MAGA Turns on Trump’s Attorney General for Closing the Case on Epstein

Allies of Donald Trump have turned on Attorney General Pam Bondi following the Justice Department’s announcement in a Monday memo that there was no Jeffrey Epstein “client list” and no evidence to charge other individuals in connection with the case. And while it’s unclear if Epstein-watchers would have been satisfied by anything less than a televised perp walk of several dozen influential figures from the Democratic Party, or, like, footage of George Soros sneaking into Epstein’s jail cell, it’s probably true that Bondi didn’t do herself many favors by…heavily suggesting, on more than one occasion, that serious dirt would be forthcoming.

As The Wall Street Journal notes, Bondi previously promised she would release a “truckload” of documents from the FBI’s investigation into Epstein, and once “implied that she had a list of Epstein’s clients sitting on her desk waiting for her review.” Thus, it did not go over well when her department wrote a joint memo with the FBI stating that it found “no credible evidence” that the convicted sex offender “blackmailed prominent individuals” and no “evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” And by “did not go over well,” we mean that Trumpworld figures are now calling for Bondi’s firing. “Please join me in calling for Blondi to RESIGN!” Laura Loomer wrote on X. “How many more times is this woman going to get away with Fing everything up before she is FIRED?” Other right-wing personalities, including Glenn Beck, Benny Johnson, and Jack Posobiec, were similarly incensed.

Commenting on Bondi’s past remarks re: the Epstein case, Peter Keisler, who served as acting AG under George W. Bush, told the Journal: “It is challenging if you get into the habit of saying whatever seems politically convenient at the moment. At least occasionally, it will come back to bite you. There is a broader value in having credibility with courts and with other institutions that she does squander this way.” In fairness to Bondi, she is not the only Trump administration official who previously suggested that there was more to the Epstein story than the government was letting on. Current FBI director Kash Patel and his deputy director, Dan Bongino, embraced Epstein-related conspiracy theories until they didn’t, and during a 2020 interview, Trump himself spoke of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, saying: “Her friend or boyfriend was either killed or committed suicide in jail.”

Still, the attorney general’s job seems safe, at least at the moment. During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the president responded to a question about Epstein by asking: “Are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable.”