A large segment of President Donald Trump‘s base in the MAGA movement appears unwilling, despite the President’s wishes, to let the Trump administration slide on its promises to release the so-called Epstein Files — material related to the case of the late convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein.
In its calls for government transparency on the Epstein case, MAGA finds itself aligned with myriad Democratic lawmakers who also believe the administration’s apparent reversal indicates that it has something to hide. Trump, of course, was famously associated with Epstein decades ago, when Epstein was sometimes a guest at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Democrats like Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) below are demanding the full release of what the government knows about Epstein’s associates — or what conservative media has labeled the trafficker’s “client list.”
In a case making strange bedfellows in a politically polarized time, Lieu’s request tracks with demands by such rightwing figures as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who surprised — and impressed — many MAGA loyalists with her insistence that Epstein’s case remained relevant and important, despite what the President has said.
BREAKING: In a stunning moment, Rep. Ted Lieu blasts Trump and Pam Bondi for covering up the Epstein case. “This is a case of the powerful protecting the powerful. “What is Bondi hiding? She needs to release the Epstein files.”
Expose the coverup.pic.twitter.com/kjvFBnNCFi
— Really American
(@ReallyAmerican1) July 15, 2025
As Lieu said, Attorney General Pam Bondi is at the center of the storm, having recently indicated that the so-called client list was on her desk and that revelations were imminent — before reversing course. “What is Attorney General Bondi hiding?” Lieu asked.
Claiming that he also talked about the Epstein files when Joe Biden was president, Lieu said this is a “case of the powerful protecting the powerful and we need to have those files released.”
Lieu also targeted President Trump directly. “I also know,” Lieu said, “that the Epstein files that have already been released show that Trump is all over the files. He’s in multiple pictures with Jeffrey Epstein, he’s in multiple videos with Jeffrey Epstein. There are plane logs of Trump on Epstein’s plane. There are statements by Trump about Epstein. There are court pleadings of alleged victims of Epstein naming Trump.”
[NOTE: Bondi now claims that there is no Epstein “client list” — after a statement she made earlier was interpreted to mean it was in her possession. A DOJ memo also states that the convicted sex offender died by suicide while detained in 2019, an assertion many in the MAGA movement find questionable.]
To MAGA, the Epstein reversal shakes the foundation of trust in the administration according to the words of Trump’s own Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who said last year that an Epstein cover-up was necessarily a symptom of an epidemic of lies.
“If you’re lying about that,” Bongino said on his popular MAGA podcast, “you’re lying about everything.”
Like Greene, Tucker Carlson is another MAGA figure who isn’t giving a pass to the administration, and whose coverage of the situation echoes Bongino’s dire assertion.
Why is Pam Bondi’s Justice Department covering up Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and murder? Saagar Enjeti has a theory.
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(13:34) The Dark… pic.twitter.com/MkkscleGoQ— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 8, 2025