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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 7, 2025

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Epstein DID kill himself. Also there's no client list. Stop asking questions

The US Department of Justice and FBI have concluded that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein did not have a so-called client list that could implicate high-profile associates, and that he did take his own life - contradicting long-held conspiracy theories about the infamous case.

According to a two-page Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI memo, investigators found no "incriminating list" of clients and "no credible evidence" that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals. Investigators also released footage they say supports the medical examiner's conclusion that Epstein died by suicide while being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York. The memo adds that investigators "did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties".

Some have claimed the conclusions reached in the memo contradict statements from Attorney General Pam Bondi in a Fox News interview that aired in February. "The DoJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients, will that really happen?", Bondi was asked on Fox, to which she replied: "It's sitting on my desk right now to review". White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday the attorney general was referring to all the files that are related to Epstein's crimes, rather than a specific list.

Well, there you go. It's been almost 6 years since Epstein did/didn't kill himself, and now we can close the book on the whole sordid mess (his primary accuser also happened to die by suicide (?) a few months ago). Epstein just wasn't a diligent record keeper. In unrelated news, Netanyahu nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Uggh, everyone always debunks the strawmen and never the more nuanced and realistic takes.

The real Epstein list (people who are actually guilty, not merely visitors) was in his head. We lost it when he died. They needed to keep him alive.

Epstein very likely killed himself in a physical sense, but there's a non-zero chance he was coerced/blackmailed/bribed into doing this, and substantial chance that the powers that be deliberately turned a blind eye to allow him to do it. And there's a 100% chance that negligence was involved and someone should be punished. Why wasn't he under direct supervision 24/7? Everyone knew he had dirt on important people. Everyone knew he was going to die under mysterious circumstances. Whoever had custody of him should have been extremely paranoid and gone above and beyond to keep him alive.

Any theory made after an event occurs to retroactively explain it lacks credibility because there's lots of degrees of freedom and ability to cherry-pick random events. Almost all conspiracy theories fall afoul of this. Epstein didn't kill himself does not. This was a theory that started before he died and predicted his death and then it happened despite the fact that people knew it would happen and could have stopped it.

Yes, Epstein probably did the deed. But they let him do it, and they probably let him do it on purpose because he knew things they didn't want public. If everything he knew was written down on physical lists that people had access to there wouldn't have been a benefit to letting him die.

This investigation does literally nothing to change my mind, it was already consistent with the theory I've held for six years, and I need no epicycles to explain this.

Epstein very likely killed himself in a physical sense, but there's a non-zero chance he was coerced/blackmailed/bribed into doing this

One would think that if they went to all the effort of making him commit suicide instead of just murdering him, they would have made the scene of the suicide less suspicious.

Did they need to? From their perspective, it doesn't matter whether conspiracy theorists suspect them or not if the authorities don't and they get away with it. Regardless of whether it truly was a conspiracy or merely negligence, clearly we live in a world where Epstein dying under the circumstances he did die under doesn't lead to heads rolling.