Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
As of last week, it sure seemed as though Donald Trump had a real crisis on his hands and one that had the rare power to fracture his typically unwavering MAGA base. A large segment of his supporters remained loudly incensed over his administration’s failure to release the so-called Epstein files, which multiple officials — including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel — had repeatedly promised to do.
Then on Thursday night, The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell: One of the Epstein files the Justice Department apparently had was a lewd and cryptic letter Trump had sent Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday. Trump vehemently denied he’d written it, attacked the Journal and Dow Jones owner Rupert Murdoch, and moved to sue them, seeking a laughable $10 billion in damages. (It’s unlikely the lawsuit will be successful.) He also announced that he had instructed Bondi to seek the release of the grand-jury transcripts in the Epstein case. The Justice Department subsequently asked the court to do so, though it’s unlikely that the documents would reveal much, if any, new information.
Almost immediately after the Journal’s report dropped, some of Trump’s MAGA critics began changing their tune and aping the president’s attacks. The pull of a common enemy — the fake-news media — was too irresistible. Some of the furor did indeed die down over the next several days, and Trump began bragging that the “the Jeffrey Epstein hoax” had made him more popular (which it hasn’t). But is the scandal actually over? There’s still plenty of evidence that it isn’t.
First, we now know that the Trump administration was almost certainly aware of the birthday letter’s existence and wasn’t going to reveal it. What we don’t know is what else it sat on. The Justice Department conducted a massive review of files and testimony regarding Epstein, apparently reassigning hundreds of FBI personnel to the task — who were also asked to flag any mentions of Trump. Second, three months later, rather than make the files public, the department said releasing the files wasn’t warranted. The “client list” Bondi had said was on her desk didn’t actually exist, there wasn’t evidence of blackmail implicating Epstein’s high-profile associates, Epstein did in fact kill himself, and the FBI insisted that “perpetuating unfounded theories” about the case would neither combat child exploitation nor bring justice to victims. In the end, the administration effectively said, “Forget what we said before. Trust us now: There’s nothing more to see here” — and that didn’t go over well with many people who believe there definitely is more to see, and it looks like there was.
The persistent questions and intensity of the blowback surprised many journalists. It also definitely perturbed Trump, who as MAGA’s god-emperor isn’t used to, or okay with, sustained MAGA pushback. He began castigating and threatening anyone in his coalition who was demanding the files or suggesting he or his administration might be hiding something. Trump was an opportunistic Epstein-conspiracy booster during his presidential campaign, though he never embraced the “client list” rabbit hole, for what should be obvious reasons. He then became a conspiracy-debunking scold as president. This only fueled the angst ahead of the Journal report.
And Trump wasn’t the only one bracing against the blowback. Conservative pundits and MAGA influencers and Republicans in Congress clearly felt it too, whether they were true believers in the conspiracy theories or simply dodging hurled fruit on the bandwagon. Last week, Speaker Mike Johnson seemed sympathetic to MAGA’s Epstein conspiracy wing. “We should put everything out there and let the people decide,” he said. After the Journal story came out, Johnson re-avowed his faith in and support for Trump. Some in the House GOP have been pushing for some kind of legislative response, and the unrest in Congress over the Epstein files still isn’t over. Democrats are happily going along for that ride, making it a rare bipartisan cause, and House GOP leadership is now trying to use the August recess to escape the mess and buy some time for it to die down. As NOTUS reported Monday night, the leadership is effectively just trying to virtue signal: “Leadership has proposed a nonbinding resolution as an alternative, effectively giving Republican members cover to theoretically voice support to release Epstein-related documents without actually compelling the administration to do anything about it.”
Another open question is who gets to decide that the crisis is over. The New York Times and other publications reported Monday that Trump seemed to have quelled the revolt, pointing to how some of Trump’s prominent critics had done an about-face following the Journal report. “MAGA is now united, because they can see there’s a common enemy. They see exactly what the reality is — it’s the Deep State, with their media partners, led by Murdoch, that’s out to destroy Trump,” Trump ally and Epstein files critic Stephen Bannon told the Washington Post over the weekend. As Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley has pointed out, Bannon was quoted in no fewer than four big stories about the Epstein crisis supposedly dying down. Bannon, as a longtime right-wing-media insurgent, definitely isn’t missing this opportunity to join an attack on Murdoch and his dominant empire. But is he the definitive stand-in for the whole MAGA movement? As Mathis-Lilley quips, “It seems like the real ‘story’ here might be that Steve Bannon is easy to get a response from via text message.”
