Epstein case exposes divisions in MAGA unity, but for a good cause

Just when you might have thought we would not have the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to talk about anymore, he plunged back into headlines last week — and his former close friend and associate, President Donald Trump, was not happy about it.

- Clarence Page Tribune Content Agency

A billboard in Times Square calls for the release of the Epstein files on July 23, 2025, in New York City. Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed President Donald Trump in May on the Justice Department's review of the documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, telling him that his name appeared in the files.

(Adam Gray/Getty Images/TNS)

Epstein is a sore subject for Trump and his loyalists in Congress, but it was not always thus.

He was arrested in 2019 and charged with sex trafficking, but he died in a suspected suicide in prison while awaiting trial. During the Biden interregnum, Trump supporters developed various conspiracy theories about Epstein and the Democratic administration's supposed efforts to hush up the Justice Department's investigation, including suppressing an Epstein client list.

The implication was that Epstein was intimately linked with elite circles in government and academia, including key Democrats. Various right-wing influencers, including Kash Patel (now FBI director), JD Vance (now vice President), and Donald Trump Jr., called for releasing the "Epstein list."

After Trump was reelected, his attorney general, Pam Bondi, promised to publish the "list," even avowing that it was sitting on her desk. Then, when it became clear that any meaningful release of files relating to the Epstein investigation would likely embarrass or even implicate Trump, MAGA was forced to do an about-face.

As of the middle of last week, the party line was "Move along, nothing to see here."