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Donald Trump is struggling to contain a spiralling crisis over his administration’s handling of files relating to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein that has exposed a rare fissure in his Maga movement.
During his election campaign Trump promised to release the so-called Epstein files, which have been at the centre of a long-running conspiracy since the disgraced financier died by suicide in 2019.
But the Trump administration’s handling of the case has provoked an uproar in the president’s Maga base, with theories about Epstein’s death and so-called “client list” now threatening to cast a long shadow over the White House.
“When people voted for President Trump, releasing the Epstein files was something that was promised to the base,” far-right activist and Maga influencer Laura Loomer told Politico on Monday. “The base is unhappy, and I think that this issue isn’t going to go away.”
Trump’s problems began when the justice department and the FBI last week published a two-page memo after what they described as an “exhaustive review” of material relating to the disgraced financier who in August 2019 was found hanging in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving dozens of underage girls.
The memo concluded that there was no “client list” and no “credible evidence” that Epstein “blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions”. It also stated that he had died by suicide.
The findings flew in the face of myriad conspiracy theories that have circulated in the years since Epstein’s death, often at the hands of Trump’s closest allies.
Prior to entering government, FBI director Kash Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino publicly questioned whether Epstein killed himself or was murdered as part of a vast conspiracy to protect powerful people who had been associated with him.
When asked about the list of Epstein’s clients by Fox News in February, attorney-general Pam Bondi replied: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”
Bondi is now the focus of attack from Maga world, with Loomer and others calling on the president to fire her over the justice department memo.
So far, Trump has staunchly defended his longtime ally, who is seen as integral to the administration’s efforts to overhaul the judicial system.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” he said when a reporter last week tried to ask Bondi a question during a cabinet meeting.
“We have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable,” the president said.
Trump went a step further this weekend, saying in a lengthy post on his Truth Social account late Saturday: “What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!”
“LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT!” he added.
But Bondi remains in the Maga crosshairs. Several of the loudest voices in the movement criticised the administration’s handling of the Epstein case at a conference organised by conservative activist group Turning Point USA this weekend.
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, called the attorney-general the “villain in this story” in a speech to the gathering.
“You either believe that Pam Bondi was telling the truth then, or that she’s telling the truth now, but both cannot be true,” Kelly said, adding that the saga could “actually cost Trump in the midterms”.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, told conference attendees that Epstein was a “key that picks the lock on so many things, not just individuals, but also institutions, intelligence institutions, foreign governments and who was working with him on our intelligence apparatus and in our government”.
Bannon and Loomer have been among the most vocal Maga figures calling for special prosecutors to investigate the government’s handling of the Epstein investigations.
It is unclear whether a fresh investigation will satisfy the base — or stop the infighting that has reportedly plagued the administration’s top brass in recent days.
Several US media outlets have reported that Patel and Bongino have complained about Bondi’s handling of Epstein, and Bongino has reportedly threaten to quit. A spokesperson for the FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
Even as he doubled down in his support for Bondi, Trump brushed aside reports of Bongino’s possible departure, saying he had spoken to the deputy FBI director, who he described as a “very good guy” and “sounded terrific”.
