Jeffrey Epstein client list: The conspiracy theory tearing MAGA apart
Trump's base has been fractured by the administration's handling of the Epstein files, fuelling new theories and reviving old ones
The world of Donald Trump’s loyal MAGA supporters has been turned upside-down in recent days.
It’s not because of the tariffs that threaten to make life more expensive, the administration’s wide-ranging deportations, nor Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ that has snatched health care away from millions of Americans. The movement appears to be ripping at the seams over Jeffrey Epstein.
The disgraced financier, who was found dead in his jail cell six years ago, has continued to live on in the MAGA zeitgeist. During the presidential election campaign, Donald Trump said he would expose the list of high-profile clients thought to have sought Epstein’s sex-trafficking services. The secrecy around the client list, and the broader ‘Epstein files’, are a central tenet in conspiracy theories about the sex offender.
But months into Donald Trump’s presidency, there was no sign of any new information about Epstein and his activities. Despite this, the administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi has teased the release of files, appearing to confirm their existence, only for the government to flip-flop with statements that there are no new documents and everyone should move on.
What started as a sideshow aimed at the more conspiratorial sides of the MAGA base has become a mainstream story that goes right to the heart of the administration — and threatens to scatter many of its devoted supporters.
2024 campaign: Trump says he will declassify Epstein documents
In June of last year, while Donald Trump was campaigning for the election that would see him elected, there were multiple indications that he would release files on Epstein. In an interview on Fox, when asked if he would declassify the Jeffrey Epstein files, he said: “Yeah, yeah, I would.”
There were other similar comments made, too. In a wide-ranging interview with podcaster Lex Fridman in September, Trump was asked why he hesitated in his earlier response about releasing the files. He said: “I’m not involved, I never went to his island fortunately. But a lot of people did.” When Fridman came back about how people find it strange that no list of Epstein’s associates who visited the island had ever been released, he said: “Yeah, it’s very interesting isn’t it. It probably will be (…) I’d certainly take a look at it.”
“The list” was also mentioned in another podcast interview with JD Vance in October. Reacting to a ‘release the list’ joke by the host Theo Von, Vance said: “Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing.”
It’s worth noting that at that time, Joe Biden was still occupying the White House and we don’t know how much information the Trump campaign was working with. But whether such a client list exists was never called into question: the MAGA supporters firmly believed it did, and the campaign promised to expose whatever secrets about the case that were locked away by the government.
2025: Administration teases explosive client list
The situation regarding the release of new information on Epstein has changed drastically at every turn since Donald Trump took office in January.
In February, Pam Bondi said the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients “is sitting on my desk right now” and was being reviewed.
Days later, a group of conservative influencers were invited to the White House and given large folders containing files on Jeffrey Epstein. However, there was disappointment for those hoping to learn something new from the documents; there was no smoking gun, and they mostly contained information that had already been known from court documents.
But there was still hope: Pam Bondi’s statements early in the year did suggest there would be new material coming. On March 1, she told Fox News that the American people would get the full Epstein files, but explained they were having difficulty getting some material being held by New York authorities. The news host Mark Levin speculated without evidence that it was due to New York being “a hotbed of the Democrat party” and that they were trying to protect names on the list. Two days later, Pam Bondi said “thousands of pages of documents” were delivered and FBI director Kash Patel would be going through them for a big release.
It all sounded pretty promising for those holding out hope of getting to the bottom of the Epstein conspiracy, in particular the now-famous client list. At the end of May, Kash Patel said they were working through the material, because it “takes time to go through years of investigations, years of political manoeuvring, and years of cover-up”.
No cover-up — or a new one?
The story took a turn on July 6, when a memo from the Justice Department and the FBI said the files relating to the case did not contain any list of clients, directly contradicting the conspiracy theories backed even by some in the administration. It also confirmed Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide — busting another long-running theory that he was actually taken down by the unknown shadowy figures who stood to be exposed if his case proceeded.
The memo said: “It is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
There was widespread backlash from the very heart of MAGA, many of whom didn’t believe the latest memo. When asked about Epstein at a Cabinet meeting soon afterwards, Trump pushed back and said: “This guy’s been talked about for years (…) Are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”
As internal arguments and public discourse took aim at Pam Bondi, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on July 12 to defend his attorney general, writing: “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! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.”
Trump then went on to suggest nobody cares about Jeffrey Epstein, and claimed the files were “written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration”. This is despite the fact that Trump himself was still in office at the height of the Epstein investigation and sex trafficking charges in 2019.
He added: “One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Epstein case conspiracy theorists leading FBI
With Trump having courted a base that is heavily invested in conspiratorial thinking – such as Q-Anon and other ideas about the ‘deep state’ that usually prominently feature senior Democrats – it was little surprise that some of them made it into his administration, including people who had been vocal about the Epstein case that is so important to supporters.
Kash Patel, who is now the director of the FBI, had previously claimed that the very agency he now runs was part of a “deep state” conspiracy against Trump and his allies. Specifically on the Epstein case, he said on a podcast in 2023 that the reason the FBI was protecting the details around the case was: “Simple, because of who’s on that list.”
He went on to make claims about Bill Gates lobbying against the disclosure of the list, and added: “Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are. We have an election coming up and we need to adjudicate this matter at the polls.”
