Proudly holding their shiny binders titled “the Epstein files Phase 1” outside the White House, MAGA influencers believed they had the real deal.
Donald Trump’s new Attorney General ,Pam Bondi, had vowed to release the Epstein files after taking over the Justice Department, but the process has been hit with delays and excuses, including claims that she was “misled.”
In a possible bid to get MAGA off her back, Bondi invited right-wing personalities – including commentator Liz Wheeler, Chaya Raichik, who is the person behind the prolific “Libs of TikTok” X account, Republican activist Scott Presler and conservative commentator Rogan O’Hanley to name a few – down to the White House on February 27 to see the files for themselves.
They hoped that the files might shed light on one of the most sinister figures in American public life – and those who may have taken part in his crimes.
Jeffrey Epstein – a financier with a taste for the high life and his own private island – was once a friend to the rich, famous and powerful, counting presidents, royals, Hollywood stars and celebrity lawyers among his acquaintances. But he was also a child sex offender. In 2008 he was convicted in Florida of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. In 2019 he was being held on charges of sex trafficking minors when he died by suicide in a New York jail cell.
None of the Epstein “clients” suspected of taking part in the sexual exploitation of girls and young women with him have ever been brought to justice; only one person – his former confidante Ghislaine Maxwell – has ever been charged or convicted.
So hopes were high that Bondi’s release of the files would finally help expose a network of abusers who had so far escaped culpability.
It turned out to be nothing more than a PR stunt because the binders mostly contained information already in the public domain. The farcical episode ignited even more rage on the right – and some on the left – as prominent MAGA commentators furiously lashed out on Elon Musk’s X platform.
“There is one person who takes the blame for what happened today. It’s @PamBondi,” Laura Loomer fumed. “I think she should resign. She went on Fox News and said the files were on her desk. Then she went on Fox News last night and said we would have files today. She is a total liar.”
Bondi has since blocked Loomer on X, according to the right-wing activist.
“GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR instead of leaking old info to press,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna also demanded.
The saga of the Epstein files has captivated the MAGA movement and now President Donald Trump’s attorney general finds herself in the unenviable position of facing their wrath.
The Independent asked academics who have studied MAGA and conspiracy theories why the movement is so obsessed with the release of the documents.
“There are a couple of factors at play here,” said John Kane, clinical associate professor at NYU’s School of Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs, citing what scholars call a “conspiracy mentality.”
“Essentially, this is a predisposition to believing that small groups of powerful people control virtually everything and keep ‘the Truth’ hidden from ordinary people,” Kane said. “Epstein’s status, horrific behavior, and shocking suicide thus lend themselves easily to a conspiracy.”
Another factor, Kane said, is that MAGA influencers and commentators are always in need of flammable content to discuss.
“The Epstein files represent a major story that, no matter what the files say, will allow for plenty of discussion and unrestrained speculation,” Kane said. “But if no new files are released, it’s like a fire being deprived of oxygen.”
There are, too, prominent voices on the left calling for the files to be released, and taking the opportunity to tie Trump to the sex offender. Senate Judiciary Democrats posted on X that the delay is “part of a bigger pattern of years of entanglement between Donald Trump and Jeffery Epstein.”
Trump has not been formally accused of wrongdoing and denies any involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
Any attempts to link Trump to Epstein won’t matter to MAGA, the experts explained. “This is the power of what researchers call ‘partisan motivated reasoning,’” Kane said. “The Epstein files will not determine how [MAGA] evaluates Trump, rather, their support for Trump will determine how they evaluate the Epstein files.”
X has become a MAGA echo chamber since Musk took it over in 2022, and is now a hotbed for conspiracy theories. The Epstein files are no exception.
Some even believe that Epstein is still alive. “I have never bought into the story that Epstein is dead,” one MAGA account with 21,000 followers posted. “I believe this is another reason why we will never see the release of the Epstein files.”
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson doesn’t believe that Epstein killed himself but that he was murdered, despite the overwhelming evidence. In regards to the files, Carlson believes that there is a “force” preventing Trump officials from releasing them, but didn’t say what it was.
“We can say with certainty that there is a force acting on these people,” he said recently on NewsNation. “A very serious force to the point where they’re embarrassing themselves because they promised [to] release this and they haven’t.”
Another prominent MAGA conspiracy theorist account baselessly suggested that Antony Blinken, former President Joe Biden’s Secretary of State, is one of the reasons the files haven’t yet been released. The account shared an antisemitic diagram highlighting the fact that Blinken is Jewish and linked him to Epstein and Ghilsaine Maxwell via her father Robert Maxwell, a British newspaper mogul who died in 1991.
“X has transformed a great deal in recent years,” Kane said, noting that the platform allows users to go “ever father down conspiracy rabbit holes, like the Epstein case.”
A 2021 study by academics at the Universities of Oklahoma and Washington examined the demographic of the MAGA movement in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riots. It found that the composition of the MAGA movement “is overwhelmingly white, male, Christian, retired, and over 65 years of age,” the study’s authors wrote. “They’re attracted to the following groups, ones that include gun rights, charities, pro police, anti-lockdown, pro-life, and ‘stop the steal.’ They’re extremely politically active, all in support of the Republican Party.”
MAGA’s strength has grown since Trump was re-elected. A poll by the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy released last month found that a majority of Republicans now identifies with the MAGA movement. In 2023, 37 percent of Republicans surveyed identified with MAGA. Now, the share of MAGA identifiers within the GOP jumped to 52 percent.
John Geer, a senior advisor who oversees Vanderbilt University’s project, said that the fascination with the Epstein files stems from MAGA’s deep sense of mistrust.
“This element of right-wing extreme politics that has a strong, paranoid anti-government angle has been around for a long time,” Geer told The Independent. “[MAGA] is going to show their anger toward the government, toward conspiracies, toward cover up. And that’s partly what Trump was able always to tap into.”
Geer noted that it’s nothing new. “What’s gone on in this country over the last 40 years, the economy has grown, but there’s a huge group of Americans who have not benefited from that economic growth,” he explained. “They especially live in the rural areas. They blame government and so they blame cover ups. It’s something that hits us much more in the face because of social media. But also partly because Trump has given it life.”
For MAGA, the crusade to release the Epstein files is just “the shiny object right now,” Geer said. “It could easily be something else,” he said. “Trump was going to try to claim to lay open all this stuff even though he is not very transparent, but he’ll do these kinds of things to claim that he’s trying to to bring all these conspiracies to light. And it’s smart politics on his part.”
While MAGA world continues to rage about the release of the Epstein files, economists warned this week that a recession could be on the cards after the U.S. economy took a battering because of Trump’s trade war. But MAGA is largely silent on the issue or placing the blame solely at the door of the previous administration.
“The biggest impact of the Epstein files,” Kane said, “might end up being that it distracted large segments of voters from actual issues that will likely affect their daily lives far more than any information about Epstein ever could.”
