Trump Might Not Actually Wriggle His Way Out of This One

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On July 6, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a public memo, in conjunction with the FBI, officially declaring that the notorious financial broker and serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had, in fact, died by suicide, contra the widespread assumption that he’d been murdered. Further, the Department of Justice added, he kept no blackmail-ready “client list” of rich and famous friends, and “no further disclosure” regarding Epstein was warranted, since it was interspersed with “sensitive information” from the “over one thousand victims” whom Epstein had sexually assaulted or trafficked.

What happened next was an unmitigated shit show for MAGA world. As some administration members had reportedly feared, these findings became an immediate source of high-octane controversy with influential far-right figures like Elon Musk and the MyPillow guy—not least since Bondi herself had told Fox News, in late February, that the purportedly nonexistent client list was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” On Friday, the anti-Bondi and pro–white nationalist influencer Laura Loomer sent out a series of tweets on how the FBI’s most senior officers, Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, were “LIVID” with Bondi over her handling of the Epstein matter, leading Bongino to take the day off work in frustration.

Over the weekend, Donald Trump addressed the matter in a characteristically lengthy, and whiny, Truth Social post imploring followers to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.” Trump’s post quickly received a deluge of replies from his disaffected followers, undermining the case that “nobody cares about” Epstein and presaging a wider fissure that opened up between two sides of MAGA world: those, like Ben Shapiro, who either ignored the matter or reiterated Trump’s point that the Epstein files were a nonissue, versus those, like Alex Jones, who view the DOJ memo as the greatest betrayal since Brutus.

If you’re puzzled by all of this, or wondering whether it really matters (spoiler: it does), here’s a thorough breakdown of the ongoing mess known as “the Epstein List.”

Were people really expecting Trump to release all the Epstein files? Isn’t he kinda implicated, being an old Epstein friend and all?

Throughout his reelection campaign, Trump consistently distanced himself from his past associations with Epstein. That sufficed to clear him in the eyes of Epstein-curious right-wingers, who simply ignored allegations that Trump groped a model in front of Epstein in 1993 and had stayed close with the well-connected hedge funder long after his crimes started coming to light.

Still, the deceased serial rapist remained a subject of fascination with Trump’s base. Tucker Carlson repeatedly asked the candidate whether he thought Epstein could have been murdered, even as the former president demurred on a clear answer. On a Fox & Friends Weekend panel (which, incidentally, featured current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth), co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Trump whether he would “restore trust” in the FBI by declassifying “the Epstein files”; the president answered that “I guess I would” release more Epstein info but warned of the potential for “phony stuff.” Months later, Lex Fridman complained that “the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public”—referring to Epstein’s private properties near the U.S. Virgin Islands, where he allegedly trafficked young girls—and asked whether Trump would be “able to” fix that should he be reelected, which Trump said would be “no problem.”

Campaign surrogate Don Jr. further stoked things by tweeting nonstop about Epstein, railing against the justice system for prosecuting his father while “trying to protect those pedophiles” on Epstein’s list. Elon Musk, who’d tweeted about the client list as far back as 2022, told Tucker Carlson that Trump opponents were driven by fear that the Republican would release “that Epstein client list” if reelected. And running mate J.D. Vance, whose belated conversion to the far right was accompanied by a flurry of Epstein-related tweets, said on Theo Von’s podcast that the Epstein list was “an important thing.”

What specific “client list” is everyone talking about? Haven’t we already known that a bunch of celebrities were friends with Epstein?

Indeed, we’ve known since at least 2015 that notable Americans like Trump, Bill Clinton, and Larry Summers had flown with Epstein on his private jet, thanks to flight logs that surfaced in various lawsuits from his accusers. More documents detailing Epstein’s celebrity network—like his “little black book,” testimony from Epstein’s pilot and from his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and federal court filings unsealed in 2019 and 2024—have also surfaced publicly over the years. But there’s something more specific that Epstein followers are looking for when they refer to the list: a thorough rundown of which people hadn’t just associated with Epstein, but had raped or received massages from girls and women whom he’d trafficked for their pleasure (and whose misdeeds he’d then recorded for the purposes of blackmail.)