Meanwhile, the current deputy FBI director is Dan Bongino, a former podcaster who had long been suspicious of the official Epstein story. He clashed with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the files, and his future was unclear this week as he reportedly said that he would not continue in his role if Pam Bondi was there.
Their argument centred on a surveillance video from outside Jeffrey Epstein’s cell that was released by Bongino as proof that no one entered the room before the financier took his own life, according to Axios reporting. The 10-hour video was missing one minute, which authorities said was part of the recording system that goes down every midnight for a minute to reset, before it begins recording the new day. It has fuelled new theories about what might have happened in that minute — and whether it has any connection to Epstein’s discovery in his cell after his suicide.
According to Axios, Bongino was being blamed internally for the missing minute. The news outlet reported that he turned on Pam Bondi, saying she had overpromised and underdelivered material relating to Epstein’s clients.
Now, with the administration saying there’s nothing to see here, Donald Trump faces the consequences of cosying up with the most conspiratorial voters in the U.S., as well as his appointment of high-profile proponents of the theories about this very case.
Backlash revives other Epstein theories
The backlash from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters — from Marjorie Taylor Greene to Alex Jones — is threatening to splinter the normally united MAGA movement.
It is also breathing new life into some other theories surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, including one suggesting he was a Mossad agent. U.S. commentator Tucker Carlson, speaking at a Turning Point USA summit last Friday, asked on whose behalf Epstein worked for and where the money was coming from.
“And I think the real answer is Jeffrey Epstein was working on behalf of intel services, probably not American.” He went on to directly name Israel, saying: “It’s extremely obvious to anyone who watches that this guy had direct connections to a foreign government. No one’s allowed to say that that foreign government is Israel because we have been somehow cowed into thinking that that’s naughty.”
Various Israeli figures have long been accused of ties to Epstein, but Israel’s ex-prime minister Naftali Bennett responded to the claim, saying: “I say to you with 100% certainty: The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false.”
As for the client list: those who still believe in it seem no closer to finding out if it truly exists. The Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories were rife after his death in 2019 and stayed a live issue for many MAGA supporters.
But with such a long-held theory appearing to disappear overnight, many of Donald Trump’s own fans are now grappling with the thought that yet another government conspiracy could now be underway.
SOURCES
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: Trump vows to declassify JFK, Epstein docs [Accessed 14 Jul. 2025].
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: Sen. JD Vance | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #540 [Accessed 14 Jul. 2025].
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: Donald Trump Interview | Lex Fridman Podcast #442 [Accessed 14 Jul. 2025].
Azi Paybarah (2025). What Trump officials said about releasing the Epstein files. [online] The Washington Post. [Accessed 14 Jul. 2025].
PBS News. (2024). Trump taps ‘deep state’ conspiracy theorist Kash Patel to lead the FBI. [online] [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: Joe Talks to FBI Director Kash Patel About Jeffrey Epstein [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Reuters (2025). Trump says he spoke to FBI’s Bongino amid Epstein uproar. [online] Reuters. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Tait, R. (2025). Who is Dan Bongino? FBI deputy at center of Maga fallout over Epstein files. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/14/dan-bongino-jeffrey-epstein-files [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Collins, K., Holmes, K., Perez, E. and Reid, P. (2025). Bongino still in limbo as Trump fumes and JD Vance seeks to play mediator, sources say. [online] CNN. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Dixon, M. and Leach, B. (2025). Trump faces a revolt from his MAGA base over the Epstein files. [online] NBC News. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Helmore, E. (2025). Kash Patel denies rumors he’s quitting the FBI over DoJ ruling on Epstein files. [online] the Guardian. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Caputo, M. (2025). Scoop: FBI’s Dan Bongino clashes with AG Bondi over handling of Epstein files. [online] Axios. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: AG Pam Bondi says the Jeffrey Epstein client list is “sitting on my desk right now to review”. Fox News. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). AG Pam Bondi just went on Levin and gave a few updates on the Epstein documents. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Fox News. (2025). AG Pam Bondi on Epstein files: ‘The public has a right to know’. [online] [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Isenstadt, A. (2025). Exclusive: DOJ, FBI conclude Epstein had no ‘client list,’ died by suicide. [online] Axios. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Youtube.com. (2025). Available at: Trump pushes back on Jeffrey Epstein questions during Cabinet meeting. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Raju, M. (2025). MTG warns of ‘big’ blowback in MAGA world over handling of Epstein case. [online] CNN. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Liebermann, O. (2019). The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has found its way into Israel’s elections. [online] CNN. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
X (formerly Twitter). (2025). Available at: As a former Israeli Prime Minister, with the Mossad having reported directly to me, I say to you with 100% certainty… [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Masquelier-Page, A. (2024). Kash Patel is pushing conspiracies and his brand. He’s poised to help lead a Trump administration | The Associated Press. [online] [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Roebuck, J. (2025). Trump DOJ releases some Epstein files, says there’s little new info. [online] The Washington Post. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].
Judd, D. (2025). Trump shrugs off questions over Epstein memo, calling them ‘a desecration’. [online] CNN. [Accessed 15 Jul. 2025].