Conspiracy catnip

Jeffrey Epstein is still causing trouble for Donald Trump

His administration cannot shake rumours of a cover-up—in part because MAGA types enthusiastically endorsed it

Jul 10, 2025 03:26 PM

ONE OF DONALD TRUMP’S superpowers is saying something one moment, contradicting it the next and convincing most of the MAGA faithful that he has never changed his position. Other members of his administration do not possess this power, which is why they are struggling to deal with a right-wing furore surrounding the late Jeffrey Epstein. Before joining the government, a number of high-ranking officials claimed that the deep state was withholding explosive information about Epstein, a convicted paedophile, and his links to important people. Now that they are the state, they have had to admit it is all nonsense. On July 7th the Department of Justice (DoJ) said there was no secret information to release. But nothing convinces a conspiracy theorist of a cover-up like saying “nothing to see here”.

The Epstein affair had the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory. He was a rich financier with a Jewish surname and powerful acquaintances, including Bill Clinton, a former president, and Prince Andrew, a British royal. He was also a paedophile whom the state treated leniently. In 2008 he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison but served less than 13, during which he was outside the prison walls six days a week to work. Allegations that he brought children to his private island using a jet known to the press as the “Lolita Express” kept the grim gossip mill turning. The chatter among conspiracy theorists reached a new level when, in 2019, Epstein hanged himself in prison. He had been awaiting a new trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

The conspiracies mainly focused on two things: whether Epstein had actually been murdered and whether he had a “client list”—a “Who’s Who” of paedophiles at the top of society. Information about both, claimed conspiracists, was being suppressed by the state. Future members of the Trump administration encouraged and even engaged in these speculations. In 2021 J.D. Vance, now the vice-president, implied that the government was protecting Epstein’s “clients”. Kash Patel, now head of the FBI, told Congress in 2023 to “put on your big-boy pants” and release the list. Mr Trump himself implied that Mr Clinton was tangled up in the Epstein affair.

Some of this talk continued even after Mr Trump was elected for the second time. In February Pam Bondi, the attorney-general, claimed to have Epstein’s client list “sitting on my desk right now”. She made a big show of inviting MAGA social-media influencers to the White House to receive “The Epstein Files: Phase 1”. Little in the documents was new. The administration and the influencers were roundly mocked by other conspiracy theorists. Ms Bondi blamed the FBI for withholding documents. She continued to advertise grand revelations. In May she spoke of a previously unheard of stash of “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn”.

As a result, when the DoJ announced that, actually, there was no “client list” and that Mr Epstein killed himself, much of the internet’s ire was directed at Ms Bondi. A number of faithful Trump supporters have called for her to be fired, including Laura Loomer, a far-right media personality with the president’s ear. And the government’s denials have only fuelled more Epstein conspiracy theories.

A few people—including Elon Musk, the president’s former adviser and “first buddy”—have claimed that the government is not releasing more documents on Epstein because Mr Trump’s name is in them. Mr Trump’s ties to Epstein are well known: they first met in the 1980s and have been neighbours, friends and rivals. The president’s superpower has come in handy amid the saga. In 2002 Mr Trump thought Epstein was a “terrific guy”; in 2019, after Epstein was arrested, the president said he “was not a fan”.

Mr Trump might still worry that, if attention is drawn to his relationship with Epstein, it will damage his reputation with his base. The president seems eager to put it all in the past. “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” he asked on July 8th, in response to a reporter’s question directed at Ms Bondi. “Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.” Perhaps if members of his own administration had not already spread so much nonsense about Epstein, the din wouldn’t be so loud. ■