Bondi Is Trapped
The Epstein Conundrum
The Weekly Patriot is back after a hiatus (appreciate everyone’s patience). Much more content is on the way, including the return of our weekly newsletter, which will include a recap of what has happened in the last few months since the Substack was active.
That said, I wanted to begin by briefly dissecting the latest disaster coming out of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”). This past Sunday, the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) dropped a major update regarding their reinvestigation into notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. Through Axios, the DOJ and FBI released an unsigned, undated two-page memorandum. The headlines?
1. The Trump Administration reaffirmed the findings of the DOJ and FBI’s 2019 investigations into Epstein’s death (during Trump’s first term) and a later 2023 Inspector General report: Epstein died by suicide.
2. Epstein had no “incriminating ‘client list.’”
3. There was “no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”
4. The DOJ and FBI “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
The memo is carefully worded—more on that later—but many interpreted the document as something of a “move along nothing to see here folks,” with Pam Bondi taking on the role of Chief Wiggum (though, again, the memo is unsigned, and Bondi was conspicuously absent from public appearances after it dropped).
Epstein is a sensitive subject for the Administration. The Epstein narrative is a prominent component of MAGA mythology: Epstein’s connections to other prominent individuals; the ties Epstein may have had to intelligence agencies; the alleged coverup of Epstein’s crimes and death. Epstein’s story and its implications have tantalized and motivated the MAGA base, particularly a class of online influencers (e.g., Jack Posobiec, “DC_Draino,” and “LibsOfTikTok”) who used Epstein and the promise of justice as a rallying cry for the 2024 election. That is not to say MAGA is the only group interested in the Epstein story, far from it, only that MAGA sees Epstein as part of a special, broader conspiracy implicating the reviled intelligence agencies and liberal elites. It is Q-level dogma within the MAGA base that the official Epstein story provided by the government (pre-Trump v.2) is a lie.
The Epstein narrative was never a perfect fit for MAGA. The circumstances of Epstein’s death and his many pictures and connections with other elites was ripe fodder for their conspiratorial nature, no doubt. But as has been widely reported, Trump was good friends with Epstein. Trump showed up in unsealed Epstein documents. Epstein called Trump his “closest friend” and claimed “intimate knowledge of his proclivity for sex” in bombshell recordings released by the Daily Beast before the 2024 election. During his first term, Trump appointed Alexander Acosta to be his Secretary of Labor, even though Acosta had negotiated a lenient plea deal for Epstein in 2007-2008 when Acosta was a U.S. Attorney in Florida. Epstein died while incarcerated during Trump’s first term, when Trump was overseeing the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (which supervised Epstein’s custody). And then of course, there was never a smoking gun for any of the most salacious claims pertaining to alleged criminal conduct by third parties. None of these facts bothered MAGA in the run-up to the election. The MAGA influencer class (and elected officials like JD Vance) ignored the incongruities and lack of sure-fire proof and pushed the Epstein angle hard, promising their audiences answers the minute Trump took office in 2025.
After Trump took office for the second time, there was a string of disappointments for MAGA regarding the Epstein reinvestigation and a growing uneasiness about the status of any future revelations. In an interview, Trump had already hedged on releasing the “Epstein Files.” Though MAGA was delighted that two conspiratorial loyalists were installed at the top positions in the FBI (Kash Patel and Dan Bongino promoted the Epstein narrative prior to assuming office as Director and Deputy Director respectively), both stated that Epstein’s death was a suicide, driving MAGA apoplectic. In February, Pam Bondi told Fox News that she was reviewing an Epstein client list on her desk, promising bombshells but delivering none. Memorably, Bondi organized a calamitous press event where the scum-of-the-earth MAGA influencers that had peddled the Epstein narrative to their audiences stood around like jackasses triumphantly waving white binders with “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” written in bold red font, only to later find out that essentially all of the information contained therein was already public. The influencers somberly apologized and blamed Bondi and Patel for the fiasco who in turn tried to pass it off on unnamed officials at the FBI Field Office in New York. To cap it off, in June, Elon Musk publicly attacked Trump as part of an escalating feud (related to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill legislation and Musk’s growing marginalization within the administration), stating: “Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”
The Sunday memo, however, is the gut punch, the announcement by the Trump administration that the Epstein narrative MAGA was fed by influencers and politicians was all a lie. It places Pam Bondi in the center of a hurricane of public scrutiny by MAGA—partially because of the base’s unwillingness, even now, to throw Trump under the bus but also because of Bondi’s inability to deliver on overhyped promises.
The truth is, there is no good way for Bondi to navigate this position, and part of the problem is linguistics. After all, what are the “Epstein Files?” Someone might reasonably understand the term “Epstein Files” to mean the literal set of all data or documents (hard drives, papers, reports) that the government has accumulated regarding the Epstein matter. Perhaps among these documents is an “Epstein List,” either a literal list of individuals found among Epstein’s effects, or a list of individuals produced by the government who are identified as connected in some way with the Epstein matter.
But that is not what MAGA means by the terms “Epstein Files” or “Epstein List.” For MAGA the definition of “Epstein Files” or “Epstein List” means “the good stuff.” The incriminating information. The bombshell we are all waiting for. Anything that is released that isn’t the good stuff, by definition cannot be the Epstein Files or the Epstein List. The Sunday memo therefore is not being understood merely as stating that substantively MAGA was wrong about the nature of the Epstein narrative, but as an obstinate refusal to release materials, evidence which MAGA knows to exists. “What do you mean there is no list? What do you mean there are no files?”
Now understand, the government has unambiguously handed over files regarding Epstein to the public. It has unambiguously handed over even things that resemble or approximate lists. But it did not hand over the files or the list. The terms used to refer to the evidence regarding Epstein carry meaning to MAGA regarding the conclusion of an investigation. So there is nothing Bondi can give MAGA that will satiate them, regardless of how interesting the information is, if it does not substantively implicate third parties or the government. MAGA is hyper conscious about this terminology, which is why they (and others) are hyper parsing the memo, which is carefully worded, for signals implying investigatory discretion or limiting the scope of the memo’s conclusion.
There either is evidence that implicates other people in Epstein’s misdeeds / death or there is not. I personally don’t know what the answer is. For Bondi, there is no good answer. If there is no evidence that implicates others, then Bondi is fighting for her life against an army of people primed religiously to think otherwise. To be successful, she would have to deprogram how such people even talk about the Epstein matter and convince them substantively that the government is telling the truth. But how can she do that when the government is moving on and has made a commitment not to release more information? How can she convince people when it would be incredibly stupid politically to dwell on the Epstein issue, especially given the other projects on the administration’s agenda? How can she be successful when MAGA has been trained to inherently distrust the government by the very influencer class that created the Epstein narrative in the first place? There can be no victory under such circumstances—MAGA will not be convinced, the best the administration can hope for is they will ignore or forget. But if that is the best scenario, and it is, why release the memo in the first place?
If there is evidence that implicates others, then the government is lying and the most likely culprit behind that deception is Donald Trump himself or shadowy operators / intelligence services that he cannot control or that control him. Either way, it implicates Trump. MAGA understands this intuitively. And therefore, MAGA will blame Bondi. The best Bondi can do now is cling even harder to Trump and hope that this whole thing blows over before he decides to cut her loose.