The Trump administration completely failed the hyped release of “The Jeffrey Epstein Files” on Thursday. This led to a disappointment amongst the loyal Maga admirers, fingering among Trump's aides, and, surprisingly, claims of deep national sabotage.
Epstein, a well-connected investor who was charged with a minor sex trafficking girl and died in prison in 2019, believes that for a long time the US government has hidden information relating to powerful people (specifically Democrats and celebrities).
In response to these requests, Attorney General Pam Bondy promised that “many information” will soon be released with the emergence of Fox News Wednesday night.
Then, on Thursday, her team printed a series of documents, put them in binders and handed them over to right-wing “influencers” like Chaya Raichik (@libsoftiktok), who was visiting the White House. The influencer began waving binders about this sex trafficking case in front of the photographer, and made a social media post with a smile celebrating the administration's transparency.
Naturally, the document was fraudulent. One (Epstein's contact information) was published by Gawker 10 years ago. Another (his list of massages) has been fully edited. And others had previously been released at the 2021 trial of Epstein Associate Gislaine Maxwell. There was nothing new here.
It was all handled so incompetently that widespread, bipartisan ock laughs continued on social media. Meanwhile, the loyal people in Maga have denied the revelation of the promise and began to feel they were taken for a ride, and were they actually part of the cover-up?
So Bondi got caught up in action to exert fierce damage control. The conservative influencer was given a letter from Bondi to FBI Director Kash Patel, who claimed that Bondi wanted all the Epstein documents, but it was late that the FBI's New York field office had withheld thousands of pages. Bondi demanded that they be handed over and ordered Patel to “immediately investigate why my orders to the FBI were not compliant.”
Certainly, the FBI may have more Epstein documents than the few people released by the Trump administration, but it is unclear whether Bondi's claims about FBI misconduct are valid or whether they are her attempts to get out of liability for the PR catastrophe.
Why is the rights so stubborn to Jeffrey Epstein?
Epstein is a very wealthy investor, with many famous friends, and he often flew to private islands by his plane. He has also been repeatedly accused of sexual abuse in criminal and civil lawsuits, including a minor girl of sexual trafficking and sexual abuse.
Epstein's documented story is odd and awful, but on both the left and right, many argue that the plot must go far deeper. Did he have a secret sex horror email to powerful and influential people (politicians, celebrities) who were also involved in the abuse of minor girls? How did he make money? Did he work for the Intelligence Agency? Was he actually murdered in a shadowy conspiracy to prevent him from telling him what he knows?
In particular, online rights stick to what they call “Epstein List.” This is an imaginary document that appears to cite famous people who are conspirators of sexual offences. Online rights hope this will be evidence of the promised smoking gun. This makes it uncontroversial that their political enemies are perverted criminals, who will be embarrassed and likely to be arrested forever. (President Donald Trump was photographed with Epstein and publicly praised Epstein as a “great man” who “looks to the young side” and “loves beautiful women”, but his theory has not been featured.)
So it is now the latest variation on the old hat “canon” theory, claiming that evidence of a deep national conspiracy to protect democratic pedophiles is imminent. (It may be said that Democrats' hopes for Trump's “pee tape” will serve a similar role.
How long can Trump officials be tied down online?
The attention that Bondi and Patel are dedicated to such issues is merely the latest indication of how obsessed Trump's new administration is, by pleasing so much online rights. And their attempts at damage control show how worried they are about losing their reputation on the base.
But it also raises the question of how they can escape with the theory of conspiracy that somehow promises not to end before determining that the base is full of it. Bondi's current strategy is to blame the deep state on concealment, but how long does it work?
