Jeffrey Epstein

WASHINGTON — Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been moved from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas as her criminal case generates renewed public attention.

The federal Bureau of Prisons said Friday that Maxwell had been transferred to Bryan, Texas, but did not explain the circumstances. Her attorney confirmed the move but also declined to discuss the reasons for it.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She had been held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Fla., until her transfer to the prison camp in Texas, where other inmates include Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Jen Shah of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”

Minimum-security federal prison camps house inmates the Bureau of Prisons considers to be the lowest security risk. Some don’t even have fences.

The prison camps were originally designed with low security to make operations easier and to allow inmates tasked with performing work at the prison, such as landscaping and maintenance, to avoid repeatedly checking in and out of a main prison facility.

Maxwell’s case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department’s statement last month saying that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

Since then, administration officials have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting from courts the unsealing of grand jury transcripts.

Maxwell was interviewed at a Florida courthouse over two days last week by Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche.

The House Oversight Committee has separately said that it wants to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers said this week that she would be open to an interview but only if the panel were to give her immunity from prosecution for anything she said.

Tucker writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.

BALMEDIE, Scotland — Golf and Scotland are close to President Trump’s heart, and both were in play Tuesday as he opened a new eponymous course in the land of his mother’s birth, capping a five-day trip that was largely about promoting his family’s luxury properties.

Dressed for golf and sporting a white cap that said “USA,” Trump appeared to be in such a jolly mood that he even lavished rare praise — instead of the usual insults — on the contingent of journalists who had gathered to cover the event.

“Today they’re not fake news,” Trump said. “Today they’re wonderful news.”

The golf-focused trip gave him a chance to escape Washington’s summer heat, but he could not avoid questions about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the deepening food crisis in Gaza or other issues that trailed him across the Atlantic. The trip itself teed up another example of how the Republican president has used the White House to promote his brand.

Trump addresses Gaza and Epstein

Trump on Monday expressed concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to get food aid to hungry Palestinians.

Asked if he agreed with Netanyahu’s assertion Sunday that “there is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza,” Trump said he didn’t know but added, “I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”

The president also offered a reason why he banished Epstein from his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., years ago, saying it was because the disgraced financier “stole people that worked for me.” A top White House aide said last week that Epstein was kicked out for being a “creep.”

Trump tees off on newly opened golf course

Flanked by sons Eric and Donald Jr., Trump counted “1-2-3” and wielded a pair of golden scissors to cut a red ribbon marking the ceremonial opening of the new Trump course in the village of Balmedie on Scotland’s northern coast.

“This has been an unbelievable development,” Trump said before the ribbon cutting. He thanked Eric, who designed the course, saying his work on the project was “truly a labor of love for him.”

Eric Trump said the course was his father’s “passion project.”

Immediately afterward, Trump, Eric Trump and two professional golfers teed off on the first hole with plans to play a full 18 before the president returns to Washington on Tuesday night. Trump rarely allows the news media to watch his golf game, though video journalists and photographers often find him along the course whenever he plays.

Trump’s shot had a solid sound and soared straight, high and relatively far. Clearly pleased, he turned to the cameras and did an almost half-bow.

“He likes the course, ladies and gentlemen,” Eric Trump said.

Billed as the “Greatest 36 Holes in Golf,” the Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, is hosting back-to-back weekend tournaments before it begins offering rounds to the public on Aug. 13.

Trump fits White House business into golf trip

Trump worked some official business into the trip by holding talks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and reaching a trade framework for tariffs between the U.S. and the European Union’s 27 member countries — though scores of key details remain to be settled.

But the trip itself was centered around golf, and the presidential visit served to raise the new course’s profile.

Trump’s assets are in a trust and his sons are running the family business while he’s in the White House. Any business generated at the course will ultimately enrich the president when he leaves office, though.

The new golf course will be the third owned by the Trump Organization in Scotland. Trump bought Turnberry in 2014 and owns another course near Aberdeen that opened in 2012.

Trump golfed at Turnberry on Saturday, as protesters took to the streets, and on Sunday before meeting there in the afternoon with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

New course blends things dear to Trump

The occasion blended two things dear to Trump: golf and Scotland.