While the documents do contain specific sex-crime allegations against some of the many people mentioned within, they do not indicate that such a detailed and damning “client list” exists. Yet rumors to that effect have circled the web ever since the first set of publicized flight logs, and they were supercharged with the rise of QAnon, the conspiracy theory that Trump was first elected to crush a “deep state” cabal of pedophiles that was run by major figures from Hollywood and the Democratic Party—you know, like the Clintons. So even though Epstein had plenty of conservatives in his circle (e.g., David Koch, Les Wexner), the troubling presence of various Democrats and celebrities across all the public documents (e.g., Clinton, Ted Kennedy, John Glenn, Kevin Spacey, Matt Groening) has always been proof positive for Q believers, like Kash Patel. (It should be noted that just about everyone named in these documents has denied participation in Epstein’s crimes. In fact, Spacey demanded on Tuesday that the “files” be released.)

In fairness to the keyboard detectives, the fact that so many powerful people have had such close associations with an ultrapredator like Epstein is quite disturbing. But after Trump left office, the fabled “Epstein client list” became the basis for some truly unhinged beliefs. In late 2022, Balenciaga launched an ad campaign featuring two photos of girls holding teddy bears in bondage gear; one of those pictures also happened to include a printout of a 2008 Supreme Court decision about child pornography. The backlash to the photos soon curdled into baseless claims that Balenciaga employees were on the Epstein client list. In subsequent years, out-of-context document screenshots and social media conjecture would lead the same conspirators to extend the rumored list of Epstein clientele to include Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks, among others.

Well, I feel ill. And the Trump admin now agrees that the client list isn’t a thing?

Indeed. And Bondi, Patel, and Bongino can only blame themselves for stepping into this, as they were fervent advocates for releasing the “list” long before Trump’s reelection.

On Feb. 27, Bondi invited over a dozen far-right influencers to the White House and handed them yuge binders carrying the DOJ seal and the title “The Epstein Files, Part 1.” But it was all a nothingburger: Most of the information within the new files was already revealed in prior documentation, and the binder papers were heavily redacted—hardly a “declassification.” Right-wingers were outraged, with Laura Loomer calling for the attorney general she nicknamed “Blondi” to resign immediately.

Bondi must have known that binder didn’t have the “Epstein list” they were asking for, right?

Presumably, though some right-wingers were more generous to her than Loomer. One of the binder recipients insinuated that the conspiracy was even deeper than imagined, and that shadowy forces had deceived Bondi and Patel and Trump. To stave off the heat, Bondi released a letter she’d written to Kash Patel on the same date, accusing him of withholding files. In turn, Patel tweeted a pledge that “There will be no cover-ups, no missing documents.”

Sounds like they were all trying to find the guy who did this.

Indeed, and their job wasn’t getting any easier. In May, Bondi made a cryptic remark about the DOJ investigating “tens of thousands of videos” of Epstein “with children or child porn,” a statement that she refused to elaborate on. That same month, Patel and Bongino made a joint appearance on Fox News to gravely declare their newfound belief that Epstein was not murdered, by the Clintons or by anyone else. And in early June, Elon Musk’s falling-out with Trump led to his sensational accusation that the president “is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.” (Musk later deleted the tweet and apologized.) And then came the memo, which really tore the MAGA coalition apart. In addition to the “client list” debunking, the DOJ and FBI attached 10 hours of enhanced video recorded outside Epstein’s jail cell on the night he killed himself—but it didn’t show Epstein’s actual cell door, and it was missing a minute of footage from just before midnight. Naturally, this fueled even more memes and conspiracy theories across X. [Update, July 15, 2025, at 4:35 p.m.: After publication, Wired reported that metadata from the video file revealed that nearly three minutes of footage had been edited out of the tape released to the public. The FBI declined to comment.]

