EXPLAINER: Why Are We Still Talking About Jeffrey Epstein?
Will the ‘Missing Minute’ finally break MAGA?
Today we have a guest post from
- co-founder of Betches, co-anchor of the American Fever Dream podcast and co-author (with me!) of the New York Times bestselling book Democracy in Retrograde (ON SALE now on Amazon and Bookshop).
We’ve spent years hearing conservative influencers and activists scream about Jeffrey Epstein, and with Trump’s election and the appointment of podcaster Dan Bongino as deputy director of the FBI - they believed they would finally get the information they wanted.
The latest headlines about Jeffrey Epstein’s FBI files are another shining example of Donald Trump making problems to solve. He and others in his administration have fomented a conspiracy and promised, if elected, they would release classified FBI files on a number of high-profile cases including 9/11, the assassinations of JFK and MLK Jr. I assume so they can be mined for views by conservative influencers. Since Trump took office, his Epstein-obsessed base has been chasing him down while slowly losing trust over time (more on this below).
In February, Attorney General Bondi invited big conservative influencers (Libs of TikTok, DC Draino, HouseinHabit) to the White House to receive binders labeled “The Epstein Files.” The binders revealed nothing new, and Bondi implied that the client list existed, telling Fox News “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. That’s been a directive by President Trump. I’m reviewing that.”
Then on Sunday, the DOJ and FBI released a memo claiming they have no evidence that Epstein ever kept a client list, blackmailed prominent figures, or was murdered in prison. They also released video footage from outside of Epstein’s prison cell the night he died, presented as evidence that no murderer entered… when anyone who’s even loosely followed this story knows that law enforcement said those cameras malfunctioned that night.
It was immediately obvious that the DOJ’s footage was missing a minute between 11:59pm and midnight. When asked about it at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Pam Bondi attempted to explain the Missing Minute, very poorly, by claiming that the cameras are from the 1990s so they miss a minute every night at the same time.
Based on the internet reaction, the base isn’t buying:
Why is *this* making so many MAGAs mad?
 | A guest post by
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