Trump and his administration have also repeatedly attempted to change the subject before and after the Journal report dropped. Though it’s maybe been good news for people who love Mexican Coke, the distractions haven’t stuck. On Friday, intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard announced that the administration was recommending criminal investigations targeting the alleged perpetrators of the so-called Russiagate hoax, which was like rereleasing a MAGA greatest hit with nothing but a new cover and expanded liner notes. Trump nonetheless celebrated the plan by posting AI-generated footage of Barack Obama being arrested set to the tune of the Trump anthem “Y.M.C.A.” The president also threatened to block the Washington Commanders’ new stadium unless the team goes back to its offensive previous name. On Monday, the administration suddenly declassified a trove of Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files — against the wishes of his family.
The Bulwark’s Will Sommer reported on Monday that while some otherwise-MAGA-aligned Epstein alarmists have gotten back behind the president, not all of them have, and these distractions may not be as effective as Trump hopes:
Yes, it’s only been a few days. But my sense is that Trump is racking up a sort of hype-debt within the party, as he tries to refocus his base away from one disappointment by setting them up for an even bigger one when Obama fails to face a military tribunal.
Take Liz Wheeler, a conservative pundit who received one of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s fateful Epstein binders back in February, and has since become one of the most vocal critics of Trump’s attempt to shut down questions about Epstein. On Monday, demonstrating why she was trusted to participate in the binder photo-op in the first place, she gushed that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had published “new evidence” of a scheme by senior members of the Obama administration to undermine Trump’s first term. (That was, coincidentally, a day after the infamous Wall Street Journal story on Trump writing a note to Epstein). Gabbard’s moves against Obama, she wrote, marked “the first glimmer of what I would call real justice.”
But even Wheeler couldn’t miss the contradiction here. If Obama and his aides committed treason, why don’t they actually get, y’know, arrested? Can a Trump Justice Department that can’t manage to release the Epstein documents without stepping on a series of rakes really pull off the criminal prosecution of an entire past presidential administration?
Wheeler said the only way to fulfill Trump’s new commitment to his supporters would be actual prosecutions.
MAGA stalwart Marjorie Taylor Greene wants more, too, per this X post she wrote on Sunday:
If you tell the base of people, who support you, of deep state treasonous crimes, election interference, blackmail, and rich powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of The People. If not. The base will turn and there’s no going back. Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else.
That may not actually happen, though as our own Ed Kilgore has warned, Trump following through on his vows of MAGA vengeance would offer not just a distraction but gratification for his followers:
The question is whether the president will just keep teasing vengeance or give people like MTG the investigations, arrests, show trials, and firing squads they crave more than any dirt on Jeffrey Epstein and his creepy associates.
Another critic Sommer highlights is Chronicles magazine columnist Pedro L. Gonzalez, who definitely hasn’t bought into any of Trump and his allies’ Epstein brush-offs. On Friday, he quickly compared Gabbard’s announcement to Bondi’s now-infamous Epstein-binders stunt:
On Monday, he responded on X to how GOP congressman Ralph Norman had gone from trying to push the Trump administration to release more Epstein files to attempting to block House Democrats from doing the same:
I know there are arguments for there being nothing more to the Epstein stuff than what we know now, but I cannot recall a time that Trump was so terrified of something that he instructed the GOP to go this far to ensure the public only sees what he wants and nothing he doesn’t, it is completely unprecedented. He is actually very afraid of this and wants it to go away, and it’s notable than he made it a point to reach out to his top influencers to tell them to shut up about it as well.
Another complication for Trump and his allies is that there remains a sizable group of Americans, both in and outside of the MAGA movement, who really do believe that the Epstein files matter. Whether you agree with them or not, blowing them off won’t dissuade them, and many may ultimately determine that Trump is in fact a full-fledged member of the deep state he claims he’s against.
And here’s the other thing: The Trump administration is still backtracking on the Epstein files, despite Trump’s declarations of victory. Now it is hoping Epstein’s co-conspirator will have some names for its investigators, as Allison Quinn explains:
Within hours of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt urging anyone still upset over the administration’s handling of the Epstein files to direct their fury to the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday announced that efforts were underway to arrange a sit-down with [Ghislaine] Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking young girls to her late partner. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has been tasked with speaking to Maxwell to determine if she “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims,” he said in a statement.
So maybe the Epstein client list does exist? In Ghislaine Maxwell’s head? This is a complete reversal from the DoJ statement dismissing the theories, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed. As notorious MAGA shit-stirrer Laura Loomer noted to CNN:
Seems like a massive cope. Why didn’t they ask to meet with her before the memo was released on 4th of July weekend when they essentially said the case would be closed? Seems like this should have already taken place.
How can the scandal be over if the Justice Department, Trump, and congressional Republicans are still panicking and flailing about as if it isn’t?
This post has been updated.
