For days, Attorney General Pam Bondi had talked about releasing the “Epstein files,” supposedly secret documents the federal government has on some of the powerful men who were in the orbit of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. But the roughly 200 [pages of documents](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-releases-first-phase-declassified-epstein-files) that Ms. Bondi released on Thursday contained little new information pointing to wrongdoing by anyone [other than Mr. Epstein](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/03/nyregion/jeffrey-epstein-court-documents.html), a registered sex offender who died in jail. The document dump largely consisted of flight logs for Mr. Epstein’s planes — long ago made public — and contact information for hundreds of associates, along with brief descriptions of items found at his residences. The release was billed as a gesture ushering in a new era of transparency at the Justice Department. But the hyped first release of documents (which Ms. Bondi teased as “breaking news” [in a Fox News appearance](https://www.fox9.com/news/epstein-files-release) on Wednesday night) appeared to be mostly political theater. Its confusing daylong rollout even spun off a few new conspiracy theories among some Trump supporters, who view the Epstein investigation as a fountainhead for other conspiracies. On Thursday afternoon, Ms. Bondi and Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I., offered a sneak preview of the documents to several conservative influencers, some of whom emerged from the West Wing waving chunky white binders with the label “The Epstein Files: Phase I.” One of them later called it an [“interesting souvenir.”](https://x.com/WatchChad/status/1895177559085633549) But by midafternoon, the Justice Department had not posted the contents. And Ms. Bondi was drawing criticism on social media from those who had taken her at her word the night before. The conservative personality Glenn Beck [posted on X](https://x.com/glennbeck/status/1895207514641232073): “The Epstein files are a total joke,” and asked, “Who is subverting POTUS?” Ms. Bondi responded by promising more documents to come. Later, she said that a “source” in the F.B.I. field office in New York City had told her the bureau withheld “thousands” of previously unknown pages of Epstein-related documents and that she was determined to get them, according to a letter her spokesman provided to reporters. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F27%2Fbusiness%2Fjeffrey-epstein-files-pam-bondi.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F27%2Fbusiness%2Fjeffrey-epstein-files-pam-bondi.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F27%2Fbusiness%2Fjeffrey-epstein-files-pam-bondi.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F02%2F27%2Fbusiness%2Fjeffrey-epstein-files-pam-bondi.html).

Virginia Giuffre, a former victim of [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/nyregion/jeffrey-epstein-suicide.html)’s sex-trafficking ring who said she was “passed around like a platter of fruit” as a teenager to rich and powerful predators, including Prince Andrew of Britain, died on Friday at her farm in Western Australia. She was 41. Ms. Giuffre died by suicide, according to a statement by the family. Ms. Giuffre (pronounced JIFF-ree) wrote in an [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/virginiarobertsrising11/p/DH0vvDKzDvu/) post in March that she was days away from dying of renal failure after being injured in an automobile crash with a school bus that she said was traveling at nearly 70 m.p.h. In 2019, Mr. Epstein was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York with sex-trafficking and conspiracy, accused of soliciting teenage girls to perform massages that became increasingly sexual in nature. Barely a month after he was apprehended, and a day after documents were released from Ms. Giuffre’s successful defamation suit against him, Mr. Epstein was [found hanged in his cell](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/nyregion/jeffrey-epstein-suicide.html) in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan. His death, at 66, was ruled a suicide. In 2009, Ms. Giuffre, identified then only as Jane Doe 102, sued Mr. Epstein, accusing him and [Ghislaine Maxwell](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/28/nyregion/ghislaine-maxwell-trial-epstein.html), his co-conspirator and the daughter of the disgraced British media magnate Robert Maxwell, of recruiting her to join his sex-trafficking ring when she was a minor under the guise of becoming a professional masseuse. Ms. Giuffre in 2023 with a photo of herself as a teenager. She said she was recruited to Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring as a minor and that she was “passed around like a platter of fruit” among his powerful friends.Credit...Emily Michot/Miami Herald, via Tribune News Service, via Getty Images Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F25%2Fus%2Fvirginia-giuffre-dead.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F25%2Fus%2Fvirginia-giuffre-dead.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F25%2Fus%2Fvirginia-giuffre-dead.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F04%2F25%2Fus%2Fvirginia-giuffre-dead.html).

In 1999, the future Barclays chief executive [Jes Staley](https://www.theguardian.com/business/jes-staley) was gearing up for his biggest job yet. As head of JP Morgan’s private bank, he would be in charge of a sprawling team that managed money and investments for some of the world’s richest people. Among them was the mysterious but well-connected billionaire [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein), with whom he would quickly develop a “fairly close professional relationship”. Staley was soon holidaying on Epstein’s private island, flying on his private plane, and gaining access to an impressive portfolio of ministers, entrepreneurs and royalty. The relationship ended up bolstering Staley’s profile on Wall Street and even connecting his daughter to senior figures at Ivy League universities. It also helped to end his career. In July 2019, Epstein was arrested on child sex trafficking charges, accused of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of girls at homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida. Some victims were as young as 14, US prosecutors alleged. Epstein, who was in jail as he awaited trial, [was found dead in his prison cell](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/10/jeffrey-epstein-dead-prison-report-latest) weeks later. The revelations about Epstein led to a media storm, bringing renewed attention to his former friends and business associates, including Staley. Barclays told the [Financial Conduct Authority](https://www.theguardian.com/business/financial-conduct-authority) in October 2019 that the pair “did not have a close relationship” and were last in contact “well before” Staley took over as chief executive four years earlier. But a subsequent FCA investigation, involving a cache of 1,200 emails from [JP Morgan](https://www.theguardian.com/business/jpmorgan), convinced the regulator it had been misled. It alleged that the pair were indeed close friends and stayed in touch via Staley’s daughter for years after he joined Barclays. [](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/26/high-flyer-to-pariah-saga-jeffrey-epstein-banker-jes-staley#img-2) Jes Staley arrives at 10 Downing Street in January 2018. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters It was not Staley’s first run-in with the FCA, having been fined £642,000 for trying to unmask a whistleblower in 2018. It was, however, the final straw: he was issued a fine of £1.8m and banned from holding senior management roles in the City in 2023, leading to him losing about £18m worth of pay. The 68-year-old fought back in [an appeal this spring](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/14/jes-staley-case-evidence-barclays-fca), arguing that he had always been transparent with Barclays and had followed internal legal advice on the letter’s phrasing, which was meant to emphasise that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Judges [on Thursday ruled in the FCA’s favour](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/26/jes-staley-loses-legal-case-over-city-ban-for-misleading-watchdog-over-epstein-links), upholding the lifetime City ban. March’s two-week tribunal hearing in London also gave the first public account of Epstein’s role in Staley’s life. This is what the court heard. The pair did not meet by chance, but on the recommendation of JP Morgan’s then chief executive, Douglas “Sandy” Warner, who felt that Epstein – already a client – was someone the newly appointed head of the private bank should know. The pair “got on well”, according to Staley’s lawyers, and Epstein’s career-boosting potential quickly became clear. He would refer wealthy friends to Staley, many of whom turned into JP Morgan clients. The two men occasionally socialised, Staley said, explaining that he would sometimes swing by Epstein’s home in Manhattan for a drink or dinner. And, from 2005, he took his family on the first of a handful of trips to Epstein’s Caribbean island, Little St James. Staley was adamant that Epstein was never part of his inner circle, was never invited to the family home, any “milestone birthdays”, or “personal meals in restaurants”. Staley said he had few personal friends and remains a loner. “From what I recall, Jes didn’t have very many friends,” his former chief of staff Sasha Wiggins told the court in March. And Staley said parts of Epstein’s life always remained a mystery. “I really didn’t know how much money he had,” Staley said. “What his background was, was always sort of shrouded.” [](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/26/high-flyer-to-pariah-saga-jeffrey-epstein-banker-jes-staley#img-3) One of Jeffrey Epstein’s properties on his private island, Little St James, US Virgin Islands. Photograph: Marco Bello/Reuters By 2006, the mask started to slip. Epstein was arrested after police in Florida were tipped off that he was recruiting young girls for massages and sexual encounters. He pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor and in 2008 he was sentenced to 18 months in jail. Staley stayed in contact, though, and visited Epstein after his indictment. He said Epstein did not deny that he solicited a prostitute, but maintained that he thought the girls were over 18. “Obviously he lied to me,” Staley told the court in March. He visited Epstein again in around 2009, when he was on a prison work release programme in Florida. Staley said he reported the visit to JP Morgan, which was reviewing whether to keep Epstein as a client. But emails suggest he had been leaning on the imprisoned Epstein for advice throughout the financial crisis, writing in October 2008: “I am dealing with the Fed on an idea to solve things. I need a smart friend to help me think through this stuff. Can I get you out for a weekend to help me (are they listening?).” [](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/26/high-flyer-to-pariah-saga-jeffrey-epstein-banker-jes-staley#img-4) Jeffrey Epstein in a photo taken in 2017 for the sex offender registry in New York. The court heard that Staley turned to Epstein to help connect his daughter – a physics major – with scientists and senior professors at Ivy League universities. The financier, who Staley referred to as “Uncle Jeffrey”, would later be invited to her graduation in 2015. Staley stressed that he did not then know of Epstein’s crimes. Wiggins told the court: “Mr Staley said to me once: ‘Why would I have introduced my wife and daughters to Mr Epstein if I thought he was a paedophile?’_”_ When Epstein was released on house arrest in July 2009, Staley was one of the four people he emailed to say: “Free and home.” Staley replied: “I toast your courage !!!!!” But more cryptic messages between the two stirred the most controversy, including an exchange about Disney princesses in July 2010. “That was fun. Say hi to Snow White,” Staley wrote. “What character would you like next?” Epstein asked, to which Staley replied: “Beauty and the Beast.” “Well one side is available,” Epstein responded. Staley told the court he was not able to explain the exchange. Months earlier, in September 2009, Epstein emailed a woman to say: “Jes staley is staying at the berkeley hotel in London tonight.” Staley said he could not recall the reason behind the message. That year Staley’s career took another leap, with his promotion to lead JP Morgan’s investment bank. Even the chief executive, Jamie Dimon, was singing his praises, [telling Fortune magazine](https://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/news/companies/jp_morgan_staley.fortune/index.htm): “Jes has impeccable character and integrity.” [](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/26/high-flyer-to-pariah-saga-jeffrey-epstein-banker-jes-staley#img-5) Jeffrey Epstein with the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Photograph: Zuma Press/Alamy The new role meant Epstein was no longer a direct client. But that did not end their relationship, or Staley’s effusive messages. In November 2009, Staley detoured from a work trip to visit Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, replete with a 26,700sq ft mansion, private airstrip, and seven-bay heated garage. He emailed Epstein in thanks: “So when all hell breaks lose \[sic\], and the world is crumbling, I will come here, and be at peace. Presently, I’m in the hot tub with a glass of white wine. This is an amazing place … I owe you much. And I deeply appreciate our friendship. I have few so profound.” In December, months after Epstein’s release, the pair finally found time to meet in person. “I realize the danger in sending this email. But is \[sic\] was great to be able, today, to give you, in New York City, a long heartfelt hug. To my friend, Thanks. Jes.” At times, their emails were more explicit: discussing sex scandals and lovers. One message, sent from a debutante ball that Staley attended in November 2010, told Epstein that Staley had seen “your lover … she says u slept with her!!” Epstein separately sent photos, one of which was of a woman in a low-cut ballgown. “You were with Larry, and i had to put up with …,” Epstein wrote. When FCA lawyers suggested this interaction was a sign that he and Epstein were “personally close”, Staley said such behaviour was not uncommon between people who were “professionally close – you know, if you’ve ever worked on a trading floor on Wall Street”. Staley said there were parts of his life he kept from Epstein, including [having sex with a member of Epstein’s staff](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/13/ex-barclays-boss-claims-his-marriage-is-at-risk-after-admitting-to-sex-with-epstein-employee-in-court). “Oftentimes I would go to Epstein’s apartment and he would be late, and she and I got the chance to know each other.” This led to sexual intercourse, he said, “much to my embarrassment today”. The former banker, who has a wife and two daughters, said the confession came at a personal cost. “I have been honest such that I have put my marriage at risk … I have never shied away from telling the truth about all of this.” The date of the encounter was not disclosed in court, but the FCA revealed that Epstein’s former employee had “carved” Staley out of a settlement she had reached with Epstein’s estate. “I was not aware of that,” Staley told the court. Despite the allegedly secret encounter, Epstein and Staley would send messages declaring their close ties, referring to each other as family. In one exchange in March 2011, Epstein writes: “Told you −−−− family.” Staley replied with one word: “Family”. Behind the scenes, Epstein’s banking relationship with JP Morgan was starting to unravel. The bank was considering dumping Epstein as a client but was careful about broaching the issue with Staley, saying they were friends. “He needs to understand the potential backlash to the firm given all the work done to root out clients involved in human trafficking,” an internal memo said. [](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/26/high-flyer-to-pariah-saga-jeffrey-epstein-banker-jes-staley#img-6) Jes Staley leaving court in March 2025 following the first day of his tribunal appeal. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters Staley tried to convince the bank’s top lawyer to “hear \[Epstein\] out”, according to a JP Morgan meeting note. He also revealed to Epstein that his transactions were under review. Staley admitted to sharing internal information with Epstein but denied having pushed the bank to keep him as a client. Panic had set in by September 2009, when Epstein told Staley a “family meeting was required”. Epstein was concerned about an “abusive reporter”, and instructed Staley on how to respond: “I think your response should be \[that\] all of the incidents that they raise happened a decade ago, I paid my debt and like everyone else should be given another chance.” Epstein said he had been “unaware of the full heat that you have taken as a result of our friendship”, adding: “I’m sorry.” Epstein hired a London lobbyist for a 2012 campaign to make Staley Barclay’s chief executive, dubbed “Project Jes”. In emails, the lobbyist claimed he hoped to convince top-level policymakers, including George Osborne, who was the then chancellor, and Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, to support Staley. The banker said he never knew about the push. Barclays ultimately installed its own [head of retail and business banking](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/aug/30/barclays-new-chief-executive-antony-jenkins), Antony Jenkins, whose ousting three years later led to Staley’s leadership. In early 2013, Staley left JP Morgan, moving to the hedge fund Blue Mountain Capital. At this point, Staley claimed, his relationship with Epstein started to decline. But the FCA alleged that their communication did not wither, pointing to a string of emails in early 2013 in which the pair discussed dinner plans, new work phone numbers and planned meet-ups. Staley also kept up an annual tradition of emailing Epstein on New Year’s Eve. The declarations of friendship continued in January 2015, when Staley told Epstein: “The strength of a Greek army was that its core held shoulder to shoulder, and would not flee or break, no matter the threat. That is us.” That year, Epstein was back in the media’s crosshairs. An anonymous woman had [filed a lawsuit alleging she was repeatedly sexually abused](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/02/prince-andrew-named-us-lawsuit-underage-sex-allegations) by Epstein between 1999 and 2002, and that he had loaned her out to rich and influential men. By April that year, Staley had what he says was his last in-person meeting with Epstein, having again taken his family to visit the financier’s private island. “Thanks for the flight and thanks for the lunch. Your place is crazy, and special … I count u as a deep friend. The girls seemed to enjoy the sail. All the best Jes.” Within months, Staley was taking another stab at the [Barclays](https://www.theguardian.com/business/barclay) job, and kept Epstein abreast of developments. Weeks before the appointment, Staley emailed: “Cross your toes !!!” Staley was back in touch days before receiving his Barclays contract: “We’re very close.” The British tabloids, however, were circling, having already pounced on another prominent figure with ties to the convicted sex offender. News of Prince Andrew’s relationship with Epstein had caused a media frenzy [as early as 2011](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/mar/13/prince-andrew-jeffrey-epstein), years before a disastrous BBC interview that led to the prince being forced to step back from public duties in 2019. Days before Staley was confirmed as Barclays’ new boss, the Mail on Sunday was chasing up claims that Epstein lobbied Barclays to hire Staley in both 2012 and 2015. Epstein forwarded the newspaper’s queries to Staley, who later replied: “Ok. I’m going to play is \[sic\] simple. I’ve known you as a client. I will tell B tomorrow. Let me know if they say something else. But stay away from them. I’m fine.” The article was published with the headline: “Andrew’s billionaire paedophile friend secretly backed new Barclays boss for job”. Staley said he cut contact with Epstein days later, following “strong advice” from Barclays. “I telephoned Mr Epstein and told him that we could not ever again have communication, which he accepted. The relationship ended there. I have had no communication with him since then,” Staley told the court. There is no evidence of direct contact between the two men after October 2015, but the FCA alleged they stayed in touch via Staley’s daughter until at least February 2017. Emails show that Epstein asked Staley’s daughter to ask the newly installed chief executive’s opinion on other bankers, to try to connect Staley with royalty in the Middle East, and to ask whether Staley was interested in a post with the US Treasury. Staley said he did not recall any of those conversations, and he did not realise at the time that his daughter and Epstein were still corresponding. The tribunal on Thursday raised concerns in its judgment about Staley’s evidence, saying he “could be inconsistent in his answers when he felt that it would suit his case”, adding that he had “shown no remorse for his conduct”. Judges have sided with the FCA, upholding its City ban and scuppering efforts to restore his reputation. And while the tribunal reduced his fine from £1.8m to £1.1m, this was to reflect pay he lost from Barclays as a result of the FCA ruling. It is not clear how much Staley has paid in legal costs trying to challenge the UK regulator. Staley said in a statement: “I am disappointed by the outcome and the time it took for this process to play out – that was entirely beyond my control. As the tribunal accepted, I was never dishonest. It took years of arguing with the authority and until November 2024 to establish that fact, and it took more time for the financial penalty to be reduced by 40%. “I have worked tirelessly for my prior employers for the entirety of my career. I am proud of the support I gave to many individuals during that career and the strategy I developed to help Barclays when it faced immense challenges. The tribunal recognised what they described as ‘my long and distinguished career’.”

A review of files held by the US government on the financier [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein) has said there is no secret client list to be released, and confirmed his August 2019 death by suicide while in federal custody, both of which contradict conspiracy theories. A memo said that a Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) review of the files – which has for years been teased as a treasure trove of information about a larger network of wrongdoing – concluded that no further charges are expected, as investigators “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties”. The justice department also [released hours of footage](https://www.justice.gov/video-files/video2.mp4?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) taken from Manhattan’s metropolitan correctional center, showing that no one entered or left the area where Epstein was held during, before or after the time medical examiners concluded he took his life. “As part of our commitment to transparency, the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted an exhaustive review of investigative holdings relating to [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein),” the DOJ said. It added that the review included “digital searches of its databases, hard drives, and network drives as well as physical searches of squad areas, locked cabinets, desks, closets, and other areas where responsive material may have been stored”. The department said it had uncovered “a significant amount of material”, including more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence that included “a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography”. “Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography,” the memo said. Nor, the statement continued, did the review uncover an incriminating “client list” or find credible evidence that Epstein was involved in blackmailing prominent individuals. No further charges are expected in connection with the investigations into Epstein, the memo said, as investigators “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties”. The attorney general, [Pam Bondi](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pam-bondi), had previously promised the public release of scores of records related to Epstein, but an earlier release of documents did nothing to advance the conspiracy narratives that have emerged since his death. Soon after the memo was made public by [Axios](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/07/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-client-list-trump-administration), and later by the independent journalist Jessica Reed Kraus on Substack, Elon Musk voiced his disappointment, [posting an image to the social platform X](https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1942132189229162960) of “The Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter,” set to “0000”. “What’s the time? Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again,” Musk captioned the photo. The billionaire CEO of Tesla, who is feuding with [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) after his work to gut federal government spending through the “department of government efficiency” (Doge) seemed to run counter to Trump’s recent bill that will massively increase the deficit, has previously intimated that Epstein file releases promised by the justice department had been stalled because Trump himself was implicated. “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” he wrote. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT.” Trump dismissed Musk’s claims to NBC News: “That’s called ‘old news.’ That’s been old news. That has been talked about for years. Even Epstein’s lawyer said I had nothing to do with it – it’s old news,” he said. The justice department also said its review of the files was consistent with prior disclosures on the case and its review confirmed that Epstein harmed over one thousand victims. “Each suffered unique trauma. Sensitive information relating to these victims is intertwined throughout the materials. This includes specific details such as victim names and likenesses, physical descriptions, places of birth, associates, and employment history. “One of our highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to victims. Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends.”