His mother, the late Mary Anne MacLeod, was born on the Isle of Lewis on the north coast.

“We love Scotland here. My mother was born here, and she loved it,” Trump said Tuesday. She visited “religiously once a year” during the summer with his sisters, he said.

Perhaps the only mood-buster for Trump are the wind turbines that are part of a nearby wind farm and can be seen from around the new course.

Trump, who often speaks about his hatred of windmills, sued in 2013 to block construction of the wind farm but lost the case and was eventually ordered to pay legal costs for filing the lawsuit — a matter that still enrages him more than a decade later.

Trump said on a new episode of the New York Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast that the “ugly windmills” are a “shame” and are “really hurting” Scotland. The interview was conducted over the weekend and released Tuesday.

“It kills the birds, ruins the look. They’re noisy,” he said, asserting that the value of real estate around them also plummets. “I think it’s a very bad thing. Environmentally, it’s horrible.”

Weissert and Superville write for the Associated Press. Superville reported from Washington.

July 25 (UPI) — Ghislaine Maxwell, associate of child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, is meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Friday to answer more questions about her knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and who may have associated with him.

The two met Thursday and spoke for six hours at a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Fla. Friday’s meeting is a continuation of the questioning. Blanche is a former defense attorney of President Donald Trump.

Before leaving for Scotland Friday, Trump brushed off questions about Epstein.

“I have nothing to do with the guy,” Trump said of Epstein. He socialized with Epstein for years before falling out with him in the mid-2000s.

Trump said reporters should focus on those who allegedly spent time with Epstein, such as former President Bill Clinton and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who was also once the president of Harvard.

People “don’t talk about them. They talk about me,” he complained.

“You should focus on Clinton. You should focus on the president of Harvard, the former president of Harvard, you should focus on some of the hedge fund guys,” CNBC reported that Trump said.

“I’ll give you a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein, I sure as hell didn’t.”

When asked if he would pardon Maxwell, who has served five years of a 20-year sentence for finding and grooming young girls for Epstein’s abuse, Trump said, “It’s something I haven’t thought about.”

“I’m allowed to do it,” he added.

Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus said Maxwell was “hoping for another productive day.”

“Ghislaine has been treated unfairly for over five years now,” he added.

“If you looked up scapegoat in the dictionary, her face would be next to the definition next to the dictionary definition of it,” he said. “So, you know, we’re grateful for this opportunity to finally be able to say what really happened, and that’s what we’re going to do yesterday and today.”

“We just ask that folks look at what she has to say with an open mind, and that’s what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has promised us, and everything she says can be corroborated, and she’s telling the truth,” Markus said.

“She’s got no reason to lie at this point, and she’s going to keep telling the truth.”

Markus refused to comment on the nature of the questioning.

On social media, Blanche said he would reveal what he learned from Maxwell “at the appropriate time.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a recent review of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department and FBI allegedly found that Trump’s name appeared several times in the files.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., during a press conference on Wednesday, said making the Epstein files public needs to be done in a way that protects the victims mentioned, some of whom are minors.

WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials were set to meet on Thursday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The meeting in Florida, which Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said on Tuesday he was working to arrange, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of President Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.

In a social media post Tuesday, Blanche said that Trump “has told us to release all credible evidence” and that if Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the Justice Department “will hear what she has to say.”

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Thursday. The person who confirmed the meeting insisted on anonymity to describe a closed-door encounter to the Associated Press.

A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed on Tuesday there were discussions with the government and said Maxwell “will always testify truthfully.”

The House Committee on Oversight issued a subpoena on Wednesday for Maxwell to testify before committee officials in August.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence and is housed at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Fla. She was sentenced three years ago after being convicted of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

Officials have said Epstein killed himself in his New York jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019, but his case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories because of his and Maxwell’s links to famous people, including royals, presidents and billionaires.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department said it would not release more files related to the Epstein investigation, despite promises that claimed otherwise from Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi. The department also said an Epstein client list does not exist.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Bondi told Trump in May that his name was among high-profile people mentioned in government files of Epstein, though the mention does not imply wrongdoing.

