A number of Trump administration officials spent six years nurturing conspiracy theories surrounding the life and death of Jeffrey Epstein. On Monday, the administration abandoned its promise to release new information about the case, enraging MAGA influencers in the process.
Epstein was a convicted sex offender and disgraced financier who mingled with powerful political, business and world figures as he abused hundreds of victims. After his arrest in 2019, authorities reported that he died by suicide inside his New York City jail cell. Theories and speculation that his death involved foul play steadily circulated online in the six years since then and even earned buy-in from now-President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Billionaire Elon Musk claimed in June that the release was delayed because Trump was named in the Epstein files, further stoking skepticism among MAGA supporters.
Earlier this year, officials paraded a group of 15 social media personalities around the White House with binders reading “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.” Several of the personalities involved, including Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, had risen to prominence in part by hawking false conspiracy claims about Democrats engaging in child sex abuse. But any initial excitement MAGA fans felt was quickly snuffed out as the influencers realized that none of the information they were given was new. The debacle was remembered among terminally online Trump fans as “Bindergate.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel issued a press release stating they possessed “thousands” more documents and that they would be made public after a review for sensitive information that could harm Epstein’s victims further. In the statement, Patel promised there would be “no cover-ups, no missing documents, and no stone left unturned.” Bondi excited Trump fans further when she appeared to confirm the existence of a long-rumored “client list” that online conspiracists believe Epstein kept, telling a Fox News host that it was sitting on her desk to review. (At a press briefing Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt seemed to imply that Bondi’s previous comments were misunderstood. During a campaign meeting Tuesday, Bondi insisted she had only been referring to the Epstein case file, and not an Epstein “client list.”)
Months passed by with few updates. Then in May, Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino caught flak from MAGA supporters after saying they agreed with initial assessments that Epstein died by suicide. Billionaire Elon Musk claimed in June that the release was delayed because Trump was named in the Epstein files, further stoking skepticism among MAGA supporters.
When the FBI sent a two-page unsigned memo to the DOJ on Monday stating that it found no basis to release any more material, that a “client list” did not exist, and that Epstein did not blackmail individuals who may have participated in acts of child sex abuse with him, MAGA influencers raged in betrayal.
Influencers who participated in the February binder stunt at the White House fumed at the news. Rogan O’Handley, who goes by “DC Draino” online and has 2.2 million followers on X, claimed the Trump administration was engaged in a “shameful coverup to protect the most heinous elites.” Posobiec remarked that it was “incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been.” Cernovich urged Trump to “change” the situation: “No one is believing the Epstein coverup … This will be part of your legacy.”
Chaya Raichik, who runs the controversial account Libs of TikTok, shared several posts from other influencers accusing the FBI and the DOJ of empathizing “more for the predators than the victims,” questioning why “one minute is missing” in security footage from the jail Epstein was housed in, and alleging that “other dark forces” were involved in the decision to quash the release of new documents. Liz Wheeler, a BlazeTV personality, called for Trump to fire Bondi, claiming she had become a “liability to this administration.” Collin Rugg, a pro-Trump news aggregator, called the DOJ announcement “a complete disaster.” (Also during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Bondi explained the Bureau of Prisons told her that “every night the video is reset, and every night should have the same minute missing…So we’re looking for that video to release that as well to show that a minute is missing every night. And that’s it on Epstein.”)
Other prominent conspiracist MAGA stars also shared their anger. Laura Loomer called on Bondi to resign “for lying to the American People.” Alex Jones, creator of the conspiracist media empire Infowars, said in a video posted on X that the two-page memo made him want to throw up, and he appeared to be choking back tears.
Laura Loomer called on Bondi to resign ‘for lying to the American People.’
Political leaders have pandered to constituencies with extreme prejudices and conspiratorial beliefs for centuries, but most would employ coded language to preserve a sense of plausible deniability and insulate themselves from the fallout that their ugliest excesses invite. Comparatively, the MAGA movement has traded history’s dog whistles for its own train horns, explicitly courting social media personalities who traffic in hate, extremism and conspiracy theories, and doing so at levels in national politics that were previously unthinkable.
The Trump administration’s failure to reveal hidden truths in the Epstein case illustrates the extreme political risks that those unsubtle relationships carry. Extremist movements need a supply of ready scapegoats to keep their propaganda churning, and when a sympathetic political movement advances into power it can quickly find itself taking on friendly fire.
Conspiracy theorists are prone to double down on their beliefs when confronted with answers that offend their imaginations. We expect most of the MAGA conspiracists to crawl back to Trump in time; they risk losing their access and audience if they are seen as betraying him. But situations like the Epstein debacle pose a real threat to members of the Trump administration over time. Even if their social media allies forgive them, their audience may identify Trump and his Cabinet as the new “deep state.”
Jared Holt
Jared Holt is a reporter and researcher who studies hate and extremist movements in the United States and their relationships to the internet.