 The Justice Department and the FBI have found no evidence that disgraced financier and convicted sex offender [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/30/nx-s1-5407856/conspiracy-theorists-dan-bongino-epstein-fbi) had a "client list" or that he blackmailed prominent associates. The conclusions are included in a [two-page memo](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline) outlining the "exhaustive review" the department conducted of the Epstein files in its possession. The memo also states that after a "thorough investigation," the FBI found that Epstein died by suicide, which aligns with previous department conclusions. The findings contradict past statements from Attorney General Pam Bondi about an alleged list of Epstein clients. And it's unclear if the memo will tamp down on the continued public skepticism about Epstein's case, particularly his suicide. Epstein died at a federal lockup in New York City in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. His death has fueled [numerous conspiracy theories](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/08/1121525125/heres-why-conspiracy-theories-about-jeffrey-epstein-keep-flourishing), particularly on the far right, because of his ties to the wealthy and powerful and the continued speculation surrounding his death. Axios was the first to report on the memo. Bondi has long promised to release documents from the Epstein investigation. She made public a small batch of files in February, and said the move was part of the administration's "commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators." That same month, she told Fox News in an interview that Epstein's client list was "sitting on my desk right now to review." More than four months later, the department memo directly contradicts her. "This systematic review revealed no incriminating 'client list.' There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions," the memo says. "We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties." Asked Monday about Bondi's previous remarks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to play down the discrepancy. "She was saying the entirety of all the paperwork, all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes," Leavitt told reporters. "That's what the attorney general was referring to, and I'll let her speak for that." Leavitt added that the attorney general and the FBI director pledged, at Trump's direction, to conduct an exhaustive review of the Epstein materials "and that's what they did, and they provided the results of that. That's transparency." ### Suicide in line with prior findings, medical evidence The unsigned memo says the FBI and the department went through its investigative files related to Epstein—digital searches of databases, hard drives, network drives and physical searches of cabinets, desks and closets—to find any and all relevant materials. Epstein's died by suicide on Aug. 10, 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, according to the memo. It notes that the conclusions is consistent with previous findings, including those of the city's chief medial examiner, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan and the DOJ's inspector general. It says the conclusion his death was by suicide is also supported by video footage from the common area of the prison unit where Epstein was being held when he died. "Anyone entering or attempting to enter the tier where Epstein's cell was located … would have been captured by this footage," the memo states. "The FBI's independent review of this footage confirmed that from the time Epstein was locked in his cell at around 10:40 pm on Aug 9, 2019, until around 6:30 am the next morning, nobody entered any of the tiers." FBI Director [Kash Patel](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/05/g-s1-70449/fbi-kash-patel) and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have previously raised questions about the official account of Epstein and his death. Since taking top jobs at the bureau, though, they have publicly stated that Epstein killed himself. Both men faced backlash online from conspiracy theorists. The memo states that there are more than 1,000 victims of Epstein's abuse, and that sensitive information on those individuals is contained in the investigative files. It says that combatting child exploitation and providing justice to victims are top priorities, and that "perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends." "To that end, while we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government's possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted," the memo says.

Great news, everyone! We can all stop thinking about Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged with the sex trafficking of minors in 2019 and [found dead in his Manhattan jail cell](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/27/jeffrey-epstein-doj-watchdog-negligence-misconduct) shortly after, apparently of suicide. Great minds have looked into the case and discovered there is nothing more to uncover. So don’t waste your time wondering which powerful people might have been part of Epstein’s alleged trafficking operation. There’s nothing to see here – nothing at all. Case officially closed. That, in essence, was the message from the Trump administration over the weekend. On Sunday, [Axios reported](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/07/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-client-list-trump-administration) on a memo from Trump’s justice department and the FBI that concluded there is no evidence that Epstein was involved in blackmailing people, kept a “client list” or was murdered. Most importantly, the memo said there is no “evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties”. This is a big deal because Trump and his lackeys have spent a lot of time and energy dangling Epstein-related conspiracy bait in front of their base, constantly insinuating that they’re on the verge of revealing the shocking truth about Epstein’s network of elite predators. When asked about an Epstein client list (the one that the new memo says is nonexistent) during a February appearance on Fox News, the US attorney general Pam Bondi said: “[It’s sitting on my desk right now to review](http://clicksp.doseofdemocracy.com/f/a/dJev82JGJQswe8AZaYFATw~~/AAPPABA~/NeIntALWeian58GcaxB0_gSZ4wTJNSVljc-pOdMnSRa34lgpGq4YtPWdcoJ2de1OPupGb4a89Qpjb_bbrcwuahanrsaTElI6RVd7Y4LDbJkQwKdwj4Yiv9laummD9z0-sYNc1Y3MR5Emu6nayeZFNeusBpee4BCpv8J1HLiCy082o-v3ves23FFN95LNj8D5OD878hwfVlukeWF3FgeaIxd1-m5M-VwvCmJ1dRooWaAeG-uE6ltEiUQbtq83bMxjIzlnMlEnMhmk3BZvwQFBax7j-Sr9OiYz6qzz_glg_rDpFu_m9Xuq9Eifhs20Nafw7Io3wln4cJw_D8OPkE93ArDGSYn-bMkCkrO_uTiyM10XAGte5a8c4wViYs05UfiWdEip5Kb9RrcPI4mt7HwzN9Z6O87V0ZItTr3-DMInA_Y~).” Shortly after that interview there [was a big to-do](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/01/epstein-files-trump-administration) where Epstein-obsessed Maga influencers were invited to the White House and given binders titled the Epstein Files, full of information that Bondi promised “[will make you sick](https://www.foxla.com/news/epstein-files-release)”. Shock horror, there was nothing new or notable in those binders and Maga had a meltdown. Now, a second Epstein-induced meltdown is in full swing. Elon Musk, who is back to publicly fighting with Trump, and has threatened to [start a new political party](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/06/trump-news-at-a-glance-elon-musk-announces-new-political-party-targeting-key-congressional-seats), has been [firing off jabs](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/07/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-justice-department-fbi-review-confirms) about the justice department’s Epstein U-turn. On Monday, Musk, who previously accused Trump of being in the Epstein Files, [retweeted a post](https://x.com/SarahisCensored/status/1942114841373646910) by a woman called Sarah Fields that said: “If the entire government is protecting paedophiles, it has officially become the government against the people.” Bit late figuring out the Trump administration doesn’t work for “the people” – but hey, welcome to the resistance, Elon! The conservative activist Robby Starbuck is also fuming. “Pam Bondi said the Epstein client list was on her desk to review for release to the public just a few months ago,” Starbuck tweeted. “Now the DOJ she leads claims that there’s no Epstein client list. Sorry but this is unacceptable … [We deserve answers](https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1942051481542160409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1942051481542160409%7Ctwgr%5Ea83c55a38e83b7ef69a3316f2a459b84df04f9da%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Felon-musk-leads-maga-meltdown-over-trump-administrations-epstein-review%2F).” It’s always fun when the [Maga crowd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_America_Great_Again) realise what the people they propelled into power are really like. But why are rightwing voices the loudest on this topic? Starbuck is right that the current situation is unacceptable: _everyone_ should be demanding more answers about Epstein. Everyone should be outraged that there is only one person, Ghislaine Maxwell, who has actually faced justice in what was, by all accounts, a vast trafficking operation. Some people have paid in other ways – in 2023 Deutsche Bank agreed to pay $75m (£60m) to settle a lawsuit [brought by a group of women](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/18/deutsche-bank-agrees-to-pay-75m-to-settle-jeffrey-epstein-lawsuit) who accused it of helping facilitate Epstein’s operations – but Maxwell is the only person to have got prison time. There are, it should be said, a lot of ridiculous Epstein-related conspiracy theories circulating. Those obviously should not be indulged. But I’ll tell you what is not a conspiracy: the fact that there are a lot of high-status people who are very interested in covering up their association with the disgraced financier. It is not a conspiracy to say the US has a two-tier justice system where rich and powerful people can do terrible things and face no consequences. Earlier this year, Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent Epstein victims, [died of suicide](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/26/virginia-giuffre-suicide-dead-aged-41). She was the [third Epstein accuser](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/may/03/jeffrey-epstein-virginia-giuffre) who is reported to have died of suicide or a drug overdose. Epstein destroyed countless lives. And he didn’t do it alone: he was enabled by “respectable” people who actively facilitated his crimes. And, more broadly, he was enabled by people who looked the other way, who helped whitewash his reputation, who hobnobbed with him in high society. Those people are still out there, living their best lives. And it is looking increasingly likely they will never be held accountable. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist _**Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our [letters](https://www.theguardian.com/tone/letters) section, please [click here](mailto:[email protected]?body=Please%20include%20your%20name%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8B,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city/town/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.).**_

Rightwing influencers in the US who are often aligned with [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) are angry that a joint justice department and FBI [memo](https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25992101/epstein.pdf) has dismissed the existence of a “client list” in the case against late sex offender [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein). The disgraced financier killed himself in a jail cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City in 2019 while awaiting [prosecution](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/jeffrey-epstein-charged-manhattan-federal-court-sex-trafficking-minors) on child sex-trafficking and conspiracy charges. Almost ever since, Epstein’s death has been the subject of conspiracy theories on the right, including a supposed “client list” that he purportedly used to blackmail wealthy co-conspirators. Trump’s presidential administration then created anticipation that the alleged list would be publicly disclosed, including the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who had told [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/attorney-general-bondi-under-siege-after-doj-reveals-no-epstein-client-list) in an interview: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.” But then a review conducted by the justice department and FBI “revealed no incriminating ‘client list’”, said an unsigned and undated memo first obtained by [Axios](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/07/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-client-list-trump-administration) on Sunday. The memo added: “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” Further, the two-page, undated and unsigned memo stated that the government holds roughly 300 gigabytes of the evidence against Epstein, but that much of it would never be released because it contained identifying details about victims of trafficking or child abuse imagery. “Only a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial – as the seal served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing,” the memo stated. Those findings have prompted rightwing influencers who are frequently in favor of Trump’s policies to suggest that the federal government is protecting a powerful cabal of pedophiles. Some rightwing activists have even argued that the “deep state” – a term they use to describe what they purport to be a permanent government of bureaucrats and operatives in place to thwart Trump – is more muscular than they imagined. “Contextualizing all of this – this seems like unforgivable behavior,” conservative influencer Liz Wheeler said on the Glenn Beck show on Monday, according to the [New Republic](https://www.yahoo.com/news/remember-trump-binder-influencers-epstein-203415282.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL4q0XCM32DINgr18dCB5QfClAdNb0pdp1HpWOjdyhcTSqrWZ9QggfAj2BFgZpAfPCCyNaAwwftNDgXMbGuBPvhoOzECBdO48NKDy9ilLhepYy0x4CSrrM7JBMNCSr9DlgxMX7LSpGvHjM9gEtkYo1fVLbElSLmWaTSu4XfnoUXF). “Trump has to fire Pam Bondi,” said Keith and Kevin Hodge, known as the Hodge Twins on [social media](https://x.com/hodgetwins/status/1942049431810969700). “She went on camera and told the world she has the Epstein client list on her desk … Now they say there is no list??” Conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones added in an X post: “Next the \[justice department\] will say, ‘Actually, [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein) never even existed.’ This is over the top sickening.” [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/08/rightwing-jeffrey-epstein-client-list#EmailSignup-skip-link-14) Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion The White House in February had evidently tried to satiate rightwing influencers demanding new information about Epstein with binders relating to his case. But they contained little if any new information that wasn’t already publicly available. “How could \[Bondi\] give the American people those ‘phase 1’ binders that contained nothing?” Wheeler said after the new memo first reported by Axios. Asked about Epstein by a reporter at the White House on Tuesday, Trump irately deflected. “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump said. “This guy’s been talked about for years. “Are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable.” He also claimed it “seems like a desecration” to discuss Epstein after the 4 July flash flooding in Texas that had killed more than 100 people. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, had also previously been pressed about the administration’s statements with respect to Epstein. She recently argued Bondi used the term “client list” to refer to the entirety of evidence against Epstein. “She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper, in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, that’s what the attorney general was referring to, and I’ll let her speak for that,” Leavitt said.

Amid all the controversies of President Donald Trump’s second term so far, the one that may be causing him the biggest problems among his right-wing base is about a man who died six years ago: [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.vox.com/politics/2024/1/4/24025802/jeffrey-epstein-list-unsealed-documents-bill-clinton-donald-trump). Epstein, the well-connected financier who was indicted for sex trafficking underage girls and died in prison in 2019, has been an obsession on the right ever since. [Online MAGA influencers](https://x.com/JDVance/status/1434146390217736192) and [Fox commentators](https://www.foxnews.com/video/6343135274112) have speculated for years that Epstein might have been murdered, that he was blackmailing powerful people, and that the US government is hiding information that would reveal what really happened. In 2024 and the initial months of 2025, Trump allies like Pam Bondi and Kash Patel — the current attorney general and FBI director, respectively — [played to the base](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ag-pam-bondi-says-some-epstein-files-coming-thursday-its-pretty-sick) and [egged on these theories](https://x.com/nicksortor/status/1863014973917606154), promising to release the “[Epstein Files](https://www.vox.com/politics/401996/jeffrey-epstein-files-influencers-pam-bondi).” But now they can’t — or won’t — deliver. On Monday, the Justice Department and FBI released a memo saying, basically, that they’ve got nothing. The memo says that, after a review, they found [no Epstein “client list” and no “credible evidence”](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline) that he blackmailed people. The memo also restated the FBI’s conclusion that Epstein killed himself. Key right-wing influencers reacted with [fury](https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1942291649729814975), [despair](https://newrepublic.com/post/197679/alex-jones-donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-report), or [contempt](https://x.com/seanmdav/status/1942582741712683024) — refusing to accept the administration’s assurances that there’s nothing to see here. Trump was deeply annoyed to be asked about this by a reporter on Tuesday. “[Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-slams-reporter-asking-about-creep-jeffrey-epstein-during-cabinet-meeting)” he snapped. Insisting there were much more important things in the news, he continued: “That is unbelievable. I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein.” Of course, Epstein has long been an awkward topic for Trump, considering that they were friendly, that they’ve been [photographed together](https://www.vox.com/2019/7/9/20686347/jeffrey-epstein-trump-bill-clinton), and that [Trump told a reporter Epstein was a “terrific guy”](https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/#print) who liked women “on the younger side” all the way back in 2002. (These connections have been resolutely ignored by online right influencers.) Adding to the awkwardness, when Elon Musk fell out with Trump last month, [Musk claimed that Trump was “in the Epstein Files”](https://www.vox.com/politics/415599/elon-musk-trump-feud-bill-contracts-nasa) and that “that is the real reason they have not been made public.” (Ordinarily, the accusation from a top presidential adviser that the president was implicated in sex trafficking underage girls would be a gigantic scandal, but Musk does tend to make things up.) The idea that Trump could be covering up his own Epstein-related crimes makes the right feel so uncomfortable that they’ve largely dismissed it. Many prefer to [speculate that Epstein has ties to intelligence agencies](https://x.com/matthewschmitz/status/1942690645228835286) — either in the US or Israel — that the government doesn’t want to disclose. But if you’re a right-winger deeply bought into the belief that there must be more to the story, there are really only two possibilities: Either Trump, Bondi, and Patel are dupes getting snowed by the deep state, or they’re knowing participants in the cover-up. Epstein was a very wealthy financier who had a lot of famous friends, whom he often flew on his planes to his private island. He was also repeatedly accused, in criminal and civil proceedings, of sex trafficking and sexually abusing underage girls, including some as young as 14. A brush with the law over this in the mid-2000s ended in what was later derided as a sweetheart plea deal, but in July 2019, Epstein was arrested again — and then found dead in his cell the following month, in what authorities said was a suicide. The documented story of Epstein is bizarre and damning as it is. But, on both the left and the right, many have insisted the conspiracy must go far deeper. Did Epstein have secret sexual blackmail material on powerful and influential people — politicians, celebrities — who were also involved in abusing underage girls? How did he make his money? Was he working with US or foreign intelligence services? Was he actually murdered in a shadowy conspiracy to prevent him from telling what he knew? In particular, the online right has fixated on what they refer to as the “[Epstein list](https://www.vox.com/politics/2024/1/4/24025802/jeffrey-epstein-list-unsealed-documents-bill-clinton-donald-trump)” — an imagined document supposedly listing famous people who were co-conspirators in his sex crimes. The online right hoped this would be the promised smoking gun that would indisputably reveal that their political enemies are perverted criminals, disgracing them forever and likely leading them to be arrested. As such, it’s the latest variation of the [“QAnon” theory](https://www.vox.com/2020/10/9/21504910/qanon-conspiracy-theory-facebook-ban-trump), which argued that proof of a deep-state conspiracy to protect Democratic pedophiles was imminent. (Democrats’ hopes for a Trump “[pee tape](https://www.vox.com/2018/4/15/17233994/comey-interview-trump-pee-tape-russia)” could be said to serve a similar role.) Dark allusions to this theory are a proven strategy for aspiring MAGA influencers seeking online engagement. When JD Vance launched his political career in 2021, he [tweeted](https://x.com/JDVance/status/1434146390217736192): “Remember when we learned that our wealthiest and most powerful people were connected to a guy who ran a literal child sex trafficking ring? And then that guy died mysteriously in a jail? And now we just don’t talk about it.” Epstein first became a problem for Trump this year back in February, when Bondi [hyped an imminent release](https://www.vox.com/politics/401996/jeffrey-epstein-files-influencers-pam-bondi) of Epstein-related information. When a Fox host asked her if she’d release “the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients,” [Bondi answered](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/08/jeffrey-epstein-bondi-patel-trump/), “It is sitting on my desk right now, to review.” Bondi then invited right-wing influencers to the White House and gave them binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” — but the files turned out to contain no new or relevant information, and certainly no client list. Widespread bipartisan mockery ensued on social media. As part of Bondi’s damage control, her team [put out a letter](https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1895195194947183047) to Patel, in which Bondi claimed she’d asked for all the Epstein documents, but had been belatedly tipped off that the FBI’s New York field office was withholding thousands of pages. Bondi demanded they be handed over, and ordered Patel “to conduct an immediate investigation into why my order to the FBI wasn’t followed.” Months later, it’s clear that this, too, was BS. And now, Bondi’s DOJ and Patel’s FBI have claimed they don’t have any such client list. When Bondi was asked Tuesday about her old claim on Fox that the list was “on her desk,” she said she was just referring to the Epstein Files generally, and not a client list specifically. The simplest and most boring explanation for what happened here is that they really do have nothing — that the government is not sitting on bombshell intel as part of a massive cover-up of some secret Epstein conspiracy. That, when Bondi and Patel implied otherwise, they were pandering to the base, genuinely misinformed, or both. “When you’re a podcast guest or a podcast host, you can make a bunch of wild claims that you think are probably true, whatever, it’s just content,” conservative activist Will Chamberlain [posted on X](https://x.com/willchamberlain/status/1942662184238231561?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet). “When you’re a high-ranking official in the FBI, it’s not so simple.” Not everyone is satisfied with that. “The Epstein case isn’t over,” Glenn Beck [wrote](https://x.com/glennbeck/status/1942444247044734996). “It’s the Rosetta Stone of public trust. And if we don’t get to the bottom of it, we’ll never restore what’s already been lost.” See More: * [Culture](https://www.vox.com/culture) * [Influencers](https://www.vox.com/influencers) * [Internet Culture](https://www.vox.com/internet-culture) * [Politics](https://www.vox.com/politics) * [Trump Administration](https://www.vox.com/trump-administration)

