Earlier this week, the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that sexual predator and financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while incarcerated in New York in 2019.
The memo summarizing this further explained, “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. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
This has caused a bit of a headache for the Trump administration, as key figures of the administration had long stoked conspiracies about Epstein, who hung around many wealthy and influential people.
The precise nature of the conspiracy narratives varied, but commonly entailed Epstein taking influential elites to a private island to have sex with trafficked minors and women and he was killed to protect his powerful clients.
Consistent with this belief, in February, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi herself said the Epstein client list was right on her desk.
“It’s sitting on my desk right now to review,” Bondi told Fox Host John Roberts. “That’s been a directive by President Trump.”
Right-wing social media figures were even invited to the White House to receive binders with covers saying “Epstein Files: Phase 1,” which further fueled speculation about what was going to come.
Would we find out that [insert the name of your most hated political figure] was a pedophile?
It was all so exciting for people convinced the truth was going to come from the Trump administration.
But over the last couple of months, it became clear things weren’t going to go as smoothly as conspiracists hoped.
FBI director Kash Patel answered a question from Republican Sen. John Kennedy during a hearing in early May about whether Epstein indeed killed himself.
“Senator I believe he hung himself in a cell in the Metropolitan Detention Center,” Patel responded. Patel later went on the Joe Rogan podcast and further elaborated that there wasn’t evidence Epstein was murdered.
This was awkward, considering Patel engaged in conspiracy peddling before becoming FBI director. In one of his podcasts, he said of Trump, “He’s going to come in there and maybe give them the Epstein list, and maybe the P. Diddy list.”
Quite generous.
And then there’s Fox pundit-turned-FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, who in 2023 told his listeners, “Listen, that Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal. Please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on this.”
Bongino also once relayed a story he heard from a “very very good reporter” that Epstein was a foreign intelligence asset whose plane was wired for blackmail purposes.
With this cast of characters — Bondi, Patel and Bongino — and all the things they said, it’s no wonder people were hopeful that “the truth” would come out and many are now upset and convinced of a cover-up.
How far will this anger go? Who knows.
President Donald Trump, who incidentally was photographed a time or two with Epstein, has been a notable exception in MAGA world in repeatedly shutting down conspiracy theories about Epstein. In 2023, he told Tucker Carlson he thought Epstein killed himself and this past week notably shut down a reporter who asked about Epstein. “Are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable,” Trump said.
Some in MAGA world have done the necessary gymnastics in response. Republican Sen. Mike Lee posted on X last year, “Yet another good reason to vote for Trump. Americans deserve to know why Epstein didn’t kill himself.”
Then, on Tuesday, the same Mike Lee posted on X, “I have full faith in Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, and Pam Bondi…and no faith in the Biden administration.”
Funny how that works.
We got to see the cognitive dissonance of Juanita Broaddrick (yes, that Juanita Broaddrick, who has 1.8 million followers on X now) worked out on X in one post: “It’s hard to believe Epstein really killed himself and trust Kash and Dan at the same time. Therefore , I choose to trust Kash and Dan. The subject is now closed for me.”
It’s amazing how minds work.
To be sure, there have been a few other creative explanations among those not quite willing to let things go, including the idea that Trump does indeed have the client list and is using it to blackmail the evil people on it for the betterment of America.
Others, meanwhile, have pointed the figure at Bondi, Patel and/or Bongino, who, according to conspiracy theorists, have been compromised. In the most amusing of these stories, some have speculated that there’s no way Kash Patel’s 20-something-year-old girlfriend could possibly be with him for any reason other than to dissuade him from releasing the truth.
And sure, some, particularly conspiracy theorists not on the right, think Trump was on the client list and that’s why the feds came to the conclusion they did.
It’s not likely this conspiracy theory will go away, considering how many Americans believe in some variant of a conspiracy. In 2019, pollster Rasmussen found that only 29% of Americans believed Epstein committed suicide and 42% thought Epstein was murdered to prevent him from testifying. Widely held conspiracy theories like that don’t just go away.
Think of the enduring conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassinations, vaccines, water fluoridation — you know, all the things that keep United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. up at night. Or the conspiracy theories that have shaped our discourse over the last decade, from the Russians stealing the election for Trump in 2016 to George Soros or whoever stealing the 2020 election for Biden.
Other than helping fuel the toxic populist stew that’s already boiled over and taken over American politics, I don’t know what the lingering impact of the Epstein conspiracy theories will be, but I know it will linger.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com