Trump, a Republican, has said that he once thought Epstein was a “terrific guy” but that they later had a falling out.

A subcommittee on Wednesday also voted to subpoena the Justice Department for documents related to Epstein. And senators in both major political parties have expressed openness to holding hearings on the matter after Congress’ August recess.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, has introduced legislation with bipartisan support that would require the Justice Department to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his associates.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican majority leader, Rep. Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana, have said they will address whatever outstanding Epstein-related issues are in Congress when they return from recess.

Epstein, under a 2008 nonprosecution agreement, pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. That allowed him to avert a possible life sentence, instead serving 13 months in a work release program. He was required to make payments to victims and register as a sex offender.

In 2019, Epstein was charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for nearly identical allegations.

Tucker and Williams write for the Associated Press. Williams reported from Detroit.

July 24 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice is meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, at a federal courthouse in Florida on Thursday.

She was originally scheduled to meet Justice Department representatives at the minimum-security prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking, but instead the meeting will happen at the U.S. attorney’s office, located inside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, as first reported by ABC News.

“For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know?” posted U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to X Tuesday in regard to the Thursday meeting.

Maxwell has also been subpoenaed by House Oversight Committee Chairperson Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., for a deposition slated to take place at the prison where she is held on Aug. 11.

Maxwell was convicted and sentenced in June 2022 as an accomplice in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme and was denied a reassessment by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a recent review of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department and FBI allegedly found that President Donald Trump‘s name appeared several times in the files, and that Trump was informed of that by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in May before the Justice Department said it would not make those files public.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday during a press conference that when the Epstein files are made public, “which we must do as quickly as possible,” it needs to be done in a way that protects the victims mentioned in the files, some of whom are purportedly minors.

But he also stressed that only “credible evidence” should be revealed, and Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus responded on X Wednesday that “We understand [Johnson’s] general concern, Congress should always vet the credibility of its witnesses.”

However, Markus claimed, “those concerns are unfounded,” and that Maxwell testifies before Congress and not invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, that “she would testify truthfully.”

Markus also said that Maxwell is looking forward to her meeting with the DOJ, and that will inform how she proceeds in regard to the Congressional subpoena.

Rumors that Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while in custody, had a list of clients who participated in the abuse and exploitation have been denied by the DOJ. Further rumors involve President Donald Trump’s past relationship with Epstein, although Trump has since called public’s interest in the Epstein files a “scam” and a “hoax” created by his political opponents.

July 23 (UPI) — The U.S. House Oversight Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed Ghislaine Maxwell as a subcommittee sought subpoenas for President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and the Justice Department.

A House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee also approved subpoenas to obtain Department of Justice records related to the Epstein files and deposing former President Bill Clinton and other Democrats.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., introduced the motion to subpoena the DOJ’s “full, complete [and] unredacted” Epstein files, which passed with an 8-2 vote.

Republican Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Brian Jack of Georgia and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania joined Democrats in voting in favor of the subpoena motion.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said he will sign the DOJ subpoena for the Epstein files, ABC News reported.

The subcommittee also seeks former President Clinton’s and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s depositions.

Others targeted for subpoenas include James Comey, Eric Holder, Loretta Lynch, Robert Mueller, Alberto Gonzales and Jeff Sessions.

House speaker questions Maxwell’s credibility

The Oversight Committee wants to depose Maxwell on Aug. 11 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Fla.

Maxwell, 63, was an associate of former financier and convicted sex offender Epstein, who killed himself while jailed in New York City and awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges that included minors in 2019.

She also is the daughter of former British media mogul Robert Maxwell and is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida after a jury found her guilty of sex trafficking in 2021.

“The facts and circumstances surrounding both your and Mr. Epstein’s cases have received immense public interest and scrutiny,” Comer said in the subpoena.

Comer said the Justice Department also is undertaking “efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to your and Mr. Epstein’s cases.”

“It is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally,” he added, “and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr. Epstein.”

Comer submitted the subpoena a day after a House Oversight subcommittee approved a motion that directed him to seek Maxwell’s testimony before the Oversight Committee.