MAGA influencers are furious that Trump’s FBI says no more Jeffrey Epstein secrets are forthcoming.  Photo-illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Sezeryadigar / Getty; Rick Friedman / Corbis / Getty. July 10, 2025, 5:41 PM ET The Trump administration had promised a bombshell. Americans, many of whom had spent years wondering over the unknowns in the Jeffrey Epstein case, would finally get their hands on the secret files that would explain it all. What _really_ happened when the accused sex trafficker died in jail back in 2019? And who was on his “client list”—a rumored collection of famous and powerful people who participated in Epstein’s crimes? In a September 2024 interview on the _Lex Fridman Podcast_, Donald Trump suggested that he would release the list if reelected. “Yeah, I’d be inclined to do the Epstein; I’d have no problem with it,” Trump said. He indulged speculation about Epstein after his reelection as well. In February, the White House hosted a collection of [MAGA-world influencers](https://newrepublic.com/post/197652/trump-binder-influencers-epstein-files-pissed) and gave them binders full of heavily redacted Epstein-related documents labeled Phase 1, suggesting more to come. The Trump administration has been unusually focused on messaging about such information, making a show of pulling the curtain back on supposed secrets. Trump similarly promoted the release of [further documents related to the John F. Kennedy assassination](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/jfk-file-dump-revealed/682147/), along with records on the killings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In an [executive order signed this January](https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-orders-declassification-of-jfk-rfk-and-mlk-assassination-files/), the administration framed these efforts as “PROVIDING AMERICANS THE TRUTH.” At an April hearing on those files, Nancy Mace, a Trump ally and representative from South Carolina, brought up the so-called Epstein list. In a meandering statement, she spoke about her desire to see documents regarding Epstein, as well as [Hunter Biden’s laptop](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/04/tech-companies-suppressed-biden-laptop/629680/) and the [origins of the coronavirus](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/05/lab-leak-pandemic-trump-maga/682854/). All have been recurring internet fascinations among Trump’s supporters. “Sunshine literally is the best medicine,” Mace argued. A personal wish list of coveted secrets is not exactly the same thing as a principled call for government transparency. But the two are easy to conflate and can have some incidental overlap, which can be politically useful. The promise of previously withheld revelations has allowed Trump to frame himself as an outsider fighting on behalf of voters who have been kept in the dark by the establishment. The catch is that once he was back in office, he was put in the awkward position of having to deliver. On Monday, the FBI [released a memo](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline) saying that it had reviewed all of its files on Epstein and that it does not plan to release more after all; there will be no Phase 2. According to the FBI, only a “fraction” of the remaining material would have become public if Epstein had lived to go to trial, because it includes “a large volume” of illegal content involving underaged victims of sexual abuse—in other words, material that cannot be released to the public. The memo also noted, in one breezy paragraph, that the bureau’s review had uncovered neither a client list nor evidence “that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” There will be no new investigation against “uncharged third parties,” the memo said. This has come as a shock to a group of people who have long bought into the idea that Trump would one day unmask an evil ring of Democrats and liberal-coded celebrities. Anna Paulina Luna, a representative from Florida and the chair of the [Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets](https://oversight.house.gov/release/task-force-on-the-declassification-of-federal-secrets-announces-second-hearing-on-the-jfk-files-and-government-obstruction/), which facilitated the recent document releases regarding JFK, told me that she will be asking the Department of Justice to authorize the release of more Epstein details anyway. “I think the American people still have questions and there is stuff that they can release,” she said. She didn’t comment specifically on the existence of a client list and said she didn’t yet know exactly what kind of documents the FBI might still have (clarifying that she agreed that the bureau should not release any private details about victims or child-sexual-abuse material). In the meantime, the about-face on the Epstein files is splintering MAGA world, and many Trump allies are feeling betrayed and unmoored. “No one believes there is not a client list,” [wrote Marjorie Taylor Greene](https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1942536269734588790), the representative from Georgia who has avidly [promoted QAnon conspiracy theories](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/01/marjorie-taylor-greene-congress-georgia-election-background/672229/). “This is a shameful coverup to protect the most heinous elites,” one of the influencers who went to the White House in February, [Rogan O’Handley](https://x.com/DC_Draino/status/1942198188208709782) (who goes by “DC Draino”), told his more than 2 million X followers on Monday. Longtime Trump loyalists, including the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, started sharing a meme on Monday that depicted a bunch of cartoon lizard people laughing about having pulled one over on the unsuspecting public yet again. Strange—some readers may be old enough to remember when it was Hillary Clinton and other Democrats who were the shadowy reptilian elite, secretly shedding their human skin whenever out of public sight. Significant ire has been directed at Attorney General Pam Bondi, who responded to a question about a client list [in February](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bondi-says-epstein-client-list-sitting-my-desk-right-now-reviewing-jfk-mlk-files) by saying it was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” During a press conference on Monday afternoon, [White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi4eqS65UX8) said that Bondi had actually been referring to “the entirety of all the paperwork” on Epstein and not to a specific document. Shortly thereafter, the online crowd began questioning why Leavitt had not been wearing her usual cross necklace at the briefing—a sign, perhaps, that she was lying and didn’t want to do so in front of God (to paraphrase the posts, which were mostly ruder than that). When I asked Luna if Trump’s supporters had a right to feel frustrated, she deflected the question, saying, “I can’t speak for people on the internet or the president. What I can say is President Trump is on the cusp of negotiating a permanent cease-fire with Israel and Hamas in Gaza. This is overshadowing the amount of success the administration has had in that sense.” Yet this is undeniably a turning point for the highly online among Trump’s base. The story of the client list had effectively morphed into a more palatable and plausible version of [the QAnon conspiracy theory](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/). As does QAnon, it features a secret ring of evildoers, though it doesn’t have certain ostentatious elements of that conspiracy (no harvesting blood). But both theories encourage people to disbelieve everything the government tells them. Until now, Trump and his appointees were positioned as exceptions to that rule—the deal was that if they got back into power, they would reveal all. [From the June 2020 issue: The prophecies of Q](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/) Mark Fenster, a professor at the University of Florida’s law school who has written about government transparency and conspiracy theories, observed to me that, with his administrative appointments, Trump had made implicit promises to his supporters. “He specifically nominated people for high-level positions who have been engaged in conspiracy theories for the past five-plus years,” Fenster pointed out. For instance, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have offered wild theories about the Epstein case in the past—Patel [once suggested](https://x.com/OwenShroyer1776/status/1942601306973118578) that the FBI may be covering up evidence to protect unnamed elites, while Bongino [said he’d heard a rumor](https://x.com/LegendaryEnergy/status/1942232255247605955) that Epstein was a foreign intelligence agent. Now the conspiracy is mutating again to fit the administration’s reversal. “To hear Pam Bondi and to hear Kash Patel and Don Bongino saying there is no list—you’re going to say, ‘Well, they must be part of the conspiracy too,’” Fenster suggested, which is certainly one avenue people have gone down. Because the FBI’s memo coincided roughly with a diplomatic visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, others have started suggesting that Epstein was secretly a Mossad agent (a claim often expressed with anti-Semitic rhetoric). Alex Jones, who was initially furious about the FBI memo, has since speculated that Trump has actually taken “control” of the alleged list and is using it to blackmail the “deep state” behind the scenes. Of course, some have started picking apart the FBI memo itself. It concluded with links to two videos of a hallway in the Metropolitan Correctional Center where Epstein had been held, showing that nobody went into his cell the night of his death. Viewers quickly noticed that the clock in the corner of the video skips from 11:59:00 to 12:00:00, which suggested to them that a minute of footage was missing. On Tuesday afternoon, when a reporter [attempted to ask](https://x.com/atrupar/status/1942621806017331627) Bondi about the foreign-intelligence theory and the video-clock issue, Trump cut in. “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” he asked incredulously. “This guy’s been talked about for years. You’re asking—we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.” Bondi said she didn’t mind answering the question, but Trump went on. “I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this where we’re having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas,” he said, referring to the [flooding](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/us/texas-floods-missing-search.html) that has killed at least 120 people. Eventually, he waved for Bondi to go ahead. She told the reporter she had no knowledge of Epstein being an agent, then explained that the video hadn’t been doctored and that the clocks on the outdated cameras in the Metropolitan Correctional Center always jump ahead as they approach midnight. From what I saw, hardly anyone online was buying this explanation, which comes as no surprise. Trump and his administration invited conspiracy theories into the White House. Now they’re going to have a hard time getting them out.

FBI director Kash Patel has denied swirling resignation rumors over reported unhappiness at a justice department decision to close the book on [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein) after administration officials teased a big reveal earlier in the year. In a Saturday social media post, the agency director said: “the conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been. It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States – and I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me.” Over the past week, Maga hardliners, including Georgia representative [Marjorie Taylor Greene](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/marjorie-taylor-greene), former White House adviser Steve Bannon and – reportedly – FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, have been strongly critical of a joint decision by US attorney general [Pam Bondi](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pam-bondi) and the FBI to not release further information about Epstein held in government files, including a so-called client list. Critics have slammed the FBI-justice department conclusion about Epstein’s official autopsy that the disgraced financier had hung himself in his cell. Many have refused to accept that, repeating a conspiracy theory that Epstein, who died in August 2019 while awaiting trial, was in fact murdered to silence him. “This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list’,” the [memo](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline) stated. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” Rumors of a rift between the FBI and the justice department over the memo have been denied by deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who [wrote on social media](https://x.com/DAGToddBlanche/status/1943688090469499282) that there is “no daylight” between the FBI and the Department of Justice leadership on the issue. “I worked closely with \[Kash and Bongino\] on the joint FBI and DOJ memo regarding the Epstein Files. All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions stated in the memo. The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo’s composition and release is patently false,” Blanche said. But on Friday, NBC News reported that Bongino is considering stepping down from his post at the FBI after a “heated confrontation” with Bondi over the issue. “Bongino is out-of-control furious,” the person who has spoken with the deputy FBI director said. “This destroyed his career. He’s threatening to quit and torch Pam unless she’s fired.” [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) has also grown testy with repeated questions about Epstein, who was once a neighbor in Palm Beach. He erupted on Tuesday when he was pressed on an apparent one-minute gap in a 10-hour video recorded outside of Epstein’s cell. “Are you still talking about [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein)?” he said. “This guy’s been talked about for years … Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.” Bondi has since explained that the missing minute of surveillance film was simply the recording equipment resetting itself, as it does every night. Still, it is not clear that Maga hardliners are willing to let the Epstein conspiracy theories go – they have provided a constant stream of material that supposedly supports their theories of a deep state. But no evidence has emerged that Epstein was engaged in a conspiracy to blackmail high-profile visitors, including Britain’s [Prince Andrew](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/prince-andrew), to his homes in New York, Florida, New Mexico and the US Virgin Islands. The FBI-DoJ memo stated that it had uncovered “a significant amount of material”, including more than 300GB of data and physical evidence that included “a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography”. “Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography,” the memo said.

Brandon Drenon BBC News, Washington DC US President Donald Trump has defended Pam Bondi, America's highest-ranking prosecutor, amid calls from the president's supporters for her to resign. In a lengthy social media post, Trump hit out at complaints from critics who have accused Attorney General Bondi of withholding more information about the death of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his so-called client list. The attacks from critics come [after a memo released](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2m879neljo#) by Bondi's justice department last week failed to deliver what many had hoped would be major revelations in the Epstein case. "Let Pam Bondi do her job," Trump wrote in all caps, encouraging his supporters to "not waste time and energy" on Epstein. The memo sent out last Monday, jointly released with the FBI, said there was "no incriminating client list" or evidence to suggest Epstein had blackmailed high-profile figures. The government's findings were made, according to the memo, after reviewing more than 300 gigabytes of data. Bondi's critics include far-right commentator Laura Loomer, a close ally of Trump, and Elon Musk, who was Trump's biggest campaign donor. At a conservative conference this weekend, hosted by Turning Point USA and its founder Charlie Kirk, some speakers criticised the administration. "I don't think they're telling us the truth about Epstein," podcaster Brandon Tatum told the crowd of thousands in Tampa, Florida. Conservative media personality Megyn Kelly told the crowd: "She \[Bondi\] has never missed an opportunity to go on television and dangle sweet nothings that might be coming your way, try to lead you to believe that she's got it. She added: "Pam Bondi was either telling the truth then, or she's telling the truth now, but both cannot be true." Robby Starbuck, another longtime Trump supporter, criticised the president for trying to downplay the Epstein case. "President Trump rarely loses touch with what's happening among the base but he's missing the pulse on this one," Starbuck posted on X on Saturday. Retired Lt Gen Mike Flynn, who was US national security adviser in Trump's first administration, warned the Epstein scandal was not going away. He posted on X on Saturday: "If the administration doesn't address the massive number of unanswered questions about Epstein, especially the ABUSE OF CHILDREN BY ELITES (it is very clear that abuse occurred), then moving forward on so many other monumental challenges our nation is facing becomes much harder." Bondi's statement that there was no client list follows repeated pledges from her to reveal potentially damaging evidence related to Epstein, including "a lot of names" and "a lot of flight logs". Many of Bondi's past claims relating to the Epstein files, and the possibility of hidden evidence, had been echoed by FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. After the memo was released, frustrations from Bongino led to a contentious meeting between him and Bondi in the White House on Wednesday, according to the BBC's media partner CBS News. The feud highlighted what some have described as a growing division between the FBI and the justice department over the Epstein case. On Friday, Loomer posted on X that she had been told Bongino was "seriously thinking about resigning". Bongino did not show up to work on Friday, according to CBS News sources. Loomer was back on X on Saturday warning that what she called a lack of transparency at the justice department would have a political cost at the next election. "Don't say I didn't warn you," she wrote. Epstein's sudden death aged 66 in a jail cell inside New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019 has spawned conspiracy theories ever since. The FBI and justice department's memo confirmed that Epstein died by suicide, which many people in Trump's orbit had questioned. Bondi suggested to Fox News in February that Epstein's client list was "sitting on my desk right now to review". However, she sought to clarify those remarks in the White House on Tuesday, telling reporters that she had been commenting on the entire Epstein "file" and other files. The president's frustrations with the ongoing public interest in Epstein were on display last week in the White House, when he responded to a reporter's question with: "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?" Debate about the Epstein case broke out again last month - amid a public spat with the president - tech tycoon Musk suggested that Trump appeared in unreleased government files linked to the late sex offender. The White House rubbished the claim, and the post was deleted by Musk. In remarks last week Trump expressed disappointment that, with other major news happening, people were "still talking about \[Epstein\] this guy, this creep?" "That is unbelievable," he added.

The Department of Justice’s announcement that it did not have a list of [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein)’s alleged clients, and that the convicted sex offender was not murdered, has plunged the rightwing world into turmoil. Conservative commentators and media figures, some of whom spent years pushing conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death, have accused the government of covering up the hedge fund manager’s crimes, with calls growing for [Pam Bondi](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pam-bondi), the attorney general, to resign. The saga has pitted [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump), who was friends with Epstein for many years before later disowning the financier, against his base, with the president [pleading](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114842356238631061) over the weekend for his supporters to “not waste time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein”. This is how we got here. Epstein is [charged with federal sex-trafficking](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/08/jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-charges-court) crimes in a Manhattan court. Prosecutors allege that Epstein, who was taken into custody, “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls” from 2002 to 2005 at homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida. Epstein pleads not guilty. The charges come more than a decade after Epstein and the Miami US attorney’s office [reached a deal](https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article222416805.html) that ended a federal investigation involving at least 40 teenage girls. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges, served 13 months in jail and registered as a sex offender. Guards find Epstein dead in his cell at Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. On 16 August New York’s chief medical examiner [rules](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/16/jeffrey-epstein-cause-of-death-coroner-report) that the cause of death was suicide by hanging, but lawyers for Epstein say they are dissatisfied with the medical examiner’s conclusions. Trump shares [a tweet](https://x.com/w_terrence/status/1160256105399967744) from rightwing comedian Terrence Williams, which claims Bill and Hillary Clinton were involved in Epstein’s death. After criticism, Trump [doubles down](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/11/politics/jeffrey-epstein-trump-conspiracy-theory-clintons), telling reporters: “The question you have to ask is, did Bill Clinton go to the island? Because Epstein had an island. That was not a good place, as I understand it, and I was never there.” Trump adds: “So you have to ask, did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re going to know a lot.” A spokesman for the Clintons says the family knows nothing about the crimes committed by Epstein, who was known to have a number of famous and powerful associates, including Prince Andrew. Trump himself was friends with Epstein, and in 2002 [said](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48927942) he had known Epstein for 15 years, describing him as a “terrific guy”. The pair [later fell out](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html) following a bidding war on a Florida property. The official ruling that Epstein committed suicide does little to quell conspiracy theorists. Much of the commentary, particularly from the right wing, focuses on Epstein’s relationship with liberal figures, including Clinton. The phrase “Epstein didn’t kill himself” begins to spread online, with Joe Rogan and even Republican members of Congress [posting](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-15/epstein-didnt-kill-himself-meme-amplified-by-congressman/11707202) it on social media. Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-partner and longtime confidante, is [convicted of sex trafficking](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/29/ghislaine-maxwell-sex-trafficking-trial-verdict). The judge says Maxwell is “guilty of one of the worst crimes imaginable: facilitating and participating in the sexual abuse of children. Crimes that she committed with her longtime partner and co-conspirator, Jeffrey Epstein.” A trove of court documents identifying associates of Epstein are [unsealed](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/03/jeffrey-epstein-list-names-released). The documents, which had been filed as part of a lawsuit against against Maxwell in 2015 by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre. Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield and Trump were among those named in the documents – although none of the men were accused of wrongdoing. Giuffre [claimed](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/12/prince-andrew-the-lengthy-and-embarrassing-legal-ordeal-ahead) that Epstein and Maxwell forced her into a sexual encounter with Prince Andrew at age 17, and Giuffre sued Prince Andrew over the alleged sexual abuse. The suit settled in early 2022. Andrew has denied any wrongdoing. Trump, running for president, is asked in an interview if he would declassify “the 9/11 files” and “the JFK files”. He says yes. Trump is then asked if he would declassify “the Epstein files”, and initially says yes, but adds: “I think that \[declassifying the Epstein files\], less so, because you don’t know – you don’t want to affect people’s lives if there’s phony stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.” In [an interview](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bondi-says-epstein-client-list-sitting-my-desk-right-now-reviewing-jfk-mlk-files) with Fox News, Pam Bondi is asked: “The DoJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients, will that really happen?” Bondi replies: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.” Bondi will [later suggest](https://www.ksby.com/politics/bondi-defends-past-remarks-about-epstein-client-list-amid-renewed-scrutiny#:~:text=RELATED%20STORY%20%7C%20Epstein%20investigation%20turned,already%20public%20or%20heavily%20redacted.) she was referring to Epstein case files, not a client list. After Trump and JD Vance pledged during the 2024 election campaign that they would release files relating to Epstein’s crimes and contacts, the Department of Justice \[DoJ\] gives a group of conservative commentators binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1”. The files [contain little new information](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/right-wing-influencers-get-binders-labeled-the-epstein-files-but-downplay-revelations/), leaving conspiracy theorists disappointed. Bondi [describes](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-releases-first-phase-declassified-epstein-files) the documents as the “first phase of files”, and in a statement the DoJ says it “remains committed to transparency and intends to release the remaining documents upon review and redaction to protect the identities of Epstein’s victims”. [Amid a row](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/05/trump-elon-musk-fallout) over Trump’s proposed tax bill, Elon Musk posts on X: “Time to drop the really big bomb. @realdonaldtrump is in the Epstein files. That is why they have not been made public.” Musk later deletes the tweet. The DoJ announces that Epstein [did not keep a client list](https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-justice-department-pam-bondi-03fbcd024f631440f7ed62b3c6927db3), and said no more files related to his sex-trafficking investigation would be made public. The department releases an 11-hour video of the scene outside Epstein’s cell during hours before and after his death, showing that no one entered or left the room. But a minute of footage is missing, prompting further speculation. Bondi [says](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5390069-pam-bondi-explains-epstein-video/) the missing minute is due to the Bureau of Prisons resetting the video. Rightwing media and commentators begin to lash out at the DoJ. Laura Loomer, the 32-year-old conspiracy theorist whose [influence over Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/06/laura-loomer-donald-trump-maga-influencer) has come under scrutiny, [accuses](https://x.com/LauraLoomer/status/1942637121204019714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1942637121204019714%7Ctwgr%5E851340117c81545263bb02cb9d32c308d9fbae1c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fnews%2F2025%2F7%2F9%2Fwhy-is-maga-angry-with-trump-pam-bondi-over-epstein-files) Bondi of “covering up child sex crimes”. “NO ONE IS BUYING THIS!! Next the DOJ will say ‘Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed.’ This is over the top sickening,” Alex Jones, the rightwing commentator and conspiracy theorist, [writes](https://x.com/RealAlexJones/status/1942208219532628461) on social media. On Truth Social, the rightwing, Trump-owned platform where people are usually united in their praise for the president and his administration, numerous users criticize the government over Epstein. [Dan Bongino](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/14/dan-bongino-jeffrey-epstein-files), the deputy director of the FBI who spent years pushing conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death, [reportedly clashes](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/us/politics/jeffrey-epstein-pam-bondi-dan-bongino-clash.html) with Bondi at the White House. Bondi accused Bongino of leaking to news outlets, after NewsNation reported that the FBI had wanted to release more information on Epstein “months ago”, but was prevented from doing so. NBC News [reports](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/12/kash-patel-fbi-doj-epstein) that Bongino is considering stepping down from his post at the FBI amid the Bondi row. “Bongino is out-of-control furious,” a source told NBC News said. “This destroyed his career. He’s threatening to quit and torch Pam unless she’s fired.” Trump writes a lengthy Truth Social [post](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114842356238631061) pleading with his supporters. “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.” Trump adds: “One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the ‘HOTTEST’ Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.” The post is the first time Trump has been “ratioed” on Truth Social: more people comment on the post than like it, which typically suggests disagreement.

 Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday refused to address questions about her handling of the Justice Department's files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation or about her reported rift with FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Bondi has come under intense criticism from many in the MAGA movement since the Justice Department released a memo last week [detailing its review of the Epstein files](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/07/g-s1-76367/doj-jeffrey-epstein-memo). The two-page document said the department found no evidence of an Epstein client list and that no additional files from the investigation would be made public. Those findings, which contradicted some of Bondi's own past statements and promises of transparency, touched off fury among many supporters of President Trump. Some prominent figures in the MAGA faithful, including far-right activist Laura Loomer, have called for Bondi to resign. At a news conference Tuesday at the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bondi was asked how she would respond to MAGA's frustrations with her specifically. "We're going to fight to keep America safe again and we're fighting together as a team. That's what's so important right now," Bondi replied. "We've got a war on drugs, we've got a war on human trafficking, we've got cartels in this country and we've got foreign adversaries around this world as well and we're all going to work together as a team to fight to keep America safe again and I can tell you that's what we're all committed to." Despite Bondi's efforts to move on, the Epstein matter is not going away. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., a top Trump ally, threw his weight behind releasing the files. "I'm for transparency," Johnson told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Tuesday. "It's a very delicate subject but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it," Johnson said. "The White House and the White House team are privy to facts that I don't know. I mean, this isn't my lane and I haven't been involved with that, but I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out there." ### A reported clash over personnel at the FBI Bondi said she spent the morning working with FBI Director Kash Patel, but she would not address reports about a clash last week with Bongino, the FBI's no. 2 official, over the Epstein files. Asked whether Bongino should stay in his job, Bondi said: "I'm not going to discuss personnel matters." "I think we all are committed to working together now to make America safe again, and that's what we're doing," she added. All three top officials — Bondi, Patel and Bongino — have at one point or another stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein. In February, Bondi said in response to a question from FOX News about Epstein's client list that it was "sitting on my desk right now to review." Epstein died by suicide in a federal lockup in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sextrafficking charges. His death has been the source of conspiracy theories from the start, particularly on the far right, because of Epstein's links to the rich and powerful. Despite the calls from some in MAGA world for Bondi to step aside, she appears to continue to enjoy the president's backing. "The attorney general has handed that very well," Trump told reporters Tuesday. "She's really done a very good job. I think when you look at it, you'll understand that." Despite Trump and Bondi's efforts to put the Epstein matter behind them, there's little sign it's going away.

The release of the “Epstein client list” has long been the holy grail for the Maga movement. Supposedly, this list, once released, would incriminate a veritable who’s who of liberal elites complicit in [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein)’s child sex-trafficking operation and expose the moral rot at the heart of the Democratic establishment. The mystery surrounding the Epstein files also became a vehicle for QAnon conspiracy theorists to push their ideas about a “deep state” cover-up of a network of global pedophiles into the broader tent of the Maga movement. During his campaign, [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) promised on several occasions to declassify the Epstein files, which would include the “list”. Before they joined the government, Trump’s FBI chief, Kash Patel, and deputy FBI chief, Dan Bongino, spent years on podcasts and TV appearances winking at QAnon and Epstein conspiracy theorists and demanding the files’ release, even suggesting that the Biden administration was withholding them to protect its own. Then, on the heels of the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the justice department quietly dropped a bombshell in the form of a memo. A “systematic review” of the Epstein files by justice department officials “revealed no incriminating ‘client list’,” the memo stated, nor did they find evidence that Epstein blackmailed powerful figures. The memo also affirmed that Epstein died by suicide in his Brooklyn jail cell while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. Since the memo’s release, Maga has been in turmoil – and some of Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers have been in open revolt against his administration, accusing it of now being part of a cover-up and calling for the resignation of the attorney general, Pam Bondi, over her handling of the Epstein files. On Truth Social, Trump offered a stern rebuke to his detractors, claiming that the Epstein files were actually a hoax, because they were written by “Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration”. But not everyone’s buying it. “This is the worst response I’ve ever seen from President Trump,” said the rightwing commentator Benny Johnson. The disgraced former general Michael Flynn, considered a hero by the QAnon movement, wrote: “@realdonaldtrump please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR IS NOT GOING AWAY.” The rightwing commentator Matt Walsh called Trump’s statement “extremely obtuse”, adding: “We don’t accept obvious bullshit from our political leaders.” Maga’s obsession with the Epstein files is an indication of how the core ideas associated with the fringe QAnon conspiracy – that a shadowy cabal of government elites is working to cover up a global child sex-trafficking operation – have taken root in the broader pro-Trump movement. QAnon took a long tradition of antisemitic, “deep state” and “satanic panic” conspiracy theories, put them on steroids with a pro-Trump flavor, and assigned the enigmatic Q, supposedly a government official with top secret clearance and a penchant for posting on 8chan, at the helm of the movement. “The unique thing about QAnon is that you had an anonymous poster on an anonymous chatroom putting out clues for people to try to solve,” said Joseph Uscinski, a political science professor at the University of Miami specializing in the study of conspiracy theories. When QAnon emerged in 2017, allegations against Epstein had been swirling for over a decade. Epstein’s arrest in 2019 on federal charges was a boon for QAnon. The movement quickly sought to incorporate information about the case into their propaganda. The case also surfaced a trove of digital media that QAnon sleuths could pore over looking for “clues” – such as photographs of Epstein with various public figures (including many with Trump), Epstein’s flight logs and aerial images of his private island. “Epstein engaged in crimes, but I think there’s a whole fantasy lore surrounding it that goes far beyond any available evidence,” said Uscinski. Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s program on extremism, told the Guardian that as “QAnon and Maga have become increasingly intertwined in recent years, we have seen the embrace of increasingly fringe conspiracies and extremist narratives like ‘Pizzagate’ and ‘Save the Children’ by mainstream political figures.” These narratives turned out to be useful for Trump and his allies, who harnessed simmering suspicion of establishment figures and cast the former reality star as the only person brave enough to take on “the deep state”. “As Trump and other prominent Republican figures amplified QAnon content and used it as a political cudgel against Democratic politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, they were providing legitimacy and approval to the very same conspiracy theorists who are now decrying Pam Bondi and the justice department,” said Lewis. Tensions over the Epstein files have been building since February, when Bondi went on Fox News and said Epstein’s client list was sitting on her desk “[right now for review.](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bondi-says-epstein-client-list-sitting-my-desk-right-now-reviewing-jfk-mlk-files)” A week later, [at a press event](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/right-wing-influencers-get-binders-labeled-the-epstein-files-but-downplay-revelations/) at the White House, Bondi handed out binders that she promised contained “declassified” Epstein records to two dozen Maga influencers. The influencers quickly realized there was basically no new information in them. In response to the ensuing backlash, Bondi said that the FBI had failed to disclose a tranche of Epstein files, and that she had ordered Patel to compile them. Months later, in June, Elon Musk – amid the dramatic feud with his former friend Trump – claimed without evidence that the reason the Epstein files hadn’t been released in full was because the president was implicated in them. (Musk has since deleted the post.) The scale of the current Maga meltdown “certainly shows the significance of Epstein conspiracies within the broader QAnon pantheon”, said Lewis, and “should lay bare just how deeply the disease of the QAnon movement has seeped into a Republican party which has welcomed its most conspiratorial, antisemitic, reactionary fringe into Congress and the executive branch with open arms”. The backlash Trump is facing is a leopards-eating-faces moment for the administration. “This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and these Maga extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several years, and now the chickens are coming home to roost,” the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, [told reporters](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/15/politics/epstein-conspiracy-bondi-trump-analysis) Monday. Uscinski noted that’s “the interesting thing that happens when you use conspiracy theories to get into power”. “Because conspiracy theories should be aimed at the people in power, right? They accuse powerful people of doing something wicked behind the scenes,” he added. In Trump’s case, he “spent the last 10 years building a coalition of largely conspiracy-minded people in the US”, said Uscinski. “So in order for him to keep these people engaged and donating and going to his speeches, and voting for him and voting for [Republicans](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/republicans), he has to keep pressing the conspiracy theories.” But experts are skeptical that this current Maga meltdown will have any lasting impact. Trump’s [overall approval rating](https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker) hasn’t fluctuated dramatically over the past week. In fact, it’s almost at exactly the same place it was at the same point in his first administration. “\[Trump’s supporters\] are disgruntled, they’re upset and they’re going to express that on social media. But they’re not going to abandon him, because he’s the only game in town for them,” said Uscinski. He compared the current moment to the backlash Trump faced back in 2021. After courting favor from anti-vaxxers, [Trump was booed](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/12/21/trump-booed-after-announcing-vaccination-status-at-bill-oreilly-history-tour-in-dallas.html) when he announced during a live Bill O’Reilly interview that he had received his Covid-19 booster shot and urged Americans to get theirs. Despite the importance of the Epstein files to the Maga and QAnon movements, Lewis thinks that “it’s unlikely this outrage will last”. “The culture war will move on to its next target … and the rage machine will follow with conspiracies and vitriol,” said Lewis. “It’s much easier to be angry at an immigrant than to wonder whether you’ve been lied to for the last eight years.”

Democrats want you to know that President Donald Trump definitely might be protecting a cabal of child abusers. Or so the party’s recent messaging suggests. For years, extremely online conservatives have been agitating for the release of the [“Epstein Files”](https://www.vox.com/politics/2024/1/4/24025802/jeffrey-epstein-list-unsealed-documents-bill-clinton-donald-trump) — a hypothetical trove of confidential documents that reveal the powerful co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and accused sex trafficker who died in prison in 2019. When [Fox News asked Trump](https://www.semafor.com/article/06/09/2024/how-fox-news-massaged-a-trump-interview) last year whether he would release these files upon winning reelection, the Republican said, “I guess I would.” Upon taking office, the Trump administration hyped the imminent disclosure of these documents. Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested in February that a list of [famous people who had abused Epstein’s trafficked girls](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgl4dl334go) was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” Around the same time, Bondi and Trump’s FBI released what it billed as the “[first phase of declassified Epstein files](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-releases-first-phase-declassified-epstein-files).” But these proved to be binders comprised largely of already public information. Then, earlier this month, the Justice Department declared that [Epstein did not actually maintain a “client list,”](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/07/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-client-list-trump-administration) that he had died by suicide (contrary to the popular theory that he’d been murdered to prevent the exposure of his clients), and that no further files on his case would be made public. This [incensed much of the online right](https://www.vox.com/politics/419264/jeffrey-epstein-trump-bondi-patel-client-list). And Democrats have decided to echo its outrage. Sen. Ruben Gallego (R-AZ) has accused Trump of “[hiding the Epstein list](https://x.com/RubenGallego/status/1944113159079387620).” The Democratic National Committee launched [an X account that posted](https://www.thedailybeast.com/democrats-line-up-with-maga-to-troll-trump-over-epstein-files/), “Has Trump released the Epstein files? No,” on a daily basis, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has [declared that Americans](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/16/democrats-jeffrey-esptein-attacks-polling-memos-00455063) “deserve to know the truth.” House Democrats tried to [force a vote compelling the release](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/15/congress/jeffrey-epstein-house-democrats-struggle-00454000) of all Epstein-related documents on Tuesday. [Sign up here](https://www.vox.com/politics/385161/the-rebuild-newsletter-sign-up-democratic-party-liberals-progressives) for more stories on the lessons liberals should take away from their election defeat — and a closer look at where they should go next. From senior correspondent Eric Levitz. The party’s decision to dedicate so much energy to promoting this controversy might seem dubious. For one thing, Democrats’ ostensible outrage over the alleged suppression of the Epstein Files is _obviously_ hypocritical. After all, he died six years ago. A Democratic administration was in power from January 2021 through January 20 of this year. If there are secret federal documents about this case that incriminate public figures, then Joe Biden had them at his disposal. Thus, by affirming the notion that incriminating “Epstein Files” exist, Democrats risk perpetuating the idea that _both_ parties are toxically corrupt — a form of cynicism that Trump has long exploited to excuse his shameless graft and malfeasance. Separately, Democrats have already spent much of the past decade trying to tar Trump’s image by spotlighting his scandals. Yet the minority of Americans who are open to supporting Trump — but not dead set on doing so — haven’t evinced much concern for his character. Generally, [messaging that emphasizes how Trump’s policies](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/06/future-forward-pac-kamala-harris/683154/) would materially hurt ordinary Americans has tested better than attacks on the demagogue’s shady dealings or authoritarianism. Whatever one may say about the White House’s handling of the Epstein case, it does not seem likely to increase Americans’ cost of living. By focusing on Epstein, Democrats are thus arguably defraying attention from Trump’s true vulnerabilities — such as the [tariffs that are raising prices](https://www.vox.com/politics/419844/trump-tariff-letters-medicaid-cuts-mass-deportation) for consumers or [Medicaid cuts](https://www.vox.com/politics/419206/trump-medicaid-cuts-democrats) that will take health insurance from lower-income people. But these worries are misguided. The Democrats’ decision to lean into the Epstein controversy is a political no-brainer for several reasons. To a degree, the furor over Epstein is rooted in beliefs that are unproven, if not outright false. For instance, there is [no public evidence](https://www.vox.com/politics/2024/1/4/24025802/jeffrey-epstein-list-unsealed-documents-bill-clinton-donald-trump) that he kept a labeled list of fellow sexual abusers, much less that such a document is in the government’s possession. But the Trump administration has _genuine_ liabilities on this subject, which Democratic advocacy can direct public attention toward. First, the incontrovertible facts about Trump’s relationship with Epstein are unflattering and eyebrow raising, even though they are not incriminating. In the 1990s, [Trump and Epstein were repeatedly photographed](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-jeffrey-epstein-partied-together-then-an-oceanfront-palm-beach-mansion-came-between-them/2019/07/31/79f1d98c-aca0-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html) and video taped beside each other at social events. This by itself isn’t especially damning. There’s no reason to presume that everyone who ever associated with Epstein participated in his sex crimes. Criminals do not generally socialize exclusively with their co-conspirators. But in 2017, [Epstein told the journalist Michael Wolff](https://www.thedailybeast.com/listen-to-the-jeffrey-epstein-tapes-i-was-donald-trumps-closest-friend/) that he had been Trump’s “closest friend for 10 years.” And in 2002, [Trump told New York magazine](https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/), “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” What’s more, on Thursday night, the [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?st=2qZ5vh&reflink=article_copyURL_share) published the text of a letter that Trump sent to Epstein to celebrate the latter’s 50th birthday. In that missive, Trump wrote his signature below the following lines of imaginary dialogue, which were typewritten: > _“Voice Over: There must be more to life than having everything,” the note began._ > > _Donald: Yes, there is, but I won’t tell you what it is._ > > _Jeffrey: Nor will I, since I also know what it is._ > > _Donald: We have certain things in common, Jeffrey._ > > _Jeffrey: Yes, we do, come to think of it._ > > _Donald: Enigmas never age, have you noticed that?_ > > _Jeffrey: As a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you._ > > _Trump: A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be anothedr wonderful secret._ It’s as though the administration cannot anticipate the most obvious consequences of its own actions, or think a single step ahead. It’s possible that Trump did not realize quite how young Epstein’s sexual targets were. And it’s also conceivable that the playful references to “age” and a “secret” in Trump’s letter reference something innocuous. But at the very least, these are extraordinarily inconvenient things to have said about — and to — a man who allegedly trafficked 14-year-old girls. To be clear, there is no evidence that Trump participated in Epstein’s abuse of children. But his longtime friendship with the rapist, avowed knowledge of Epstein’s taste for youth, and own record of alleged sexual misdeeds makes this a politically hazardous subject for Trump. Making matters worse for him, his own claims about the Epstein controversy are wildly contradictory. In recent days, Trump has claimed that the [government _does_ possess secret files](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-maga-jeffrey-epstein-files-rcna219073) with explosive claims about Epstein, but that these documents were forged by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, ex-CIA Director John Brennan, and “the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.” He has also insisted that this whole controversy is dull and deserves no public attention, telling reporters, “[I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody](https://nypost.com/2025/07/15/us-news/trump-hits-back-at-reporter-asking-if-hes-named-in-jeffrey-epstein-files-at-center-of-maga-firestorm/). It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring.” As [The Atlantic’s Jonathan Chait](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/trump-epstein-obama-boring/683546/) notes, these two claims are a bit hard to square. On the one hand, Trump suggests that the FBI, CIA, State Department, and the Obama and Biden administrations all conspired to fabricate defamatory documents about an alleged child sex abuse conspiracy. On the other hand, he says that this is a really boring story that shouldn’t interest anybody. But an elaborate conspiracy involving the highest levels of the US government — and seemingly aimed at politically damaging Trump — seems like something that would quite naturally interest Americans in general, and Trump supporters in particular. What’s more, even if we put Trump’s conspiracizing to one side, his claim that he doesn’t understand why the Epstein case interests people still seems disingenuous. After all [Trump, accused former President Bill Clinton](https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/23/politics/donald-trump-ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-history) of visiting “the famous island with Jeffrey Epstein” in 2015, and [spread allegations](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-said-jeffrey-epstein-1235385787/) that Clinton was behind Epstein’s death four years later. Trump subsequently demanded “[a full investigation](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-said-jeffrey-epstein-1235385787/)” into Epstein’s death and crimes, telling reporters, “You have to ask: Did Bill Clinton go to the island? That’s the question. If you find that out, you’re going to know a lot.” It seems clear then that Trump knows perfectly well why the Epstein case interests people. The fact that he now feels compelled to claim otherwise, while begging his supporters to stop talking about the controversy, seems rather odd — and also, like an indication that Democrats would be wise to keep attention focused on this matter. Meanwhile, it is clear that Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel deceived the public about the Epstein case — either when they suggested that the government had been suppressing documents about his co-conspirators, or when they later insisted that such documents did not exist. In 2023, [Patel suggested](https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-team-promised-transparency-epstein-090551173.html) that the Biden administration possessed Epstein’s “[black book](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/style/jeffrey-epstein-little-black-book.html),” and insinuated that this document was not merely a catalog of the financier’s contacts, but rather, a list explicitly identifying various famous people as “pedophiles.” As noted above, [Bondi told Fox News that an Epstein client list](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bondi-says-epstein-client-list-sitting-my-desk-right-now-reviewing-jfk-mlk-files) was sitting on her desk. Now, Patel and Bondi maintain that no such lists exist. This leaves two possibilities: Either America’s two top law enforcement officers misled the public about the Epstein case in the past, or they are doing so today. Put more pointedly, Patel and Bondi either cynically promoted conspiracy theories about a Biden administration coverup, despite knowing they lacked evidence for their smears, or they suddenly decided to perpetrate such a coverup themselves. Neither interpretation recommends them for high office. And both readings of their actions make the Trump White House look grossly incompetent. If the administration knew that it had no compelling information about Epstein to unveil — or else, that it possessed explosive information that it didn’t wish to make public — why did Bondi spend months hyping the release of the Epstein documents? It’s as though the administration cannot anticipate the most obvious consequences of its own actions, or think a single step ahead (a suspicion also raised by [Trump’s trade strategy](https://www.vox.com/politics/419844/trump-tariff-letters-medicaid-cuts-mass-deportation)). If the Democratic Party had the power to dictate which topics would trend on social media, then they would be well-advised to pick Trump’s Medicaid cuts or tariffs. But they do not have such power. Every Democratic official in the country could spend all day every day talking about Trump’s defunding of rural hospitals — posts and podcasts about Medicaid provider taxes still wouldn’t outperform content about whether Epstein was a CIA asset. Millions of Americans may vote once every four years on the basis of mundane economic policy concerns. But they are not typically going to entertain themselves by viewing TikToks about [the “de minimis” exemption](https://theconversation.com/that-20-dress-direct-from-china-now-costs-30-after-trump-closed-a-tariff-loophole-and-the-us-will-soon-end-the-de-minimis-exemption-for-the-rest-of-the-world-too-260675) on a daily basis. Democrats can and should foreground their party’s strongest policy arguments in paid media. With a TV or YouTube ad, you can force the public to think about the subject of your choice. But the range of topics that you can get people to post about for free is much narrower. And of all the stories that could plausibly drive weeks of public conversation, Trump purportedly suppressing information about Epstein — to the chagrin of his own allies — seems like one of the most favorable for Democrats. It is true that Democratic agitation over Trump’s past scandals — his courting of illegal [Russian assistance in 2016](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/13/17569264/mueller-indictment-trump-russia-email-hack), alleged [obstruction of justice](https://www.vox.com/2017/6/8/15761962/james-comey-testimony-donald-trump-fbi-congress-russia) in 2017, efforts to [coerce the Ukrainian government](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/22/20878702/donald-trump-ukraine-whistleblower-joe-hunter-biden-military-aid-corruption) into abetting his reelection in 2019, and attempt to [foment an insurrection in 2021](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23513019/january-6-committee-report-trump-2020-election-insurrection) — all failed to durably damage his political brand. Generally speaking, when you have an opportunity to increase the salience of an issue that divides your opposition, it’s wise to do so. But Trump’s base was behind him in all of those instances. Today, by contrast, major [right-wing influencers are validating](https://www.vox.com/politics/419264/jeffrey-epstein-trump-bondi-patel-client-list) the Democratic Party’s narrative that a Republican White House is hiding something. And Trump’s attempts to shut down discussion of the Epstein case have gotten him “[ratioed](https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-truth-social-plea-on-jeffrey-epstein-sets-an-embarrassing-new-record/)” on his own social media platform. Generally speaking, when you have an opportunity to increase the salience of an issue that divides your opposition, it’s wise to do so. This is especially true when that issue also pits your adversary against majority opinion. And in trying to persuade the broad electorate that the Trump administration is mishandling the Epstein case — possibly, for nefarious reasons — Democrats are pushing on an open door. A [YouGov/Economist poll](https://www.economist.com/in-brief/2025/07/17/the-us-in-brief-our-new-polling-on-the-epstein-affair) released this week found that nearly 80 percent of Americans want the government to “release all the documents it has about the Jeffrey Epstein case,” while more than two-thirds — including half of _Republicans_ — say that the government is “covering up evidence it has about Epstein.” Internal Democratic polling tells a similar story. A recent survey from [Blue Rose Research found](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/15/congress/jeffrey-epstein-house-democrats-struggle-00454000) that 70 percent of the public — including 61 percent of Trump voters — believes that law enforcement is “withholding information about powerful people connected to Epstein.” And a majority of voters agreed with the statement, “authorities are keeping secret” a list of Epstein’s clients to “protect powerful people like Donald Trump.” Finally, it isn’t that hard to weave the Epstein controversy into a broader story that touches on voters’ material concerns. And Democrats are already doing this. In the party’s telling, Trump’s refusal to release documents related to the case reflects a core truth about his presidency: his fundamental commitment is to protecting the powerful, even if doing so requires breaking campaign promises. Hence, Trump’s willingness to slash Medicaid — [after promising for years](https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1350/make-no-cuts-medicaid/) that he wouldn’t — so as to finance tax cuts for the rich. As [Pat Dennis](https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/15/congress/jeffrey-epstein-house-democrats-struggle-00454000), president of the Democratic super PAC American Bridge, told Politico, the Epstein controversy is “an interesting foot in the door to the overall case” that Trump “doesn’t have your back on Medicare, on health care, on veterans.” Thus, the Epstein story is a clear boon for Democrats, who’ve been right to increase its salience. Even as the party savors Trump’s squirming, however, it should not lose sight of its own lackluster political standing. As CNN’s Harry Enten noted this week, [Democrats’ poll numbers](https://x.com/ForecasterEnten/status/1945492536836993510) are far worse today than at this point in the 2006 and 2018 midterm election cycles — years when the party enjoyed large congressional gains amid a Republican presidency. In the generic congressional ballot, Democrats lead Republicans by just 2 points today, compared to seven points in 2006 and 2018. All else equal, the Epstein scandal is a helpful development for Democrats. But its impact so far is miniscule. The online right’s freakout notwithstanding, 90 percent of Republicans still approve of Trump in a [recent Quinnipiac poll](https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3928). By contrast, Democrats disapprove of their own congressional leadership by a 13-point margin. Democrats can and should continue cultivating distrust in Trump. But to increase faith in their own party, they will need to do more than affirm voters’ conspiratorial suspicions about a long dead sex offender. See More:

