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Trump says 'smoking gun' on Epstein doesn't exist

Donald Trump and his team repeatedly promised to declassify the Epstein files and ensure maximum transparency of this story during the election campaign last year

WASHINGTON, July 18. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has dismissed the idea that the Democratic Party has any real evidence supporting claims made against American financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sexually abusing minors.

"If there was a "smoking gun" on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the "files" for four years, and had [U.S. Attorney General and Attorney General Merrick] Garland and [Prosecutor Maureen] Comey in charge, use it? BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

On July 6, Axios reported that the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had found no evidence of possible blackmail of influential figures by Epstein, the existence of a list of his clients, or any evidence of his murder. White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that Epstein’s alleged clientele list, mentioned earlier by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, does not exist. Bondi later said that she had worded her statement inaccurately: she was referring to all the documents on the Epstein case, and did not confirm the existence of a list of his clients.

However, Trump and his team repeatedly promised to declassify the Epstein files and ensure maximum transparency of this story during the election campaign last year.

Epstein was detained by New York State law enforcement on July 6, 2019. The prosecutor's office said that there was evidence that in 2002-2005 he organized visits to his Manhattan home by dozens of underage girls, the youngest of whom was 14 years old. Epstein's friends and acquaintances included a large number of current and retired officials not only from the United States, but also from many other countries (including former heads of state), major entrepreneurs and show stars. The criminal prosecution of the financier in the United States was terminated after his suicide in a prison cell on August 10, 2019.

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