At a press conference, Bondi explained that the missing minute was the result of an automatic camera reset. Trump, who was clearly exasperated, blew up at a reporter who further pressed on the issue: “I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein at a time like this.” Then came his limp kumbaya on Truth Social, in which he asked what was “going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals,’ ” defended Bondi, accused that Democrats “created the Epstein Files,” dismissed the infighting, and insisted that Patel stick to relitigating the 2020 election.

OK, yeah, it seems they kinda brought this upon themselves. What sides are MAGA voters taking here?

There are myriad strains of right-wing cope and despair around this development. I’ll classify a few of the major ones here:

• Caring about Epstein is soooooo 2019: These are the real Trump die-hards—the people who may have previously raised a stink about the list, but are content with the Trump administration’s explanation and think it’s time for everyone to move on. These true believers include Ben Shapiro, James Woods, conservative publisher Roger Kimball, and Charlie Kirk (who only backed down after getting a scolding phone call from the president, per CNN).

• Trump needs to purge his team: This is basically the Loomer tack—that Bondi should be fired because she’s withholding the truth from the FBI and the American people. That being said, some other folks in this camp, like conservative commentator Patrick Bet-David, also think Patel and Bongino are to blame. No matter what, Trump himself is off the hook. Subscribers include Catturd, Steve Bannon, Sean Strickland, Robby Starbuck, Texas Sen. John Kennedy, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, and Epstein-binder recipients Liz Wheeler and Jack Posobiec.

• There’s an Israeli connection: A longtime theory that Epstein formerly collected intelligence for Israel’s Mossad agency has flared up again, fueling speculation that the Trump administration is again covering for Israel—despite former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s unequivocal denial. Truthers include Megyn Kelly, Benny Johnson, Tucker Carlson, and Alex Jones.

• Trump let us all down: And for some MAGA types, this represents a wholesale disillusionment with Trump. It’s not irreparable, but it’s close. These rebels include Elon Musk (who’s also claiming that Bannon is in “the Epstein Files”), Joe Rogan, Mike Cernovich, X influencer David Freeman, Heritage Foundation fellow Michael McKenna, and tens of thousands of aggrieved Truth Social posters—including a Jan. 6 participant.

Wow, OK. So … what happens next?

That likely depends on how things develop at the FBI and DOJ over the next few days. Bongino has reportedly returned to work after interventions from Trump and Vance, although his future with the department remains fuzzy. Meanwhile, TV host Lara Trump is attempting to keep the MAGA base mollified by promising yet more revelations to come. Alan Dershowitz, who’d represented both Epstein and Trump as a lawyer, told a San Antonio news station this Sunday that Epstein “never kept a client list”—only to be reminded of the time he told Sean Spicer in March that he knew “the names of the individuals” on the list.

Still, it’s not likely the Trump admin can evade this. Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s most reliable allies and attack dogs, is pissed, and she agrees with Bannon that this could wreak steep damage upon the Republican Party as a whole. Podcasters like Tim Pool are still posting frequent clips about the case. And House Democrats are now seizing upon the issue, having introduced an amendment (to … a crypto bill) that would force the release of “the Epstein files.” Republicans on the Rules Committee killed it on Monday night, and no one in MAGA is happy about that—even if some, like Pool, think the Dems are just pulling a stunt. And yet, on Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker Mike Johnson told podcaster Benny Johnson (no relation), that while he thinks Bondi “has done a good job,” she “needs to come forward and explain” what’s going on with the files.

It took years for the “Epstein list” to capture the MAGA imagination. And unfortunately for Trump, that’s not going to dissipate. If he purges the DOJ and FBI, firing Bondi and maybe even Patel, that would please some of the conspiracists for a while—but then they would still expect a transparent release of the “Epstein list.” The longer that list remains out of reach, the more disgruntled they will become, and the more his delicate coalition will splinter.

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