The Justice Department on Tuesday also announced it will interview Maxwell soon to provide greater transparency in the case against Epstein.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Wednesday questioned the credibility of Maxwell’s testimony.

“Could she be counted on to tell the truth?” Johnson asked reporters. “Is she a credible witness?”

He called Maxwell “a person who’s been sentenced to many, many years in prison for terrible, unspeakable conspiratorial acts and acts against innocent young people.”

Federal judge denies Epstein grand jury files access

A federal judge on Wednesday denied one of three DOJ requests to release grand jury records from Epstein’s case there.

U.S. District of Southern Florida Judge Robin Rosenberg refused to unseal the grand jury testimony and records from cases against Epstein in 2005 and 2007.

Rosenberg said the Justice Department did not sufficiently outline arguments to unseal the court records.

She also denied a request to transfer the matter to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York.

Two federal judges there similarly are considering DOJ motions to unseal grand jury files from the former Epstein cases.

Bondi said Trump’s name is in the files

While those rulings are pending, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump his name appears in the Epstein files, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Bondi did not state the context in which Trump is mentioned, and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said Trump did not engage in any wrongdoing.

Instead, Trump expelled Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club because the president thought Epstein was a “creep,” Cheung added.

Bondi earlier suggested she would release files related to the Epstein case, but recently said they don’t contain anything noteworthy.

Her announcement regarding the files triggered controversy, including among Republican congressional members.

Johnson canceled Thursday’s House session and said the chamber will recess until Sept. 2.

These are salad days for the likes of Joseph Uscinski, who spends his time peering down rabbit holes and poking in the dark spaces where weird and woolly things grow.

There are loads of conspiracy theories out there, the granddaddy of them all being the conjecture surrounding John F. Kennedy’s assassination. But most tend to fade and be forgotten, said Uscinski, who teaches political science at the University of Miami, where he studies public opinion and mass media, with a focus on conspiracies.

“Only a select few will attract a large number of believers, have movies made… get talked about by politicians,” Uscinski said.

The Jeffrey Epstein saga has all the elements of one of those top-shelf intrigues, with an added Shakespearean twist — a president whose political rise has been fueled by outlandish conspiracy theories and now faces a backlash from some of his most faithful devotees, as he tries to wriggle free from a deceitful web of his own design.

Delicious, especially if you enjoy your schadenfreude served piping hot.

The known facts are these:

Epstein was an eye-poppingly wealthy financier, luxe man-about-Manhattan and convicted sex offender who sexually trafficked women and girls. In 2008, he agreed to an exceedingly lenient plea deal with federal prosecutors that resulted in a 13-month prison sentence, with freedom granted 12 hours a day, six days a week, under a work-release program.

A decade later, an investigative reporter at the Miami Herald identified scores of alleged survivors of sexual abuse by Epstein and some of his associates. In 2019, a new federal criminal case was brought against him. About a month after being arrested, Epstein was found dead in his cell at a jail in New York City. Investigators ruled Epstein’s death a suicide.

An A-list fixture of the upper-crust social scene, Epstein has been linked in court documents with a galaxy of celebrities from the worlds of Hollywood, business and politics. It’s an article of faith among some true believers — particularly within the MAGA movement — that a secret list of those serviced by Epstein’s sexual enterprise exists somewhere in the bowels of the federal government, hidden by agents of the hated, anti-Trump “deep state.”

In a Fox News interview in February, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said a list of Epstein’s clients was “sitting on my desk right now to review,” with its public release seemingly just a matter of time.

Then, like one of Trump’s threatened tariffs, the list — or “list” — abruptly vanished. There was no such thing, the Justice Department announced earlier this month, along with a finding that Epstein had, in fact, killed himself and was not, as some assert, murdered by forces wishing to silence him.

A piqued president urged everyone to move on and forget about Epstein. “Somebody that nobody cares about,” sniffed Trump, who moved in many of the same social circles as Epstein but now downplays their yearslong friendship.

All in all, conspiratorial catnip.

