Right-wing influencers Rogan O’Handley, Chaya Raichik, and Liz Wheeler exit the White House with binders.Gripas Yuri/Abaca/Zuma
On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi boasted that she had “declassified and publicly released files” related to the crimes of the dead and well-heeled pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Because this is the Trump administration, though, that release was carried out in a bizarre and hamfisted fashion, with binders of materials handed out to 15 right-wing, pro-Trump figures handpicked by the administration. While the recipients exuberantly waved them around for the cameras just outside the White House, it quickly became obvious that these particular files, which included flight logs and a heavily redacted contact list, presented nothing new. Some had already been public for close to a decade.
Some MAGA figures denounced the release, while others suggested a new conspiracy.
Over the course of the day, the “release” devolved into a broad-scale civil war on the right, with Bondi accusing the FBI of failing to follow her declassification orders, and the MAGA influencers who were involved in the stunt trying to defend their role. In a predictably short period of time, some of those influencers quickly suggested that a deeper conspiracy was afoot.
“These swamp creatures at SDNY deceived Bondi, Kash, and YOU,” tweeted conservative commentator and binder recipient Liz Wheeler, who seemed to be pinning the blame on FBI agents in the Southern District of New York, the federal court district where both Epstein and Maxwell were charged. “Be outraged that the binder is boring. You should be. Because the evil deep state LIED TO YOUR FACE.”
“I had no idea what a furious frenzy this binder would cause,” wrote Jessica Reed Kraus, aka “Houseinhabit,” a gossip blogger who was given one of the binders at the White House. Kraus, who’s spent years trying to build relationships with Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has written a long series of blog posts arguing that Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, while guilty, was also scapegoated by powerful men and took the fall for their misdeeds. Mike Cernovich, a men’s rights activist turned Pizzagate promoter turned self-styled journalist, was also on hand to receive a binder; later in the day, he released a 45-minute long live broadcast on X denouncing people who’d criticized the release as “cunts” and “hyenas.”
The MAGA right has long said that releasing new Epstein files, particularly his supposed “client list” detailing other celebrities who engaged in sex crimes against children alongside him, would be a priority under a new Trump administration.
But Julie K. Brown, a Miami Herald journalist who’s spent years breaking stories about Epstein’s crimes explained on Twitter/X before the White House’s event, there is no such definitive roster of names. “There is no Jeffrey Epstein client list,” she wrote. “Period. It’s a figment of the internet’s imagination—and a means to just slander people.”
Guessing Epstein’s clients has long been a crude parlor game, with MAGA figures suggesting or outright declaring specific liberal celebrities would be on the supposed client list. (Epstein’s “little black book,” an address book showing his many celebrity contacts, was first published by the now-defunct Gawker in 2015. In 2020, author and filmmaker Leland Nally called everyone in that book and wrote about the results for Mother Jones.) A widespread conspiracy theory holds that Epstein was murdered in jail in 2019 to prevent more names from becoming public; far more persuasive evidence shows that Epstein was frequently left unattended and died by suicide when unmonitored by guards.
Many Trump supporters believed his return to the White House would bring more information about Epstein’s associates to light. “If Trump wins, that Epstein client list is gonna become public,” Elon Musk declared in a November conversation with Tucker Carlson. Those remarks were shared by Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok just after Trump won the election, who added, “Nobody in Hollywood is sleeping tonight.”
Trump, of course, knew Epstein himself, having crossed paths with him in New York social circles; in 2002, he told New York magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Besides Cernovich, Kraus, and Wheeler, the people invited to the White House to get binders included Pizzagate promoter and Trump administration friend Jack Posobiec, MAGA activist and election conspiracy theorist Scott Presler, MAGA influencer Rogan O’Handley, better known by his online handle “DC Draino,” who said in a live broadcast that several powerful administration officials were present for the binder handoff, including Kennedy, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA director John Ratcliffe. (In a 2023 appearance on Fox News, Kennedy Jr. said he twice flew on Epstein’s plane.)
In the end, though, the release was less an explosion and more of a long and strangled fart. As the influencers involved began to realize that what they’d been handed wasn’t new or newsworthy, they spun new explanations—and claimed they’d been surprised by photographers outside the White House, and hadn’t meant to do a photoshoot with the binders held aloft.
Wheeler offered the most detailed set of allegations, claiming that the binder was a dud due to misdeeds on the part of New York-based FBI agents. “A whistleblower contacted Bondi,” Wheeler tweeted, and “revealed that the SDNY was hiding potentially thousands of Epstein files, defying Bondi’s order to give them all to her. We’re talking recordings, evidence, etc. The juicy stuff. Names.”
Other MAGA figures who weren’t given binders, like provocateur Laura Loomer, denounced the release in its entirety. “I hate to say it, but the American people can’t trust the validity of the Epstein files released today,” she tweeted. “It was released in an unprofessional manner with paid, partisan social media influencers to curate their binders for us. I can’t trust anything in the binder. Neither should you.”
“Stop messing with people,” tweeted another right-wing journalist, Breanna Morello, who wrote that she believed the binder recipients had been dragooned into being part of a PR stunt without being prepared. “Children were raped by these monsters and we just want justice.”
Bondi took steps to frame her actions on Thursday as first step in “President Trump’s commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators.”
“I am also directing you to conduct an immediate investigation into why my order to the FBI was not followed.”
“The first phase of files released today sheds light on Epstein’s extensive network,” she declared in a press release, “and begins to provide the public with long overdue accountability.” In an interview with Fox News last week, she explicitly promised an actual Epstein client list would be released soon, telling the outlet, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump.”
But in an open letter sent to FBI director Kash Patel on Thursday afternoon, she complained about lacking access, writing that despite being “repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents,” that late on Wednesday, she “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.”
“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,” Bondi wrote, demanding that Patel’s office turn over these supposed other files no later than 8 a.m. on Friday.
“I am also directing you to conduct an immediate investigation into why my order to the FBI was not followed,” Bondi added. “You will deliver to me a comprehensive report of your findings and proposed personnel action within 14 days.”
To date, the biggest “new” release of Epstein files came in 2023, not from the FBI or a presidential administration, but from the federal Bureau of Prisons. Those documents shed light on Epstein’s last days and the administrative and legal chaos that ensued after his suicide—although those files, too, were often duplicative, poorly organized, and heavily redacted.
In the end, the real Epstein scandal occurred long ago, when a wealthy financier preyed on women and girls, was given a 2008 sweetheart deal to avoid federal charges, and whose victims were never afforded the opportunity to face him in court. There is, of course, a chance that Bondi will succeed in shaking loose genuinely new documents. For now, though, the whole saga looks like little more than a distraction from the Trump administration’s ongoing dismantling of the federal government—and a bitter disappointment to the people who believed he’d keep at least this one promise.
