Patel, Bongino Provide Update On Jeffrey Epstein’s Reported ‘Suicide’
In a revealing interview aired Sunday on Fox News, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino shared new insights into the 2019 jailhouse death of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein—confirming, once again, that the disgraced financier died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Epstein was discovered unresponsive inside his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City in August 2019. Found hanging from the side of his bed with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck, prison guards initiated CPR before Epstein was transferred to New York Downtown Hospital, where he was pronounced dead that evening.
Despite a firestorm of speculation and widespread mistrust in the official narrative, both the New York City Medical Examiner and the Department of Justice’s Inspector General ruled Epstein’s death a suicide by hanging. Then-Attorney General William Barr—after initially expressing skepticism—called the incident “a perfect storm of screw-ups” following investigations by both the FBI and DOJ.
The billionaire’s known associations with controversial figures like former President Bill Clinton, MIT academic Noam Chomsky, and British royal Prince Andrew immediately sparked public suspicion over the timing and circumstances of his death.
Speaking with Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo, both Patel and Bongino reaffirmed the government's conclusion.
“As someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor who’s been in that prison system, who’s 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,” said Patel. He added that people are “entitled to their own opinion,” but the facts remain unchanged.
Bongino didn’t mince words: “He killed himself. I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”
Still, the American people remain unsatisfied with the lack of transparency from the government, and with good reason.
In February, President Donald Trump’s administration declassified a batch of DOJ documents related to Epstein’s case. Conservatives, victims’ advocates, and transparency watchdogs alike blasted the release as woefully inadequate—lacking the explosive “client list” many had hoped would bring accountability to Epstein’s powerful enablers.
“I nor the task force were given or reviewed the Epstein documents being released today… A NY Post story just revealed that the documents will simply be Epstein’s phonebook. THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna declared on X at the time.
In response to mounting public backlash, Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared on Hannity in March, assuring viewers that the DOJ had obtained “thousands of pages” of new material from the Southern District of New York after she enforced a release deadline.
Bondi promised that a full FBI report would be forthcoming, stating that federal agents had gathered a “truckload of evidence.” Yet as of mid-May, that comprehensive report remains conspicuously absent.
More recently, Bondi revealed chilling details about the volume of disturbing content under review. “The FBI is diligently going through that,” she told reporters, referring to “tens of thousands of videos of [Jeffrey] Epstein with children or child porn,” and acknowledging there are “hundreds of victims.”
The slow pace of justice has only deepened public frustration, especially as more disturbing events unfold.
Virginia Giuffre—perhaps the most prominent voice to come forward against Epstein and Prince Andrew—reportedly died by suicide in April at just 41 years old. Giuffre had filed a lawsuit in 2021 accusing the royal of sexually abusing her on three separate occasions between 1999 and 2002. She said she was recruited into Epstein’s trafficking ring at 16 by his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell was arrested in 2020 and later convicted on five sex trafficking-related charges in December 2021.
Another key Epstein associate, French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, also died by suicide after being arrested by French authorities in 2020 in connection with the case.
As conservatives continue to demand full transparency and accountability from a federal bureaucracy that has too often protected the powerful, one thing remains clear: the American people are no longer willing to accept half-truths and redacted files. Justice, long delayed, must not be denied.