“Saying there are files and then saying there aren’t files… setting up some expectation for revelations and then insisting that actually there’s nothing there” has only deepened the well of suspicion, said Kathryn Olmsted, a UC Davis conspiracy expert who’s studied past instances of government deflection and deception involving the CIA and FBI, among others.

Unlike some of the crackpot stuff she’s heard — like Bill and Hillary Clinton murdering Joan Rivers to cover up Michelle Obama’s transgender identity — the conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein have at least some grounding in reality.

“He was very rich and powerful and he associated with some of the most powerful and richest people in the world, including members of both the Democratic and Republican parties,” Olmsted said. “And he was trafficking girls. There’s an actual crime at the heart of this. It’s not just something that people have made up out of thin air.”

That’s the thing that gives the Epstein conspiracy theories their distinctly frothy frisson: a blending of vital ingredients, one very old and the other comparatively new.

False allegations of child abuse date back to the blood libel of the Middle Ages and the assertion that Jews tortured and murdered Christian children as part of their ceremonial worship. From there, a through line can be traced all the way to the 2016 “Pizzagate” conspiracy, which claimed that Hillary Clinton and her top aides were running a child-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizza parlor.

Truly vile stuff.

Take that ancient trope and marry it to a modern lack of faith in the federal government and its institutions and you’re gifted with an endless source of lurid speculation.

“The number of threads that you can pull out of [the Epstein] fabric are many,” said retired University of Utah historian Robert Goldberg, another conspiracy expert. “And they’re going to be long.”

Democrats, for their part, are eagerly fanning the controversy, as a way to undermine Trump and drive a wedge in his granite-firm base.

“He said he was going to release [the complete Epstein files] and now he’s saying there’s nothing to see here and appears to be wanting to sweep the whole thing under the rug,” Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who played a prominent role in the Jan. 6 congressional hearings, taunted on MSNBC. “There is overwhelming bipartisan, popular demand, congressional demand, to release all of this stuff.”

Indeed, Trump need only look in one of his gilded mirrors to see what’s driven years of fevered Epstein obsession.

“He built a coalition of people who have these beliefs,” said the University of Miami’s Uscinski. “And I think he’s learned that once you build a coalition of conspiracy theorists, you can’t get them to [stop believing]. They came to him because he was telling them what they want. He can’t turn around and do the opposite now.”

Oh, what a tangled web we weave…

July 19 (UPI) — President Donald Trump sued the Wall Street Journal and its parent company, seeking at least $10 billion in damages, after the newspaper published an article one day earlier about a letter Trump allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein before the financier was convicted of sex crimes.

The 18-page lawsuit, which was filed Friday in the Southern District of Florida in Miami’s division, names the two reporters, The Wall Street Journal, as well as Dow Jones, News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch, who controls the company, and New Corp’s CEO Robert Thomson.

“Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light,” the lawsuit, signed by Alejandro Brito of the Ian Michael law firm in Coral Gables, reads.

“We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit,” a Dow Jones spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal, which noted that News Corp did not respond to its request for comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump sent Epstein a letter for his 50th birthday consisting of text in the outline of a naked woman over her signature. As noted in the filing, the newspaper did not publish the letter.

The letter was one of several published in a leather-bound album of birthday messages Epstein received as a gift that is reportedly among documents examined by the Justice Department several years ago.

“The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists,” Trump’s lawyer wrote in the lawsuit.

On Friday night, Trump posted on Truth Social: “We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal. ….

“This lawsuit is filed not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media. I hope Rupert and his ‘friends’ are looking forward to the many hours of depositions and testimonies they will have to provide in this case. Thank you for your attention to this matter. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

On his Truth Social account on Thursday, Trump claimed the letter was fake, and said “I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words,” threatening to sue.

“The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch, personally, were warned directly by President Donald J. Trump that the supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE and, if they print it, they will be sued,” the president posted Thursday.

He noted that Murdoch told him “he would take care to it. But, obviously, did not have the power to do it.”

Trump has been pressured by his Make America Great Again base and Democrats to release files on Epstein, of which the grand jury testimony is a small portion.