Some enchanted evening, [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) saw a stranger across a crowded room. It is likely that there is hardly anyone living who knows exactly under what glowing lights Donald Trump met Jeffrey Epstein, except perhaps Trump himself and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who is serving a 20-year prison term for helping to procure minors for sexual abuse. Trump said in an [interview](https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/) in 2002, when his Epstein relationship was still tight, that it had been a 15-year mutual admiration society. Epstein was “a terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with,” and “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side”. Epstein [described](https://yalereview.org/article/michael-wolff-donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-interview) himself as “Donald’s closest friend for 10 years”. The 1990s and early 2000s were the heyday of the Trump-Epstein romp. Roger Stone, Trump’s [dirty trickster](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/06/02/the-dirty-trickster) who was dumped from the 1994 Bob Dole presidential campaign when he and his wife were exposed apparently advertising for threesomes, was a hanger-on in the Palm Beach demimonde. “There’s 100 beautiful women and 10 guys. Look, how cool are we?” he told the [Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/from-playboy-to-president-trumps-past-behavior-collides-with-his-white-house-bid/2016/05/09/46bed6f8-12fe-11e6-93ae-50921721165d_story.html) in 2016. “I was happy to be invited. I mean, it was great.” The Trump biographer Michael Wolff told me on my podcast [The Court of History](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko_y_JnULxg&list=PLBpiUxZcKxXQ8Z9uAY6WXItquhnSIIGIK&index=5&t=130s) how Epstein opened his safe in his New York townhouse for him to retrieve a pile of about a dozen photographs of Trump at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. “They were kind of spread out like playing cards,” Wolff said. “And it was Trump – with girls of uncertain age. In two of them, topless girls are sitting on Trump’s lap. In another, he has a visible stain on his pants while several girls are laughing and pointing at it.” Wolff said: “I think it’s certainly not unlikely that they were in the safe when the FBI came in after his arrest and took everything.” Wolff initially mentioned his taped conversations with Epstein about his relationship with Trump in the [Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/listen-to-the-jeffrey-epstein-tapes-i-was-donald-trumps-closest-friend/), in which Wolff made a glancing reference to this incident, and in the [Yale Review](https://yalereview.org/article/michael-wolff-donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein-interview) in November 2024. In response to Wolff’s latest book on Trump, All or Nothing, on the 2024 campaign, the White House [stated](https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-house-lashes-out-at-trump-book-author-michael-wolff-peanut-sized-brain/) Wolff had a “peanut-sized brain”. In June of this year, after Wolff claimed Trump held a “grudge” against Harvard because he had applied to be a student and was rejected, Trump [posted](https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-rages-claim-war-harvard-022427242.html) it was “False”, and that Wolff is “a Third Rate Reporter, who is laughed at even by the scoundrels of the Fake News”. > Epstein has become the Ark of the Covenant in the cosmology of rightwing conspiracies The White House issued a statement that Trump “didn’t need to apply to an overrated, corrupt institution like Harvard”. Since 10 August 2019, when Epstein’s body was found in his cell with an orange sheet wrapped around his neck at the New York Metropolitan correction center under suspicious circumstances, [declared a suicide](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/epsteins-death-was-a-perfect-storm-of-screw-ups-says-ag-barr) by Attorney General William Barr, he has been raised into a phantasmagorical presence that will not vanish. Epstein has become the Ark of the Covenant in the cosmology of rightwing conspiracies. When its doors are opened it will supposedly reveal the ultimate secrets of deep state pedophiles. A [poll](https://prri.org/research/qanon-conspiracy-american-politics-report/) in 2021 found that about a quarter of Republicans believed that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the US are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation”. The road from Pizzagate, the QAnon predecessor conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats held child sex slaves in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong Washington pizza parlor, to January 6 was a straight line. Half of Republicans believed that “leaked email from some of Hillary Clinton’s campaign staffers contained code words for pedophilia, human trafficking and satanic ritual abuse – what some people refer to as ‘Pizzagate’” was true or probably true, according to a December 2016 Economist/YouGov [poll](https://ygo-assets-websites-editorial-emea.yougov.net/documents/econTabReport_vmsKOL5.pdf). Trump gave credence to the QAnon pedophile theory in October 2020, when he was asked about it at an [NBC News town hall](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/15/rather-than-condemn-qanon-conspiracy-theory-trump-elevates-its-dangerous-central-assertion/). “Let me ask you about QAnon,” said Savannah Guthrie. “It is this theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that.” After replying seven times that he didn’t know about it, Trump said: “Let me just tell you, what I do hear about it, is they are very strongly against pedophilia. And I agree with that. I mean, I do agree with that. And I agree with it very strongly.” A few months later, many in the mob assaulting the Capitol were QAnon believers, though the percentage could not be tabulated. A group of social scientists [found](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09546553.2023.2236230#:~:text=The%20study%20found%20that:%20*%20Belief%20in,and%20radicalism%20were%20positively%20related%20to%20extraversion) that belief in QAnon theories correlated directly with “support for the January 6 insurrection”. More than a third of Republicans believed that the FBI (ie the Deep State) “instigated” the January 6 assault, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland [poll](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/04/fbi-conspiracy-jan-6-attack-misinformation/). For decades Trump has cultivated paranoid conspiracy theories to foster a cult around himself. His method existed long before Rush Limbaugh loudly burst into talk radio, but Trump inflames paranoia hour by hour to make himself unavoidable. When Trump makes an accusation it’s news – Joe McCarthy’s technique. The ever-shifting series of conspiracy claims from birtherism onward have been monetized into a reliable cash cow by rightwing media. Bottom-feeding serves the bottom line. Every newly invented plot keeps the machine whirring. Maga is constantly tantalized, addicted and perpetuated. The uses of Trump’s conspiracism are complex, from the profane to the holy. The demonology has elevated Trump into a savior of the Magatariat from the globalist elites and fiendish pedophiles. No greater evil can be projected. It’s more than a theory; it’s a theology. Epstein wraps it all up, explains all, proves all – Pizzagate meets the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Lyndon Johnson had his credibility gap with the Vietnam war. Richard Nixon had his 18-minute gap in his White House tapes. Trump now is bedeviled by his conspiracy theory gap. All the president’s men – and women – have stoked the [Epstein plot](https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-jeffrey-epstein-conspiracy-theories-173000113.html). Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, demanded in 2023: “What the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?” He urged listeners to his talk show “not let that story go” and blamed “people in the Washington swamp who are not telling you the truth”. Kash Patel, the FBI director, repeatedly claimed in 2023 that the Biden administration and Democrats in the Congress were withholding documents about Epstein “because of who’s on that list”. [](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/19/trump-ghost-jeffrey-epstein#img-2) ‘Since Bondi issued her statement that the Epstein “client list” did not exist, Trump’s attempts to stamp out the flames have become more frenetic.’ Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters On 27 February, Attorney General Pam Bondi welcomed 15 Maga influencers to a press event where she handed out binders labeled “[Epstein Files: Phase 1](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/right-wing-influencers-get-binders-labeled-the-epstein-files-but-downplay-revelations/)”, which contained [no new information](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/07/16/trump-says-he-doesnt-understand-interest-in-boring-epstein-files-heres-a-timeline-of-events/). Anger simmered. On 14 March, Bondi stated on Fox News that the Epstein “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now to review”, raising the expectation among the Maga believers that such a “client list” existed and that powerful Democrats would be revealed. The “client list” allegedly contained the names of Democrats for whom Epstein trafficked girls and then blackmailed. On 5 June, Elon Musk, accelerating his orbit away from Trump’s gravitation, [posted](https://www.yahoo.com/news/musk-accuses-trump-being-epstein-192109560.html): “Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk then deleted his post. But, on 6 July, the Department of Justice issued an unsigned [statement](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/07/jeffrey-epstein-suicide-client-list-trump-administration) that there was “no incriminating ‘client list’”, “no credible evidence … that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals”, and that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted”. Bondi’s insistence that Epstein kept no “client list” of people he supposedly blackmailed may well be true. . But Bondi debunked a falsehood that had become an article of faith for Maga believers. It was bait for the base. The Maga world erupted. “Please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away,” [Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser,](https://x.com/GenFlynn/status/1944214943198286033) posted. “THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment.” Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, for example, [posted](https://x.com/RepLuna/status/1895188683688681725): “GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!” Tucker Carlson called it a “cover-up” of Epstein as a secret agent for Israeli intelligence. “Why was he doing this, on whose behalf, and where was the money coming from?” Steve Bannon roused the rightwing cadres at the Turning Point USA convention on 13 July. “Epstein,” he [said](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-faces-revolt-maga-base-epstein-files-rcna218385), “is a key that picks the lock on so many things, not just individuals, but also institutions, intelligence institutions, foreign governments and who was working with him on our intelligence apparatus and in our government.” Trump’s grooming of his followers cannot be undone. Decades of propaganda have become gospel truth. The Maga base and Republicans generally have not cared about Trump’s sexual abuse of women. After the two E Jean Carroll trials in which Trump was found liable for defaming her by claiming she was lying about his sexual assault, the hush-money payments to silence Stormy Daniels for her sexual relationship with him, and numerous credible reports of dozens of women who have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by Trump, a [poll](https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-politics-of-progress-and-privilege-how-americas-gender-gap-is-reshaping-the-2024-election/#:~:text=Did%20Trump%20Commit%20Sexual%20Assault,he%20did%20commit%20sexual%20assault.) in the fall of 2024 conducted by a conservative thinktank, the American Enterprise Institute, showed that only 5% of Trump voters “believe he did commit sexual assault”. E Jean Carroll [told me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5gL3H1tuZ8&list=PLBpiUxZcKxXQ8Z9uAY6WXItquhnSIIGIK&index=8) that a number of women have come to her to relate similar assaults, but do not want to become public figures out of fear of retribution. For Maga, and Republicans, if there is any distinction, these stories are unworthy of attention. They sanitize and dismiss such predations, while claims of child molestation incite them. Justifying a sexual libertine like Trump, they have held him up as a white knight avenger against pedophiles, remade him into a purifying figure, the defender of the innocent. Since Bondi issued her statement that the Epstein “client list” did not exist, Trump’s attempts to stamp out the flames have become more frenetic. He went from urging his supporters to move on to telling them to get lost. > Until evidence of Trump’s participation in Epstein’s transgressions is either established or discredited, Epstein will never die His first [remark](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-jeffrey-epstein-question-this-creep/#:~:text=President%20Trump%20criticized%20a%20reporter,just%20seems%20like%20a%20desecration.%22) was to chide a reporter who asked about it: “I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we’re having some of the greatest success, and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.” Trump got more frustrated. “For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again,” Trump posted on Truth Social, blaming the files on Democrats. “Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.” It was “all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein”. Trump tried to rally his base. “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals’?” Trump posted. “They are all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” Trump reportedly [phoned](https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/charlie-kirk-trump-epstein-call-b2788906.html) Charlie Kirk, the head of Turning Point USA, which had served as a forum for criticism of his handling of the Epstein affair, to quiet him. The glib talkshow host announced: “I’m done talking about Epstein for the time being.” As promised, Kirk shut up, but the Maga chorus kept chirping. Enraged, [Trump posted on 16 July](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114863203348237352) that the “new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker … Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats’ work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” At a bilateral meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain, Trump [lashed out](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-blasts-epstein-files-release-supporters/story?id=123799343) at “stupid Republicans”. Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson, invariably a loyal soldier, but who felt forced to respond to the disturbance of the base, called for an investigation. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, asked that Ghislaine Maxwell appear as a witness. Do they think an inquiry would not come to focus on the evidence perhaps in the FBI’s possession of Trump’s gamey relationship with Epstein, rather than the mythical “client list”? Under the stress of the Epstein controversy that will not disappear at Trump’s command, the unpopularity of his One Big Beautiful Bill, the public’s rejection of his brutal deportation methods, and the weakening of the economy as a result of his mad tariffs, Trump is becoming more unhinged, speaking openly of [firing the head of the Federal Reserve](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jul/17/inspection-federal-reserve-building-powell-trump), Jerome Powell, who, unlike Epstein, is a live target. Crashing the economy might serve as a temporary distraction. Then, in a fit of retributive pique, his administration fired James Comey’s daughter, Maurene Comey, a prosecutor in the office of the southern district of New York, who had handled the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases. Trump lost more control. Facing backlash, [he asked Bondi to seek to release](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/18/politics/trump-bondi-epstein-testimony) Epstein grand jury material, which almost certainly contained no reference to him and was a substitute for the full files, throwing oil on the fire. Trump pressured the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch not to publish a letter he wrote in honor of Epstein’s 50th birthday. The Journal [reported](https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?mod=hp_lead_pos7): “It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair. The letter concludes: ‘Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.’” On Friday, Trump [sued the Journal and Murdoch](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/18/trump-libel-lawsuit-wsj-dow-jones-rupert-murdoch). The ghost of Epstein haunts Trump. He cannot dispel his spirit. “Not a fan, not a fan,” he [muttered](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/us/politics/trump-epstein.html) in the past, trying to distance himself. But Epstein continues to swoop in – “a guy who never dies”. Until evidence of Trump’s participation in Epstein’s transgressions is either established or discredited, including the photographs that Michael Wolff claimed Epstein showed him, Epstein will never die. If Epstein were to appear to Trump at night as an apparition, his Marley’s ghost, he might warn him that there is no happy ending.

