WASHINGTON (TNND) -- Everyone is talking about Jeffrey Epstein. Who better to break down the controversy than his former lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
"I know that he never kept a client list, if he had, I'm pretty confident he would have told me about it," Dershowitz. "And after all, you know, I was one when I was lawyers."
A Justice Department memo released in July stated that the FBI had conducted "an exhaustive review" of Epstein-related files and found "no incriminating client list." The memo also reported "no credible evidence" that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals and concluded that "Epstein died by suicide." The controversy has been boosted by Trump influencers who have prompted the DOJ to release the list.
"You know, it's so easy for the media to point fingers and say, Justice Department's at fault," Dershowitz said. "There's a client list. It's not. It's being suppressed. That all overstates it. It's much more complicated and nuanced than that."
Dershowitz said if the accused names were to be released, evidence should come with it.
"No, what shouldn't be done is we shouldn't have a situation where the accusers are held confidential and the accused names are released," Dershowitz said. "And the information that will prove, for example, that some of the accusations may be false. That shouldn't be withheld as long as everything is turned out. We have transparency. And then people who are accused, as I was, have the right to defend themselves by showing documentary evidence."
MAGA influencers claim that Epstein did not die by suicide. However, Dershowitz thinks Epstein died by suicide and paid off people from the prison to make sure he could do it.
"I don't believe Epstein would have ever wanted to spend his life, which was a life lived in luxurious palaces," Dershowitz said. "And airplanes, in a rat infested cell. The thing that makes me a little suspicious is that he had a very strong bail motion."
If he did commit suicide, he did it with the help of prison authorities. So he couldn't have done it by himself. There are too many things that happened. Too many cameras got turned off. There are too many acts that would appear that they can't be coincidental.
The controversy also played out because Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had the Epstein client list sitting on her desk. However, she had nothing to release.
Some, such as Elon Musk, claimed it is because President Donald Trump is in the files himself.
"They have nothing to hide," Dershowitz said. "Everything about Trump himself has been previously disclosed."
I think that Pam Bondi had a lot of information on her desk, and after it was assessed and evaluated, she turned out everything that she could. So no, I don’t think that Pam Bondi or the president can be criticized for this.