Attorney General Palm Bondi said earlier this month in a memo said that much of the information is under legal seal but that there is “no incriminating ‘client list'” in the files and that “there was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”

On Thursday, Trump ordered grand jury testimony to be released by DOJ with victims’ names likely redacted.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in his Manhattan jail cell as he was awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges in connection with allegations of running a child sex-trafficking ring. The memo also confirmed he died by suicide with surveillance video included through three minutes were missing.

For an entire decade now, Donald Trump has been immune to alienating his supporters — a base so loyal they’d drink bleach if he told them it would own the libs (and some probably did).

Stormy Daniels? A spiritual growth opportunity for evangelicals to witness a modern-day King David. Inciting a Capitol riot? Boosted his Q-rating (not to mention his QAnon rating). Bombing Iran? Sure, a few “America First” types grumbled into their microphones about endless wars before dutifully moving on.

Trump himself bragged he could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue, shoot somebody and not lose a single voter. He was right.

But the current wave of intra-MAGA criticism — over the Trump administration’s defensive insistence that Jeffrey Epstein (a) definitely committed suicide, and (b) never had a client list — feels categorically different.

Trump can usually smother an inconvenient news cycle by tossing a fresh carcass on the table, be it a deranged Truth Social post or a threat to jail an enemy.

This time, however, his suggestion that Rosie O’Donnell should have her citizenship revoked barely registered above ambient noise, as the mob kept hammering him over his refusal to release the Epstein files. His latest weapon of mass distraction is a not-so-subtle hint that he might fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. But even that hasn’t managed to shift the spotlight away from Epstein.

Having failed at distraction, Trump reverted to bullying. He scolded the press for dredging up old news (“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?”) He took to Truth Social to tell his MAGA supporters not to “waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein.” He absurdly claimed the Epstein files were a “scam” and a “hoax” made up by Democrats, and described the folks who “bought into this bull—” as “weaklings” and his “PAST supporters.”

These efforts tamed some of the criticism inside the MAGA tent. But for others, it only reinforced the perception of a cover-up.

So why has the Epstein scandal — of all things — threatened civil war on the right? I have some thoughts.

First: It speaks to where the passions of MAGA really lie. For some percentage of Trump supporters, exposing the satanic, blood-drinking pedophile cabal was supposed to be the deliverable — his raison d’être — the payoff.

Instead they got, what, corporate tax cuts?

Second: The Epstein narrative is too lurid and concrete to be handwaved away. Epstein really was a sex trafficker. There really are those photographs of him palling around with Trump. He really was on “suicide watch.” Minutes really are missing from the surveillance video near Epstein’s cell. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi really did say on Fox News in February that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk right now.” You don’t need to be in a tin-foil hat to notice the fishiness here.

And third: The incentives have changed for MAGA influencers. Trump finally feels like a lame duck, and the knives are out, not just to inherit the throne, but for the whole spoils system of the MAGA grift.

To be clear, plenty of the usual sycophants have decided to “trust the plan” and go along with the party line. But others — Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nick Fuentes and assorted alt-right B-listers — seem to have caught the scent of blood in the water.

Even the new cohort of MAGA-adjacent bro podcasters — guys like Andrew Schulz — have started to openly criticize him. Schulz recently called Trump’s failure to release the Epstein files “insulting our intelligence,” which, for that demographic, is tantamount to open revolt.

Here, Trump could really face some attrition. Unlike the evangelical core, these manosphere podcasters (and their legions of young male listeners) are not partisans or ideologues; their support for Trump has always been more middle finger than mission. And middle fingers, as everyone eventually learns, can be directed at new targets anytime.

So how does this end?

Eventually, this story will be suppressed or at least professionally ignored. But it won’t be fully memory-holed. It will linger somewhere between subliminal and ubiquitous, in much the same way that George W. Bush never fully escaped the stench of those nonexistent WMDs (even after Republicans agreed to stay the course).

So Trump survives — but he carries with him a dormant virus that could flare up again.

There’s a certain irony here that’s almost too obvious to point out, except that it’s also irresistible: Trump built an entire ecology of paranoia — a system that rewards its most theatrical paranoids. He spent years feeding his ravenous base suspicion and spectacle. And it worked. Until he finally got out-conspiracy-theoried.