_This story appeared in [The Logoff](https://www.vox.com/the-logoff-newsletter-trump), a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. [Subscribe here](https://www.vox.com/pages/logoff-newsletter-trump-administration-updates)_. **Welcome to The Logoff:** President Donald Trump’s self-inflicted Jeffrey Epstein scandal has essentially paralyzed the House of Representatives, as Speaker Mike Johnson announced today that the chamber would recess early to avoid voting to disclose information about the deceased financier. **What changed?** The House had been scheduled to remain in session until Thursday, but will now recess tomorrow and remain out until September 2 after a new bipartisan bill to release files on Epstein gained traction. A long August recess is normal for Congress, but not the abrupt decision to head for the door early. **Why does this matter?** The Logoff hasn’t covered the Epstein scandal yet because our mission is to highlight what matters most — not what’s talked about most. But it’s become clear that, at least for now, this isn’t going away, and the lengths that Trump’s Republican allies in the House are going to to avoid the issue are noteworthy. Outside Congress, it has real staying power within Trump’s coalition. Like it or not, the conspiracy theory is playing an inescapable role in politics right now. **What’s the context?** Trump, and by extension the Republican Party, have struggled to respond to [a ballooning scandal](https://www.vox.com/politics/420340/jeffrey-epstein-trump-friends-birthday-book-secret) around their refusal to disclose new information about clients of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in federal custody in 2019. Releasing additional information would [go against standard DOJ procedure](https://www.vox.com/today-explained-podcast/419905/jeffrey-epstein-files-client-list-donald-trump-pam-bondi) — but Trump and many of his allies promised to do so during the 2024 campaign, and Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, said in February that she was reviewing Epstein’s alleged “client list” for potential release. **What’s next?** Johnson remains stuck between a Republican conference ready to vote in favor of releasing more information and Trump, who has aggressively resisted calls to do so. It’s unclear if the August recess will give him any breathing room, but in the meantime, the DOJ is hoping to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted Epstein associate, to seek new information about possible Epstein clients, and the House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to subpoena Maxwell to testify. I highly recommend [this recent blog from Defector](https://defector.com/bill-shapes-ranked), which is basically just an excuse to look at some cool bird photos (and learn some fun facts). It’s a very good time and a reminder that nature is pretty neat. Of course, the best way to enjoy it, good as the blog is, isn’t through a screen — so I hope you’re able to log off for a bit this evening, take a walk, and maybe see some interesting birds of your own along the way. We’ll see you back here tomorrow! See More: * [Congress](https://www.vox.com/congress) * [Donald Trump](https://www.vox.com/donald-trump) * [Politics](https://www.vox.com/politics) * [The Logoff](https://www.vox.com/the-logoff-newsletter-trump)

The political world’s frenzy over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has essentially blotted out the sun. That’s even though Epstein has been dead for nearly six years, and the scandal around him has no apparent import to American public policy. So why is the obsession over it so intense? The known facts around Epstein are genuinely mysterious and shocking. He became fabulously wealthy through [unclear means](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/inside-jeffrey-epsteins-decades-long-relationship-with-his-biggest-client?srsltid=ARcRdnpzlAw776iYL2t9rngh6Yb3N61CTmr4l9HyB_RftCKDJlFwUKd_), he cultivated a social circle full of powerful elites, he’s been accused of sex crimes by [dozens of women](https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/why-didnt-vanity-fair-break-the-jeffrey-epstein-story) (many of whom were underage), he owned two private islands, and he died in jail in what the FBI has said was a suicide. But in the minds of many, the scandal has become something far more than the known facts — it’s become, basically, the mother of all conspiracy theories. Because a curious aspect to the Epstein scandal is that it has something to captivate just about every political subculture. Depending on which parts of the story you zoom in on or studiously ignore, it can be a Me Too story of women being abused by a powerful man, a MAGA tale of liberal elites’ sex crimes, or a #Resistance scandal that will reveal the dark truth about Trump. Those inclined to suspect deep state malfeasance fixate on a cover-up or the hypothetical involvement of intelligence agencies. Antisemites focus on Epstein being Jewish. Particularly, the MAGA right demonstrated extraordinary amounts of compartmentalization by becoming obsessed with Epstein while totally ignoring that the leader of their political movement, [Trump, had well-documented ties](https://www.vox.com/politics/420340/jeffrey-epstein-trump-friends-birthday-book-secret) to the man. The Epstein scandal would, they thought, reveal that _Democrats_ were perverted sex criminals — and Trump would help expose the truth. But any hopes of a revelatory new dump of Epstein info from the Trump administration have been extinguished, and Trump has desperately tried to change the subject to other topics. This may well be because Trump’s own name is in there. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that, back in May, administration officials told [Trump his name appeared in Epstein case documents](https://www.wsj.com/politics/justice-department-told-trump-name-in-epstein-files-727a8038), alongside many other people’s names — and that the files contained lots of unverified hearsay about these people. Trump and his team’s contortions — and the unusual tension between the Trump administration and its base — have spurred a new round of [investigative](https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?mod=hp_lead_pos7%5C) [reporting](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/22/politics/kfile-trump-epstein-photos-footage) about Trump and Epstein’s ties. Democrats, too, have glommed on to the scandal as a way to hurt Trump politically. It’s gotten so awkward for Republicans that Speaker Mike Johnson [cut short](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/us/politics/mike-johnson-ends-house-session-epstein-vote.html) the House of Representatives’ work schedule this week, specifically to avoid votes on Epstein disclosures. But so far, every attempt by Trump and his allies to move on from Epstein has only spurred more interest in the topic — and more questions about whether they’re trying to hide something. Trump, a longtime fan of [conspiracy theories about his political enemies](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/29/16713664/trump-obama-birth-certificate), has generally proved quite skilled at guiding and diverting the MAGA base’s attention to his preferred targets — mainly, top Democrats and government officials involved in investigating Trump. But there’s always been an element of far-right conspiracy theorizing he couldn’t quite control — as demonstrated with [Pizzagate](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/12/5/13842258/pizzagate-comet-ping-pong-fake-news) and especially [QAnon](https://www.vox.com/2020/10/9/21504910/qanon-conspiracy-theory-facebook-ban-trump), two made-up theories about Democrats being involved in child sex crimes that were fervently believed by many on the right. With QAnon in particular, Trump never outright endorsed the theory’s claims, but he recognized the power it held over many in his base, so he and his team [pandered to it in coded ways](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-begins-openly-embracing-and-amplifying-false-fringe-qanon-conspiracy-theory). The obsession with the idea that Democrats were secret child sex abusers transitioned neatly into the Epstein saga. Epstein was accused of sexually abusing underage girls, he had flown former President Bill Clinton around on his private jet in the early 2000s, and he had many connections in elite liberal circles, including from Hollywood and academia. All this has only heightened suspicions that something is in those files that makes Trump look quite bad. Then, Epstein’s 2019 death in jail was the clincher: Clearly, the right-wing base believed he was murdered before his trial to prevent him from implicating other powerful people in his sex crimes. Elements of the government were probably involved in this cover-up, they thought. The belief spread that there was an Epstein “[client list](https://www.vox.com/politics/419264/jeffrey-epstein-trump-bondi-patel-client-list)” naming people he supplied underage girls to. It would have been a perfect issue for Trump to use to fire up the base, if not for the inconvenient problem that Trump actually [knew Epstein quite well](https://www.vox.com/politics/420340/jeffrey-epstein-trump-friends-birthday-book-secret). Trump and Epstein frequently socialized in New York and Florida in the 1990s and early 2000s, Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet [seven times,](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/us/politics/timeline-trump-epstein.html) Epstein [attended Trump’s second wedding](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/22/politics/kfile-trump-epstein-photos-footage), and Trump [reportedly wrote](https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?mod=hp_lead_pos7%5C) Epstein a message for his 50th birthday saying they had “certain things in common” and alluding to a “wonderful secret.” In 2002, Trump [even told a reporter](https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/) that Epstein was a “terrific guy” who likes women “on the younger side.” So Trump would’ve very much preferred his base not get so fixated on Jeffrey Epstein as the key to all conspiracies. But the president couldn’t stop it. Over the past few years, the theory escaped “containment,” promoted by right-wing commentators, podcasters, and influencers who perceived that it was quite effective at boosting ratings and engagement. They all proved extremely adept at averting their eyes from the well-documented Trump-Epstein connections, but in practice they spurred the MAGA base on to demand the release of the “Epstein Files” once Trump was back in the White House. Furthermore, Trump chose top law enforcement officials — Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino — who were extremely sensitive to how they were portrayed in right-wing media. Their [ham-handed efforts](https://www.vox.com/politics/401996/jeffrey-epstein-files-influencers-pam-bondi) to please the base on this topic just resulted in further uproars (and [finger-pointing](https://www.axios.com/2025/07/11/epstein-files-dan-bongino-pam-bondi-trump) among themselves). Finally, Trump himself stepped in to try to give his base their new talking points: that the Epstein story was a “[Hoax](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114863203348237352)” akin to the Russia investigation, cooked up by his political enemies to make him look bad. “Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” he [posted](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114842356238631061) on Truth Social. All this has only heightened suspicions that something is in those files that makes Trump look quite bad. In the past, Democrats have had a complicated relationship with the Epstein scandal. In the early 2000s, after Clinton left office, he [became friends with Epstein](https://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/n_7912/), flying on his private jet [several times](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/nyregion/bill-clinton-jeffrey-epstein.html) during that period. Given Clinton’s own history of sex scandals, this looked awkward, even suspicious, when the allegations about Epstein started to become known in the mid-2000s. Hillary Clinton was viewed as the party’s future, so there was little desire to dwell on what happened with Epstein. That changed during the Me Too era. With a societal reckoning against powerful men like Harvey Weinstein, who abused and mistreated women, Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown [delved back](https://www.miamiherald.com/topics/jeffrey-epstein) into the Epstein case. Brown chronicled his victims’ stories and questioned whether prosecutors had given him a sweetheart deal during his first brush with the law. One news “hook” was that a prosecutor who’d arranged that deal, Alexander Acosta, was then serving in Trump’s Cabinet. Brown’s reporting helped spur [Epstein’s indictment and arrest](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/jeffrey-epstein-charged-manhattan-federal-court-sex-trafficking-minors) in 2019, and the media prepared for what was sure to be a blockbuster trial. But the trial never happened, because Epstein was found dead in his cell just a month after his arrest. After Epstein’s death, the MAGA base’s interest in him increased, while Democrats’ interest in him dwindled. “Epstein didn’t kill himself” became a common phrase on some parts of the right, but the idea of a secret jail murder conspiracy sounded silly to Democrats’ increasingly [upscale and educated](https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-crank-realignment-is-bad-for) voter base. What Democrats needed to revive their interest was for the Epstein scandal to become a _Trump_ scandal. And that’s what Trump’s team has inadvertently brought about. Their botched disclosures and awkward attempts to change the subject spurred new investigative reporting about Trump and Epstein. And it’s resulted in a frenzy of public interest that Trump hasn’t been able to escape. See More:

 A Florida federal judge on Wednesday denied a request to unseal grand jury transcripts of a federal investigation into disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump had called for the release of grand jury testimony related to Epstein, who was accused of sexually trafficking children, in response to pressure from lawmakers and some supporters to show more transparency with the case. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg of Florida said in her ruling that 11th Circuit law does not permit her to grant the government's request and that her "hands are tied." Rosenberg also said the government's request to unseal the grand jury transcripts does not fall under the limited exceptions allowed under the law. Two judges in New York also are considering parallel requests from the Justice Department to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein. They have given the department until next week to address more fully why the transcripts should be made public and an additional week to hear from Epstein's representatives and his victims. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges, but his close associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for charges of facilitating Epstein's abuse of girls. The Department of Justice asked judges in several states last week to release the grand jury transcripts related to Epstein. The department filed motions in the Southern District of New York as well as in the Southern District of Florida. In Florida, the department was seeking transcripts from grand jury investigations into Epstein in 2005 and 2007. While the government claimed that releasing the grand jury transcripts was "a matter of public interest," and that special circumstances should allow for their release given Epstein's death, Rosenberg ruled that the request did not fall under the limited exceptions allowed under law. The DOJ's "stated rationale are not exceptions," Rosenberg wrote. The ruling comes amid a political firestorm that was sparked earlier this month by the release of a [DOJ memo](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/07/g-s1-76367/doj-jeffrey-epstein-memo) asserting that there was no evidence that Epstein had possessed a "client list" or that he had blackmailed prominent individuals. It appeared to [contradict previous statements](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/15/g-s1-77698/pam-bondi-jeffrey-epstein-justice-department) made by Attorney General Pam Bondi about an alleged list of clients. In February, Bondi told Fox News in an interview that Epstein's client list was "sitting on my desk right now to review." The DOJ memo [caused outcries](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/14/nx-s1-5467151/trump-epstein-files-doj-fbi-maga) from members of President Trump's base, who have criticized the administration for what they see as backtracking on past pledges to release additional information related to Epstein's case. ### Calls from Congress for more information Trump has tried to deflect the controversy by dismissing it as a politically-driven "witch hunt." Asked about the case during an appearance in the Oval Office [on Tuesday](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/22/nx-s1-5476234/trump-epstein-obama), Trump said, "I don't really follow that too much," before pivoting to complaints about the Obama administration and [Russian interference in the 2016 election](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/21/nx-s1-5475171/trump-gabbard-russia-2016-election). The case is causing political headaches for Republicans in Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has canceled votes for later this week and is instead sending [lawmakers home for their August recess a day early](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-5476247/house-speaker-johnson-calls-for-early-summer-recess-to-avoid-vote-on-epstein-files). The scheduling change was announced Tuesday after clashes among Republicans about the files — including a deadlock on the powerful House Rules Committee over a push by Democrats to force votes on the Epstein matter. Despite the scheduling change, lawmakers are still seeking more information. On Wednesday, the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced that he had [issued a subpoena](https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025.07.23-Subpoena-Cover-Letter-to-Maxwell-FINAL.pdf) to Maxwell for a deposition from federal prison on August 11. "The facts and circumstances surrounding both your and Mr. Epstein's cases have received immense public interest and scrutiny," wrote Chairman James Comer, R-Ky, in the subpoena cover letter. "It is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government's enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr. Epstein," Comer wrote. Separately on Wednesday, a federal judge in New York who is reviewing the Justice Department's request to unseal grand jury transcripts in the Maxwell case rejected a motion by her attorneys to review the documents. "It is black-letter law that defendants generally are not entitled to access to grand jury materials," Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote in his ruling.

 Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania held the second town hall of his congressional career on Wednesday just after House Speaker Mike Johnson [sent lawmakers home early](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/22/nx-s1-5476234/trump-epstein-obama) after clashes among GOP members about releasing records tied to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Questions over the release of Department of Justice files from its Epstein investigation followed the freshman lawmaker, who represents a competitive Northeast Pennsylvania swing district, back home. Earlier this month, [the DOJ concluded](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/07/g-s1-76367/doj-jeffrey-epstein-memo) in a two-page memo that it found no evidence that Epstein had a "client list" and that no more information would be released. The conclusions did little to quell the appetite for more about the Epstein files given they've been the [source of conspiracy theories](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/18/nx-s1-5470152/the-fbi-says-there-is-no-epstein-list-angering-much-of-president-trumps-base) — fanned by President Trump and members of his administration — for years. When asked by a caller on his telephone town hall if he thinks Trump is in Epstein's "client list" and if it should be released, Mackenzie said that he would support efforts to release the DOJ files on the disgraced financier if the White House does not do more. "The Trump administration has now been in office for six months," Mackenzie said. "I know they have not released as much as I would like to see to date, but hopefully they're going to be doing that. And if not, then Congress should potentially step in and compel them to do that because again, the American people deserve to have full transparency and information about what is in those files and ultimately we're going to get there." Earlier this month, Trump tried to tamp down criticism over the DOJ's conclusion**s** by criticizing some of his supporters who have [expressed distrust](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/14/nx-s1-5467151/trump-epstein-files-doj-fbi-maga) in the investigation into Epstein and his death in 2019, which was ruled a suicide. In recent weeks, the DOJ has requested the release of grand jury records related to the Epstein investigation. And on Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche appeared in Tallahassee to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell, who's in federal prison for her role helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. Mackenzie and other Republican lawmakers have been targeted by Democratic groups who see how the Epstein saga is dividing the GOP and see it as a political liability for Republicans. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., introduced a successful motion to subpoena the records in a House subcommittee, with three Republicans voting in favor of it, including Rep. Scott Perry, who represents another competitive Pennsylvania district. Perry also supports a resolution introduced by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky calling for the release of the DOJ records, the measure that prompted House Speaker Mike Johnson to dismiss the chamber a day early. On Tuesday night, Perry changed the logistics of his own telephone town hall, saying his office would call those wanting to join, [stating on X](https://x.com/RepScottPerry/status/1947714989181354343), "we now have individuals from outside of our district (and even State) flooding the Tele-Town Hall RSVP page and my office lines." One of those who managed to get on the call accused Perry and Republicans of avoiding the Epstein discussion, but Perry pushed back, saying he had personally asked for more information. "I have requested that the DOJ – and you can see the letter publicly -- that the DOJ release the files \[and\] not only that, \[that\] they also provide a special prosecutor for the Epstein circumstances as well as other things – abuses of government where information is being hidden from the American people," Perry said. Even in some solid Republican districts, lawmakers are facing similar questions. Earlier this week Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, speaking at a telephone town hall, explained his reasoning for supporting Massie's resolution. "I believe transparency should be the hallmark of every administration whether they're Democrat or Republican," said Crane, who supports the legislation introduced by Massie. Republican strategist [Rina Shah told NPR](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-5476305/why-some-gop-lawmakers-are-defying-president-trump-on-release-of-epstein-files) this week that "MAGA voters are furious" and want more transparency when it comes to the investigation into Epstein, describing it as a drama that "won't go away." "Come September, if they hit 218 signatures, the House will vote, and it'll be a defining moment: Is the Republican Party going to double down on transparency and risk embarrassing elites, or will it protect the establishment?" she said. "That's a question here. And this fight could reshape the party, deciding whether it's truly the party of the people or one that still plays by old Washington rules." _KJZZ Senior Editor Michel Marizco contributed to this report._

Ben Hatton and Kayla Epstein BBC News Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary are among high-profile figures to be sent legal summonses from a congressional committee investigating the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Republican James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, issued the subpoenas to the Clintons and eight other individuals. The committee is seeking information about Epstein's history, after President Donald Trump's administration decided against releasing more federal files on the dead financier. That decision sparked outrage among Trump supporters and some Democrats, who refused to accept the justice department's statement that there was no "incriminating client list" in the Epstein files. Amid a rift between Trump and some of his supporters on Epstein, the committee, made up of both Democrats and Republicans, recently voted to issue the subpoenas. The panel has also subpoenaed the justice department itself for records related to Epstein. Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's associate who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, had indicated she was willing to testify before the powerful investigatory committee, with strict legal protections. Her scheduled 11 August deposition, though, has been postponed indefinitely. The Epstein legal saga has spanned two decades, with Florida police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation first scrutinising the well-connected tycoon for allegations of sexual abuse in the early 2000s. Comer wrote in letters to each person that the committee must "conduct oversight of the federal government's enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr Epstein" and Maxwell. He also indicated that depositions will start this month and run through the autumn, with Bill Clinton scheduled for 14 October. Former Attorneys General Merrick Garland, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales were summoned, along with Jeff Sessions and William Barr, who both led the justice department during Trump's first term. Former FBI Sirectors James Comey and Robert Mueller were also sent subpoenas. The Clinton administration predates the Epstein investigation, but the couple's critics have long questioned their relationship with Epstein. A spokesperson [has acknowledged](https://x.com/angelurena/status/1148357927625023490) that Bill Clinton took four trips with staff on Epstein's private plane in 2002 and 2003, and met with Epstein in New York in 2002. Clinton also visited Epstein's New York apartment around that time. The letters to each Clinton cites these incidents, as well as other alleged encounters and connections, as reasons for summoning them. Citing flight logs, US media have previously reported Clinton flew on Epstein's jet up to 26 times, occasionally without his Secret Service detail. In 2019, a spokesman said the former president "knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York." The Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Department of Justice had no comment. The committee is seeking all of the department's documents and communications on Epstein and Maxwell "relating or referring to human trafficking, exploitation of minors, sexual abuse, or related activity", as well as files from the US criminal cases against Maxwell and Epstein, documents from a 2007 agreement to not prosecute Epstein and federal investigations into the former financier. It is not immediately clear if individuals named by Comer will appear before the committee and, if they do, whether they will testify publicly. Over the last 200 years, only four other former presidents have received subpoenas from congressional committees, and only two provided testimony. Notably, the committee investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot voted during a televised hearing to subpoena Trump, who then sued to stop it. The subpoena was dropped when the committee disbanded. Federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking of minors and other crimes in 2019, during the first Trump administration. He died by suicide in jail that August, and almost immediately afterwards many began questioning the circumstances of his death. This summer, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced her department, after conducting a review, had [found no evidence of the long-rumoured client list](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2m879neljo). She also said evidence supported that Epstein died by suicide. The government would release no more files, she said. The announcements sparked outrage among some supporters of Trump, who promised in his campaign to release Epstein records. The fight among House Republicans over the case grew so contentious that Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home early in July [to block a vote over the Epstein files' release.](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgjg9j0l7j9o) As demands grew for the Trump administration to release more Epstein records, the justice department [recently met Maxwell,](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjd2de8zz5go) and it is currently seeking to release grand jury transcripts from her case. On Tuesday, Maxwell's lawyer said she opposed the release of the transcripts. "Jeffrey Epstein is dead. Ghislaine Maxwell is not," Maxwell's lawyers wrote in a filing. "Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable, and her due process rights remain." The BBC has asked the White House for comment on the subpoenas.

