of really obviously powerful people.”
Both Patel and Bongino were longtime critics of the FBI, and they came to the bureau with a promise to root out corruption and to bring charges against officials who allegedly conspired to cover up the truth about episodes such as Epstein’s death; the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol; and the attempted assassination of Trump in 2024.
In the Fox News interview, however, Bongino said these and other matters were not as cut-and-dried as they may have appeared.
“In some of these cases,” Bongino said, “the ‘there’ you are looking for is not there.”
