Release of Jeffrey Epstein files sparks anger among MAGA faithful: ‘The evil deep state LIED TO YOUR FACE’
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Figures on the right reacted with anger on Thursday after the much-hyped release of federal files on the late Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased financier accused of running a sex trafficking ring involving minors, did not yield major new findings and featured some information that was already public.
“THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment,” Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican member of the House Oversight Committee, wrote on X after the release, adding her committee hadn’t reviewed the release. “GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!”
Former One America News Network host Liz Wheeler, one of the right-wing figures who got access to the newly released files, was also dismayed, and claimed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) was hiding unspecified information.
“We’re talking recordings, evidence, etc. The juicy stuff. Names,” Wheeler wrote on X. “These swamp creatures at SDNY deceived Bondi, Kash, and YOU. Be outraged that the binder is boring. You should be. Because the evil deep state LIED TO YOUR FACE.”
The Independent has contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for comment.
Epstein, who rubbed shoulders with influential figures in business, politics, and academia, died by suicide in 2019 in a New York prison as he awaited trial.
The lack of blockbuster revelations prompted some on the right to suggest a conspiracy related to the files on Epstein, who’s already at the center of numerous highly speculative accounts across the political spectrum.
“The Epstein files are a total joke,” conservative personality Glenn Beck posted on X. “Who is subverting POTUS? [president of the United States]”
Attorney General Pam Bondi has also suggested further materials were concealed.
“Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein,” she wrote in a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel. “Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files.”
“When you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information,” she added in the message, directing the FBI to deliver “the full and complete Epstein files” to her by 8 am Friday morning and launch an investigation into “why my order to the FBI was not followed.”
“If there are gaps, we will find them,” Patel said in a statement on Thursday. “If records have been hidden, we will uncover them.”
The information released on Thursday includes an evidence list, flight logs, Epstein’s contact book, and a redacted masseuse list featuring over 250 entries, much of which was already public.
Some notable new information did crop up, however, including that Epstein had Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, actor Alec Baldwin, and supermodel Naomi Campbell in his list of phone contacts.
Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, remains the only person charged, tried and jailed in recent years over Epstein’s crimes, despite the fact that he is believed to have facilitated the abuse of girls and young women for countless men over decades.
In 2008, after allegations first surfaced against Epstein in Florida, he registered as a sex offender and pleaded guilty under a now-controversial non-prosecution agreement to state charges.
The deal allowed Epstein to avoid a life sentence and visit his office for the majority of the day, where he possibly engaged in the sexual abuse of children.
President Donald Trump, himself a former friend of Epstein and Maxwell, said on the campaign trail that he would be opening up the Epstein files. It remains to be seen whether fresh information about the financier’s abuse will be released. Neither Trump nor the multiple figures linked to Epstein have been accused of any wrongdoing in connection to him.