How can you prove the absence of a secret file?  Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Sources: Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty; JoeLena / Getty. August 7, 2025, 11:07 AM ET Jeffrey Epstein’s “client list” is the conspiracy theory that may never die. A secret document detailing all of the elite clients that Epstein allegedly sex-trafficked minors to—it’s something of a grail for QAnon adherents, TMZ watchers, and serious news readers alike. There is no proof that such a thing exists. Yet President Donald Trump himself suggested that it did during his campaign, and pledged to release it before a [disastrous backtrack](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/07/epstein-files-trump/683503/) from the Department of Justice last month. Now, in a poll released Monday, nearly two-thirds of Americans said they believe that the Trump administration is hiding something, and 71 percent said they still believe that the list is real. Meanwhile, [Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene](https://x.com/mtgreenee/status/1943393800828940665) has demanded that the list be released, Democrats are [pushing the narrative](https://x.com/RepMcGovern/status/1952375710364135859) that the Trump administration is orchestrating a cover-up, and yesterday the House [subpoenaed the DOJ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/08/05/epstein-files-house-subpoena/) for additional files related to the case. To be clear, many [unanswered and valid questions](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/opinion/epstein-files-fbi-trump.html) remain about Epstein. Before his death, he was charged with trafficking and abusing, as it read in the indictment, “a vast network” of dozens of underage girls. Many still wonder why he was permitted to [carry on with his crimes for so long](https://apnews.com/article/trump-epstein-investigation-records-timeline-545c371ee3dd3142355a26d27829c188), whether other people who were complicit in them have escaped justice, and how much President Trump may have known while the two were friends. Trump’s name reportedly appears in files that have been [redacted](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-08-01/epstein-files-trump-s-name-was-redacted-by-the-fbi) by the FBI, though he has repeatedly denied personal knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and says their relationship ended in 2004. [David A. Graham: Donald Trump doesn’t want you to read this article](https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/08/trump-epstein-saga-tactics/683777/) The specific idea of a client list, though, has taken on a life of its own. No one can demonstrate that the list _doesn’t_ exist, so people will continue to insist that it does—that it is being kept from them. There’s a certain logic to their belief, because a similar document has been seen already. In 2015, _Gawker_ published Epstein’s [address book](https://archive.ph/eupVG), which was full of names of celebrities and politicians. He apparently kept meticulous records and liked putting all of his famous contacts together in one place. And so the idea of a client list feels plausible to many people because they’ve had a mental image of it for 10 years now. Moreover, Trump has created a “where there’s smoke there’s fire” effect in the past several weeks. The president has vacillated among suggesting that he has no obligation to talk about Epstein, speculating that political foes may have [fabricated parts](https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-epstein-files-democrats-tampering-b2797412.html) of the Epstein file, attempting to placate his supporters by ordering the release of grand-jury testimony about the case (which [cannot be unsealed](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/us/politics/florida-epstein-transcripts-unsealed-denied.html?smid=url-share), a federal judge ruled), and deflecting ([“you ought to be talking about Bill Clinton”](https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1948741986258764277)). There’s a useful parallel between the government’s handling of the Epstein case and its investigation into the John F. Kennedy assassination. That assassination, of course, launched a million conspiracy theories: [Most Americans still believe that the shooter](https://news.gallup.com/poll/514310/decades-later-americans-doubt-lone-gunman-killed-jfk.aspx), Lee Harvey Oswald, did not act alone. One theory holds that the CIA was somehow involved, which has led people to search for hidden evidence within the government’s own records—much as we’ve seen with the Epstein case. In 1967, Jim Garrison, the district attorney of New Orleans, ended up going down this road. He was re-investigating the case after receiving tips that Oswald, a New Orleans native, had worked with locals in a plot to kill the president. Long and complicated story short, Garrison would eventually subpoena CIA Director Richard Helms, demanding that he produce a photograph that purportedly showed Oswald with a CIA officer in Mexico City in 1963—cementing a link between the killer and the intelligence agency. There was only a slim reason to think such a photo might exist. Garrison was extrapolating from an existing controversy over a photo that the CIA had provided to the Warren Commission years before. That photo showed an unknown man in Mexico City; it was labeled as a photo of Oswald but was clearly not him. Garrison’s theory was that there had been a swap. “It’s perfectly clear that the actual picture of Oswald and his companion was suppressed and a fake photo substituted,” he said. The government had no way to prove that he was wrong—to _prove_ that there was no such photo. Garrison took his accusations all the way to a highly publicized trial in 1969. His theory of the case [fell apart](https://www.nytimes.com/1969/03/02/archives/justice-in-new-orleans.html) in court for unrelated reasons, but his many notions linger to this day. (He is [the hero](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/15/movies/film-does-jfk-conspire-against-reason.html) of the 1991 blockbuster film _JFK_.) The Kennedy assassination still features many unknowns, and information is still being released about it in drips and drabs—previewing, perhaps, the future of disclosure around the Epstein case. Last month, the CIA [released](https://www.maryferrell.org/php/showlist.php?docset=2235) assassination files that researchers had been requesting for more than 20 years. They pertained to a specific CIA officer who some think may have known or worked with Oswald in New Orleans. In the 1970s, the same CIA officer was assigned to work with the House Select Committee on Assassinations and help them in their re-investigation of Kennedy’s death. He was using a different name by then, and the committee [did not know](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/jfk-assassination-documents-national-archives.html) it was the same person. He blatantly deceived Congress and actually thwarted their efforts to understand whatever had happened in New Orleans. The latest batch of files still [didn’t reveal a direct connection](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/07/14/cia-oswald-jfk-assassination-joannides/) between this officer and Oswald, but that hasn’t put the issue to bed. [Read: Conspiracy theorists are turning on the president](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/07/epstein-files-trump/683503/) That the CIA [maintained its secrecy](https://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/kennedy-cia-files-099270) around the officer for decades is what has made curiosity linger. The historian Gerald Posner was one of the public figures (along with the [novelist Don DeLillo](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2003/12/18/jfks-assassination/) and the writer Norman Mailer) who’d signed an open letter asking for the release of these files back in 2003, a decade after he wrote a [definitive book](https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/09/books/books-of-the-times-kennedy-assassination-answers.html) affirming the theory that Oswald acted alone. He recently told me that he’s disgusted with the CIA for taking so long to provide them—not because he thinks they shed new light on the Kennedy assassination but for just the opposite reason. He thinks they really don’t, but that hiding them encourages people to speculate ever more darkly. The CIA drags its feet, and when the documents are finally released, they usually have “nothing to do with the assassination,” Posner said. “But it’s often too late to explain that.” This dynamic—in which defensiveness and reflexive secrecy lead to prolonged struggles over information that may or may not be important—has been a recurring problem throughout modern U.S. history. In her 2008 book, _Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War 1 to 9/11_, the historian Kathryn Olmsted argues that selective opacity is one of the key reasons that Americans distrust their government. The passage of the Freedom of Information Act in 1966 democratized access to information, she argues, yet also left citizens baffled and frustrated when documents were refused to them or granted only with heavy redactions. The government’s “ambivalence” about providing information “sometimes had the effect of frightening citizens rather than reassuring them,” Olmsted writes. There are good reasons that not all of the Epstein files can be released—chief among them, the privacy of victims—but Americans are not wrong to think the government is being less transparent than it could be. The administration could release more than it has, which Congress is [currently pressuring it](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/us/politics/democrats-trump-epstein-files.html) to do. Within that context, why would people believe Trump or the FBI when they say that a client list doesn’t exist? I posed this question to Mark Fenster, a professor at the University of Florida’s law school who often writes about government transparency and conspiracy theories. _Can you ever convince people that there is no list_? “No, you can’t,” he said. “You can’t convince people that all of the pertinent JFK-assassination documents have been released. You can’t convince people who believe otherwise that all the truth is out on Jeffrey Epstein.” (Especially because it currently isn’t.) “That’s just a flat _no_,” he went on. “Rarely do I say flat _no_s, but that’s just a flat _no_.” Like the Epstein case, Kennedy-assassination skepticism demonstrates two opposing impulses. The first, to speculate wildly. The second, to doggedly pursue more and better information, sometimes so stubbornly that it approaches irrationality in itself. These past few weeks have also brought to mind the Kennedy researcher Harold Weisberg, whose early books were [a countercultural phenomenon](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/04/us/harold-weisberg-88-critic-of-inquiry-in-kennedy-death.html) and who was known for his diligent, insistent filling of FOIA requests. He wanted a specific report that he thought must exist about the spectrographic testing used on the Dallas crime-scene bullets; he was told that the FBI had looked for such a report and couldn’t find anything. He [appealed four times](https://www.justice.gov/archives/oip/blog/foia-update-significant-new-decisions-49) before the D.C. Circuit ruled in 1983 that he had to stop. The decision stated that if an agency could prove it had conducted a thorough search for the requested material, it did not also have to prove the negative—that the material never existed or had previously been destroyed. Yet, of course, the court couldn’t compel him to stop wondering. Nobody can make Americans stop wondering about a “client list” either. It can’t stay on the front page indefinitely, but people won’t forget about it. Epstein will become part of the American cultural backdrop, like [Hunter Biden’s computer](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/04/tech-companies-suppressed-biden-laptop/629680/), 9/11 trutherism, Kennedy, chemtrails, Roswell, and QAnon. At certain times, such conspiratorial thinking and refusal to accept the evidence will become dangerous—people will spin up fantasies that result in acts of defamation or [threats of violence](https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-man-arrested-threatening-kill-epstein-client-list/story?id=123933077). At other times, it will just be part of the daily chatter.

Four days after [JD Vance](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jd-vance) reportedly asked top [Trump administration](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration) officials to come up with a new communications strategy for dealing with the scandal around the late convicted sex offender [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein), he appears to have put his foot in it, sparking a new round of online outrage even as he tried to defuse the furor. In [an interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA6bhAuQDVk) with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, the vice-president tried to deflect criticism of the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files by blaming Democrats. He accused Joe Biden of doing “absolutely nothing” about the scandal when he was in the White House. “And now President Trump has demanded full transparency from this. And yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him and not the Biden administration, which did nothing for four years,” [he said](https://x.com/atrupar/status/1954551273136488703?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1954565198351663406%7Ctwgr%5E1401c3ae738a583e61cc78a1f664983c807a434c%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediaite.com%2Fpolitics%2Fjd-vances-latest-epstein-claims-lead-to-new-calls-for-trump-to-release-all-the-files%2F). Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, [was convicted](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/statement-us-attorney-damian-williams-verdict-us-v-ghislaine-maxwell) of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse multiple minor girls [and sentenced](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-sentenced-20-years-prison-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse) to 20 years in federal prison during the Biden administration. If Vance’s attempt to switch public blame onto Democrats was the big idea to emerge from his strategy meeting with attorney general [Pam Bondi](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pam-bondi) and FBI director Kash Patel, which [according to CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/07/politics/epstein-meeting-vance-bondi-patel) he convened at the White House last week, then their labours appear to have backfired. (Vance denied to Fox that they had discussed Epstein at all, though he did acknowledge the meeting took place.) Within minutes of the Fox News interview being broadcast, social media began to hum with renewed cries of “release the files!” Clips of Vance smearing Democrats quickly began to circulate on X. “We know that Jeffrey Epstein had a lot of connections with leftwing politicians and leftwing billionaires … Democrat billionaires and Democrat political leaders went to Epstein island all the time. Who knows what they did,” he said. Vance also repeated Trump’s [previously debunked claim](https://www.factcheck.org/2025/08/trump-offers-no-evidence-for-claim-about-bill-clinton-and-epstein-island/) that Bill Clinton had visited Epstein’s private island dozens of times. Clinton has acknowledged using Epstein’s jet, but [denied](https://x.com/angelurena/status/1148357927625023490) ever visiting his island. “Fine. Release all the files,” was [the riposte](https://x.com/BillKristol/status/1954554407510561039?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1954554407510561039%7Ctwgr%5E1401c3ae738a583e61cc78a1f664983c807a434c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mediaite.com%2Fpolitics%2Fjd-vances-latest-epstein-claims-lead-to-new-calls-for-trump-to-release-all-the-files%2F) from Bill Kristol, the prominent conservative Never Trumper who urged the documents to be made public with “no redactions of clients, enablers, and see-no-evil associates”. Jon Favreau, Barack Obama’s former head speechwriter, [replied](https://x.com/jonfavs/status/1954556322558660610): “Release the names! Democrats, Republicans, billionaires, or not. What are you afraid of, JD Vance?” Favreau added that Trump’s name “is in the Epstein files”. That was an apparent reference to [a report](https://www.wsj.com/politics/justice-department-told-trump-name-in-epstein-files-727a8038?mod=hp_lead_pos1) in the Wall Street Journal last month that a justice department review of the documents conducted under Bondi had found that the president’s name did appear “multiple times”. Other social media users used the Fox News interview as an excuse to re-run video of Trump in the [hosting Epstein and Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago](https://x.com/implausibleblog/status/1954586385030984110). Archival video of Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in 1992. Epstein died in August 2019, during Trump’s first presidency, while the financier and socialite was awaiting trial in a Manhattan jail; the death was ruled a suicide. [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/10/jd-vance-democrats-jeffrey-epstein-files#EmailSignup-skip-link-13) Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion The White House has been [caught in a bind](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/14/jeffrey-epstein-trump-maga-turmoil) over the Epstein affair which spawned conspiracy theories among many of Trump’s supporters, which now senior figures in the administration had actively encouraged during the 2024 campaign. In July the justice department announced that there was no Epstein client list and that no more files would be made public, a decision that clashed with earlier statements from top Trump officials, including Bondi’s [statement in February](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bondi-says-epstein-client-list-sitting-my-desk-right-now-reviewing-jfk-mlk-files) that a client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review”. The decision triggered an immediate and ongoing uproar that crossed the partisan political divide. Among the most viral clips in the aftermath of that reversal was [video of Vance himself](https://x.com/TheoVon/status/1945590466441081144) telling the podcaster Theo Von, two weeks before the election: “Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list, that is an important thing.” In his Fox News interview Vance also [warned](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVR4pSn7Hhc) that “you’re going to see a lot of people get indicted” after Trump accused Obama of “treason” and called for his predecessor to be prosecuted. The director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has passed documents to the justice department that she claims show that the Obama administration maliciously tried to hurt Trump by linking Russian interference in the 2016 election to him. Obama has dismissed Trump’s call for his prosecution as [weak and ridiculous](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/22/obama-breaks-silence-trump).

Getty Images Grand jury trainscripts relating to Ghislaine's Maxwell's sex-trafficking case will remain sealed. A US judge has ruled grand jury materials in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex-trafficking case will remain sealed, saying that making them public "would not reveal new information of any consequence". The justice department had asked Judge Paul Engelmayer to unseal the documents, in an effort to assauge anger among President Donald Trump's supporters over the decision not to release all federal files on Maxwell's associate, deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell, currently serving [a 20-year prison sentence](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61970358) for crimes tied to Epstein, opposed unsealing the materials. The judge wrote it was important to protect the secrecy of grand juries, who decide whether to indict people accused of crimes. There are special circumstances where that secrecy is broken, Judge Engelmayer wrote in his 31-page decision. But he wrote that "applying the exception casually or promiscuously, as the government's motion to unseal the summary-witness grand jury testimony here invites" would hurt the grand jury system. It could, he wrote, set a precedent where people do not believe the proceedings will be kept secret, which may discourage witnesses from testifying and jurors from focusing solely on the merits of the case. He dismissed the government's argument that much of the information given to the grand jury was made public during her trial, although he agreed that "a member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials...would thus learn next to nothing new". The materials "do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor" and "do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein's or Maxwell's," he wrote. Maxwell, 63, was convicted in December 2019 and was [recently moved](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czd049y2qymo) from a Florida prison to a new minimum-security facility in Texas. Last week, [one of her accusers](https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cy853m9993vo) said outside the court in New York that she should stay in prison for the rest of her life. The BBC has reached out to Maxwell's lawyers for comment. Last month, she was interviewed by justice department officials under the Trump administration's directive to gather and release credible evidence relating to the Epstein case. On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to release what are known as "The Epstein Files". But this summer the justice department and FBI said they had concluded that Epstein [did not keep a "client list"](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2m879neljo) and that the justice department would not be making additional files public. In response to the backlash, Trump said Bondi should release "whatever she thinks is credible". Meanwhile, a congressional committee has sent a subpoena to the justice department related to federal investigations into the allegations against Epstein and Maxwell, which go back 20 years. The president, who was friends with Epstein, has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and has said that he and the financier, who died in federal custody while awaiting trial, [fell out in the early 2000s](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyvn7ee3539o).

 Before the 2024 presidential election, both Donald Trump and [JD Vance](https://x.com/TheoVon/status/1945590466441081144?s=31) called for the release of more files related to convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. In its first months in office, the new Trump administration has promised more transparency in government — but it hasn't released any trove of "Epstein files" that supporters have demanded. Epstein was found dead six years ago in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the federal detention facility where he was being held in Manhattan. Officials later concluded he died by suicide — but public skepticism about his death persists. The names of a number of powerful figures have already appeared in documents related to Epstein's case that have been released, including President Trump and former President Bill Clinton, both of whom socialized with Epstein. But as [NPR and other outlets have noted](https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1269546924), appearing in Epstein's flight logs and other records is not an indication of wrongdoing. Many Trump supporters see the unreleased files as an unfulfilled promise. Prominent Republicans from House Speaker Mike Johnson to former Vice President Mike Pence have called for more transparency on the Epstein case, along with influential right-wing conspiracy promoters, including media figures such as Tucker Carlson and Laura Loomer. Here's a brief timeline of the Trump administration's shifting tone and actions on the Epstein case. **Feb. 21:** Attorney General Pam Bondi says the Epstein client list is "sitting on my desk" in an appearance [on Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bondi-says-epstein-client-list-sitting-my-desk-right-now-reviewing-jfk-mlk-files), in response to a question from John Roberts. "The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients? Will that really happen?" Roberts asks Bondi. "It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that," the attorney general replies. Bondi later says she was referring to the Epstein files, not a client list. But her remark has echoed through discussions of the Epstein story so far this year.  **Feb. 27:** The White House gives [binders to far-right influencers](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/right-wing-influencers-get-binders-labeled-the-epstein-files-but-downplay-revelations/) bearing a Department of Justice seal and labels reading, "Epstein Files: Phase 1" and "Declassified." But much of the information turns out to have been released before, and Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, chairwoman of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, [calls it "old info."](https://x.com/realannapaulina/status/1895189727667724442) **July 7:** The Justice Department [releases a memo](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/07/g-s1-76367/doj-jeffrey-epstein-memo) saying it has found "no incriminating 'client list'" for Epstein, contradicting Bondi's February statement. The agency says it turned up more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence. It also states that "Epstein harmed over one thousand victims." But the DOJ says those victims' sensitive information is "intertwined" in the materials and it concludes "no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted." [The memo](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline) addresses several hot topics on social media. In addition to rebutting the notion of a client list, it says there's no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent figures or that his death was anything other than a case of suicide. **July 12:** "We're on one Team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening," Trump [says on Truth Social](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114842356238631061) in response to his supporters' criticisms of Bondi. The president accuses critics of trying to hurt his administration, "all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein." People should let Bondi do her job, Trump says, "and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about." **July 15:** Bondi [refuses to address questions](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/15/g-s1-77698/pam-bondi-jeffrey-epstein-justice-department) about her handling of the Epstein files. Trump voices his support, saying his attorney general has "really done a very good job." Trump also suggests people who are fixated on Epstein should move on: "He's dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is, I really don't. And the credible information's been given."  **July 16:** Trump [lashes out at fellow Republicans](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/17/nx-s1-5470004/a-timeline-of-the-controversy-over-the-administrations-handling-of-the-epstein-files) for fixating on Epstein, calling it a hoax. "It's all been a big hoax. It's perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try and do the Democrats' work," Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office. Trump also [suggests he would approve](https://archive.org/details/KNTV_20250716_190000_NBC_News_Daily/start/347/end/420) of Bondi releasing some Epstein documents if they meet a standard: "Whatever's credible, she can release. If a document is credible, if a document's there that is credible, she can release." As NPR's Dominico Montanaro [later reports](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/25/nx-s1-5479144/trump-epstein-files-politics-maga), it's one of many instances of Trump emphasizing that "credible evidence" from the Epstein records should be shared. **July 17:** Trump [slams _The Wall Street Journal_](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114871422727186590) after the [paper publishes what it says](https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-jeffrey-epstein-birthday-letter-we-have-certain-things-in-common-f918d796?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAh9Z-GWpbL-MlV5bcvgNtd4MHEn7j5Eul-X1DAGHHJEN3tUulwgXVzqFuRYvis%3D&gaa_ts=68a615b0&gaa_sig=bPhWsXB7ZyuZe9Zx3VkL9jF-mYENTVs-2iklPtfRsQVwUzzwScR7qKAgeBxcMWUVgBdsZ9z-ib8A-MhQV1_I7g%3D%3D) is a risqué birthday note Trump wrote to celebrate Epstein's 50th birthday, stating, "the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE." "These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures," Trump [writes on Truth Social](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114871752316281496). **July 18:** Trump files a [defamation lawsuit against _The Wall Street Journal_](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/17/nx-s1-5471583/trump-wall-street-journal-epstein-files-bondi) over its coverage of his relationship with Epstein, including the birthday note that Trump says he didn't write. On the same day, the DOJ [files a motion in the Southern District of New York](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/19/nx-s1-5473430/trump-calls-release-jeffrey-epstein-grand-jury-testimony) to unseal grand jury testimony related to Epstein's 2019 indictment charging him with sex trafficking offenses, citing "extensive public interest" following the agency's July 6 memo. The DOJ later asks to unseal related exhibits, including a PowerPoint presentation and four pages of call logs. The agency files similar motions in New York regarding the criminal case against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime partner who was sentenced to a 20-year prison term, as well as in Florida, where Epstein [agreed to a plea deal](https://www.npr.org/2019/06/25/735804464/jeffrey-epsteins-sex-offender-plea-deal-must-stand-federal-prosecutors-say) with U.S. prosecutors in 2007 over the abuse of minor girls. **July 19:** Trump [posts on Truth Social](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114871557460531003) about his administration's grand jury request, saying he "asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval." **July 22:** Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche [says he is talking with Maxwell's](https://x.com/TheJusticeDept/status/1947670804122001581) [lawyer](https://x.com/TheJusticeDept/status/1947670804122001581) and expects to meet with her, at Bondi's direction. Trump [says he thinks the plan](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/22/nx-s1-5476234/trump-epstein-obama) "sounds appropriate." **July 23:** [_The Wall Street Journal_ reports](https://www.wsj.com/politics/justice-department-told-trump-name-in-epstein-files-727a8038?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAirEPzHvz825UobGqBE6oKSuHx2x1a6ljmfZU0DbaICMd33dGW4aY39UyBYi6Y%3D&gaa_ts=68a612df&gaa_sig=v1TfXlkX5IZhJbdB_hURyPR8DtTA6w5eS3d7pHfvPT_5Zqxef-intr8Sqhe_vJofEdOKDwZVGzVZseiIwKryyQ%3D%3D) that Bondi and other Justice Department officials told Trump in May that his name "is among many in the Epstein files." The newspaper says the officials feel the files contain "unverified hearsay" about hundreds of people, including Trump, who were in the same social orbit as Epstein. The same day, federal judge Robin Rosenberg in Florida [denies release](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/23/nx-s1-5477567/jeffrey-epstein-transcripts-florida) of grand jury transcripts related to Epstein.  **July 24:** Blanche meets with Maxwell in prison for two days, according to [Democratic senators](https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-demands-documents-on-transfer-of-ghislaine-maxwell-to-minimum-security-bureau-of-prisons-facility/). The DOJ says it's mulling whether to release transcripts of their meeting. **July 29:** Trump says he and Epstein [had a falling out](https://www.npr.org/2025/07/29/nx-s1-5484136/trump-jeffrey-epstein-mar-a-lago-ghislaine-maxwell) over Epstein hiring girls from his Mar-a-Lago resort, resulting in Epstein being kicked out. A prominent Epstein accuser, the late Virginia Giuffre, [had said](https://www.npr.org/2025/04/26/g-s1-62856/virginia-giuffre-has-died) she was a teenager working at Mar-a-Lago when she first met Maxwell and Epstein. **Aug. 1**: The Bureau of Prisons says it has moved Maxwell from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Fla., to a women's minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas. **Aug. 5:** The House Oversight Committee [subpoenas the Department of Justice](https://www.npr.org/2025/08/05/nx-s1-5493371/house-oversight-committee-epstein-subpoenas-justice-department) for records related to Epstein and Maxwell. It seeks "all documents and communications relating or referring to" the pair and their respective court cases, setting a deadline of Aug. 19. **Aug. 11:** Federal judge Paul Engelmayer in New York [denies Bondi's request](https://www.npr.org/2025/08/11/nx-s1-5492207/epstein-maxwell-grand-jury-transcripts) to unseal grand jury materials from the Maxwell case, saying most of the records are already public. In a rebuke to the DOJ, the judge adds that an observer "might conclude that the Government's motion for their unsealing was aimed not at 'transparency' but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such." **Aug. 18:** House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., [says the DOJ will send the first batch](https://oversight.house.gov/release/chairman-comer-doj-complying-with-epstein-records-subpoena/) of Epstein documents to the panel on Aug. 22, three days after the committee's original deadline. "It will take the Department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted," Comer says. **Aug. 20:** Federal judge Richard M. Berman denies Bondi's request to unseal records related to the Epstein case in New York, citing longstanding precedents of keeping grand jury proceedings secret and stating that the government did not prove "special circumstances" that might justify unsealing the records. **Aug. 22:** The DOJ is scheduled to begin handing over files to the House Oversight Committee.

For more than six months, [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) and his justice department have insisted they would get to the bottom of [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein)’s crimes, but nine attorneys – who have represented approximately 50 Epstein survivors – told the Guardian they have not been recently contacted by the justice department. The revelation casts doubt on the effort by the [Trump administration](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration) to fully investigate Epstein’s crimes and activities and reveal everything that the government knows about him. It comes as Trump faces intense political pressure, including from his own base, over his social ties to Epstein, who was famed for courting rich and powerful figures into his circle. “There has still been no outreach from the DoJ or members of Congress to me seeking to interview my clients,” said the top civil attorney Gloria Allred, who has represented 27 Epstein survivors. Lisa Bloom, who has represented 11 Epstein survivors, said: “No, haven’t heard anything. As usual the survivors are being ignored in the political battle.” Spencer Kuvin, the chief legal officer of [Goldlaw](https://goldlaw.com/), similarly said there had not been outreach by law enforcement officials or Congress. The House oversight committee has issued subpoenas regarding Epstein and met with some victims earlier this week; the panel did release a tranche of documents the justice department provided pursuant to a subpoena, but virtually none contained new information. “I have heard nothing from the DoJ and they have provided me no updates to give to my clients. I have even sent a letter to the committee chair volunteering to speak with them about the original investigation and litigation. This letter was completely ignored,” Kuvin said. “It is appalling that the federal government is again failing to keep the victims at the center of this investigation. Instead, it appears that all the government is interested in is attempting to whitewash the prior investigation.” Jennifer Freeman, special counsel at Marsh Law Firm, who represents the Epstein survivor Maria Farmer in her suit against the federal government, condemned this apparent lack of outreach, noting the lengthy talk between the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, and the convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. “It is atrocious that the DoJ ignored or dismissed the survivors of Epstein and Maxwell for decades – and that recently, the second in command spent two days coddling known sex abuser Ghislane Maxwell and asking her soft, powder-puff questions instead of conducting a true and proper investigation,” Freeman said. “Not only has the DoJ refused to engage survivors, but they obstructed routine and valid requests for information. In January 2025, in response to a basic Foia \[Freedom of Information Act\] request, the government informed us that they would respond by November 2027 – nearly three years later. That’s abysmal and completely unacceptable.” Attorney Jack Scarola said: “My last contact with the DoJ was during the Maxwell trial while I was representing Carolyn Andriano in her capacity as a principal DoJ witness.” Andriano [died](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/10/17/jeffrey-epstein-survivor-death-overdose-florida-carolyn-andriano/71221137007/) of a drug overdose in May 2023. Another attorney simply said: “Not a word from the DoJ.” The lack of outreach flies in the face of numerous public commitments by Trump and others in his administration to fully and transparently investigate Epstein. “This Department of Justice is following through on President Trump’s commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators,” the US attorney general, Pamela Bondi, [said](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-pamela-bondi-releases-first-phase-declassified-epstein-files) in February as it released some Epstein documents. “The first phase of files released today sheds light on Epstein’s extensive network and begins to provide the public with long overdue accountability.” As it turned out, this February dissemination of files set the stage for a controversy that continues to roil Trump’s presidency; these Epstein documents largely contained information that had already been in the public domain. The disclosure also did not include a purported Epstein client list that has long proved the white whale of [rightwing conspiracy theorists](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/08/rightwing-jeffrey-epstein-client-list) who believe it would show that Epstein plotted with high-profile individuals to traffic teen girls. In July, Bondi [announced](https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline) that her department, and the FBI, would not be releasing more files and claimed that a client list did not exist, stoking still more uproar. Then came the [reporting](https://www.wsj.com/politics/justice-department-told-trump-name-in-epstein-files-727a8038?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAiQ9iSm8gSpo83z-5hu6M7NmrqLceLMcWfIbg1hXKnb97BQsexuHkNYlHly-44%3D&gaa_ts=68b9cb6e&gaa_sig=V1BuWjiHqoGM3rU0hVLYonieM12PwzDITZ2wSi0RVCIaDplPmJDkm3wQA2NvDHaUexjPLyRpYMIPgJ_nruuBnQ%3D%3D) that Bondi informed Trump that his name had appeared multiple times in the Epstein files, dealing yet another political blow to the US president. Justice’s apparent damage control efforts were extensive. They requested the release of [grand jury transcripts](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/30/epstein-maxwell-grand-jury-transcripts) in Epstein’s criminal cases, as well as Maxwell’s proceeding. Legal experts [said](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/17/ghislaine-maxwell-transcripts-epstein-trump) that grand jury transcripts would contain little revelatory information; the requests were ultimately denied. Blanche, [interviewed](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/22/ghislaine-maxwell-transcript-what-we-know) Maxwell who had helped Epstein commit his crimes, in late July. Maxwell was then [moved](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/ghislaine-maxwell-prison-move-epstein-trump) to a low-security prison camp shortly thereafter, infuriating victims. The justice department released transcripts of the Maxwell interview on 22 August but the minutes refused to quell demand for information, as [Blanche’s questions](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/ghislaine-maxwell-epstein-trump) didn’t seem probing on key issues, especially as it related to Trump or those close to him. But still there was a lack of outreach to victims that appears to stand in contrast with traditional investigatory methods. Attorneys said that engaging with survivors was integral to criminal investigations of sexual offenders and those who commit other serious crimes. “If law enforcement was seriously investigating some criminal activity, it seems like the first call that they should make is to the victims and or the victims’ attorneys,” said Eric Faddis, a trial attorney and founder of the Denver firm Varner Faddis, who previously worked as a prosecutor. “You’re getting information from the source, from someone who was present and has firsthand knowledge, and probably has a wealth of information, most of which is likely not public, and some of which may have not been disclosed to anyone at all yet.” Speaking with survivors, rather than limiting inquiries to an accomplice or accomplices, helps better fact-finding, he said. “An accomplice can talk about statements that the alleged culprit made to which a victim may not have been privy. But I think the reciprocal is true, that a victim can talk about firsthand knowledge, whereas sometimes when an accomplice relays information, that information can be colored or biased or conveyed with impure motivations, like to help out the accomplice themselves,” Faddis said. “The victims, they likely don’t have any incentive to fabricate information to their benefit, at least not in the way that an accomplice who’s sitting in a prison cell does.” Lindsay M Goldbrum, a partner at the New York City firm Goddard Law, said that a survivor-centered approach was key. “As an attorney for survivors in other high-profile cases, proactive, trauma-informed outreach from law enforcement is critical. When survivors and their counsel aren’t contacted, it can chill participation and undermine confidence in the process,” Goldbrum said. “I can’t speak to the specifics of the Epstein/Maxwell investigations, but as a matter of practice, engagement matters.” The justice department said “no comment” in an email when asked about victim outreach. Epstein survivors have continued to push for transparency and justice outside the justice department. Several survivors on Wednesday [voiced support](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/03/jeffrey-epstein-files-release-survivors) of a bipartisan resolution to release all Epstein files. Survivors have also taken legal action against the US government for federal law enforcement agencies’ failure to take action against Epstein 20 years ago. Jennifer Plotkin and Jordan Merson of Merson Law, which represents 33 survivors, are pursuing a civil suit over federal law enforcement authorities’ inaction toward allegations against Epstein when survivors started coming forward 20 years ago. Trump’s Department of Justice has pushed to dismiss the lawsuit. “The FBI refuses to accept accountability and continues to fight the dozens of Epstein victims that we represent. Why is the FBI fighting these women when it [acknowledged responsibility](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/apr/23/larry-nassar-settlement-us-justice-department) to the Larry Nassar victims?” Plotkin said. “The government says it wants to move on and forward yet it continues to be adversarial instead of sympathetic.”

[Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/jeffrey-epstein) was a very wealthy man, but exactly how wealthy and where that money came from remains shrouded in mystery. Newly unearthed emails last week shone light on Epstein’s role as freelance client development officer, acting as a channel between political figures and business titans, greasing up the former with lifestyles they could not afford and the latter with avenues of political influence. Exposure of that channel [ended the career](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/11/keir-starmer-sacks-peter-mandelson-over-jeffrey-epstein-revelations) of Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador to the US, provoking a crisis in Britain’s Labour government, after emails showed that Lord Mandelson had steered a $1bn banking deal Epstein’s way and expressed sympathy for Epstein’s 2008 conviction for child sexual procurement. Emails obtained by Bloomberg and others went further, showing that figures in Epstein’s network of billionaires, politicians, celebrities, royalty and intellectuals were assembled into schemes of influence. “Jeffrey was a starfucker,” an acquaintance told the Guardian last week. “Anyone he thought had influence he would try to add to his collection. Mandelson is slippery, and impressed by money, so Jeffrey liked that.” The spheres of influence Epstein created, emails showed, relied simultaneously on access and gifts. [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-09-12/epstein-email-investigation-sheds-light-into-crimes-social-network?srnd=phx-economics-v2) obtained a spreadsheet of expenses that in some cases appeared to sync with emails between Epstein and his former girlfriend and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier’s convicted sex-trafficking co-conspirator. [One expense](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-09-12/epstein-email-investigation-sheds-light-into-crimes-social-network?srnd=phx-economics-v2), dated 21 December 2005, showed a $35,000 watch for “DB” – the same day that Maxwell and Epstein discussed in emails giving Bill Clinton aide Doug Band an Audemars Piguet with the same value. Band has denied receiving any watch. In all, the emails include a spreadsheet itemizing nearly 2,000 gifts, luxury items and payments totaling $1.8m. But the questions about the source of Epstein’s wealth have never been fully resolved. He was worth nearly $600m at his death, thanks mostly to two wealthy billionaire clients – Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner and, later, Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black – as well as Johnson & Johnson heiress Elizabeth “Libet” Johnson, sister of former US ambassador to the UK Woody Johnson. Between his collection of lavish homes in New York, Palm Beach and Paris, two private Caribbean islands, two jets and helicopter, Epstein held nearly $380m in cash and investments, according to his estate. That wealth arrived suddenly. According to associates, until the end of the 90s, Epstein was living in a two-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side close to the river. It was only when Maxwell arrived from London that his lifestyle was dramatically elevated. Epstein moved to a townhouse on 68th Street and later to a 28,000-sq-ft mansion on 71st Street, later transferred to him by Wexner in 2011. Steven Hoffenberg, a former business partner of Epstein convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, claimed that Maxwell’s father, disgraced press baron Robert Maxwell, introduced his daughter to Epstein in the late 1980s[.](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article262299392.html) [A 2022 Miami Herald exposé](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article262299392.html) showed complex Maxwell family transactions passing through companies in Jersey, the British Virgin Islands and Panama that it called “a decades-long modus operandi of financial deception”. In a 2013 corporate filing, Epstein described himself as “an experienced and successful financier and businessman”, an “entrepreneur who has built several highly profitable companies” and “one of the pioneers of derivative and option-based investing”. Of the more than $800m in revenue Wexner and Black brought in from 1999 to 2018, according to financial statements obtained by the New York Times, Epstein – who was neither a licensed tax attorney nor a certified public accountant – collected at least $490m in fees. According to Forbes, the two businessmen supplied close to 75% of Epstein’s fee income during that period. Court records from a 2022 case brought against one of Epstein’s banks, JPMorgan Chase, show that Epstein’s US Virgin Islands-based companies were his only “revenue-generating” companies from 1999 to his death in 2019. Under the territories’ economic development program, Epstein is estimated to have saved $300m in taxes between 1999 and 2018. A 2023 [report](https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/as-trump-sits-on-key-epstein-files-wyden-lays-out-follow-the-money-investigation-for-doj) by the then Senate finance committee chair, Ron Wyden, found Black paid Epstein $170m “for purported tax and estate planning advice”. Black has not been accused of wrongdoing. He said in a 2020 earnings call that he “deeply regretted” his association with Epstein. A report from global law firm [Dechert](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1411494/000119312521016405/d118102dex991.htm) found “no evidence that Black … was involved in any way with Epstein’s criminal activities”. [Wexner claimed](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/08/victorias-secret-billionaire-says-jeffrey-epstein-stole-46m-of-his-money-report) after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that Epstein had “misappropriated” more than $46m of his personal fortune and said in a letter to L Brand employees: “I know now that my trust in him was grossly misplaced and I deeply regret having ever crossed his path.” But by 2006, with Wexner’s patronage at an end, Epstein’s Financial Trust Company, which had generated $300m in fees, generated less than $5m over five years. His 2008 conviction dealt a further blow and he returned to New York to salvage his reputation and business. [ Epstein 50th birthday book: who is in it and what did they say? ](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/09/epstein-50th-birthday-book-who-is-in-it-and-what-did-they-say-donald-trump-bill-clinton-peter-mandelson) [The New York Times reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/08/magazine/jeffrey-epstein-jp-morgan.html) last week that despite internal red flags about suspicious cash withdrawals and transfers, JPMorgan Chase continued to consider Epstein a treasured customer with more than $200m in accounts. Perhaps more importantly, he unofficially served as a client developer for the private wealth management division. JPMorgan Chase has described its ties to Epstein as “a mistake”. Epstein introduced bank executives to some figures who would become clients, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and to global leaders, such as Israeli prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu](https://www.theguardian.com/world/benjamin-netanyahu), Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Emirati billionaire Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. Epstein received a $15m fee for smoothing the sale of a $1.3bn stake in Glenn Dubin’s $7bn Highbridge Capital Management hedge fund to the bank. Epstein’s connections were by then more valuable than his wealth. Epstein’s main connection to the bank was Jes Staley, later CEO of Barclays, who was found by UK regulators to have [misled them](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/12/ex-barclays-boss-jes-staley-faces-potential-fine-uk-over-jeffrey-epstein-ties) about his ties to Epstein. Conspiracy theories that Epstein was blackmailing his wealthy connections, snaring them in honeytraps that included models brought into the US, including by Jean-Luc Brunel, founder of MC2 Model Management, who – like Epstein – died in prison while awaiting trial on sex crimes charges, have not come to fruition. But wherever the Epstein scandal goes next, and whomever else it brings down, Epstein moves like a zombie through the upper echelons of wealth and politics. “He operated a circle with many points of entry,” says the acquaintance, “but now he’s like a wrecking ball rolling across countries.”