Even the best carnival barker runs out of new tricks eventually. And when the crowd starts peeking behind the curtain, the spell is broken, and the jig is up.

Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy Rich Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”

WASHINGTON, July 15 (UPIU) — Republican lawmakers alleged Tuesday that Democratic leaders have funneled hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to nonprofit organizations run by political allies, advancing what they called a “radical agenda” without public accountability.

Democrats fired back, calling the hearing a partisan distraction aimed at vilifying groups that serve vulnerable communities.

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight’s hearing, titled “How Leftist Nonprofit Networks Exploit Federal Tax Dollars to Advance a Radical Agenda,” drew sharp partisan lines.

The subcommittee chair, Chair Rep. Jefferson Van Drew, R-N.J., said nonprofits that receive federal funds through agencies like USAID and the Justice Department are enacting policies Americans haven’t voted for, accusing Democratic leaders of “abuse of power.”

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, passionately disagreed, arguing the hearing was designed to advance President Donald Trump‘s political agenda, while ignoring pressing civil rights and public safety issues.

“This committee is spending its time holding a hearing with a title that sounds like it was ripped from a conspiracy law,” Crockett said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, echoed the committee chair’s concerns, calling several taxpayer-funded initiatives under the Biden administration “stupid,” including spending on public broadcasting, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and federal education grants.

Democrats, however, argued that the hearing lacked substance and accountability. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., criticized the proceeding as a “waste of time,” as it focused on grievances rather than governance, and that the committee did not call a single official from any of the groups allegedly advancing a radical agenda.

“If our motto is going to be finger-pointing for losers, then this hearing is for losers,” Raskin said.

Hen added that Republicans have been failing to address systemic challenges like gun violence and climate change, and that none of the groups mentioned has been involved in illegal actions, but instead the Republicans simply do not like what certain groups are doing.

For example, Raskin cited the mass firings of Justice Department attorneys who prosecuted Americans for their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“Due process is what separates our freedoms from arbitrary state power,” he said.

As the hearing continued, Raskin was the first to bring the Jeffrey Epstein files into the conversation, questioning the Trump administration’s sudden lack of commitment to transparency by not releasing the information.

“Remember that they said this would be the most transparent administration in the United States,” he said.

Witnesses invited by Republican lawmakers argued that taxpayer dollars are being funneled into politically motivated organizations that push divisive agendas.

Tyler O’Neil, senior editor at The Daily Signal, singled out a $2 million grant to the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice for immigration-related services, calling it part of a broader “immigration industrial complex.”

O’Neill also criticized federal support for the ACLU and the AFL-CIO, arguing that union dues from federal employees were indirectly subsidizing left-leaning political causes.

Insha Rahman, vice president of advocacy and partnerships at the Vera Institute, told UPI, “Today’s congressional hearing was a distraction from the honest debate the American public deserves about the solutions that work to prevent crime, respond to crisis, and stop violence.

“The Department of Justice’s abrupt and illegal terminations of $820 million in grant funding to hundreds of organizations, including Vera, jeopardizes programs and services across the country — including in suburban and rural jurisdictions — that save lives and make communities safer.”

Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center, attempted to redirect the conversation. He said that while he personally supports conservative organizations, like the Heritage Foundation, he would oppose federal funding for any ideologically driven group — including those with whom he agrees.

He argued that taxpayer dollars should only go to feeding the hungry and clothing the poor — actions he associated as biblically related good doings — but not socially controversial issues.

Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and contributor to the conservative blueprint Project 2025, testified in a personal capacity and criticized USAID’s funding decisions under Ambassador Samantha Power, suggesting it began the pathway for the agency to prioritize progressive global initiatives over national interest.

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and Gonzalez got into an escalated exchange when Gonzalez confronted Democrats about so-called “dark money” — where the source is not disclosed to the public — for groups tied to liberal causes.

Johnson fired back, pointing to the Heritage Foundation’s own opaque funding sources and ties to conservative megadonors like billionaire Charles Koch.

A last minute addition to the witness list was Luis CdeBaca, a former U.S. ambassador and anti-trafficking expert. CdeBaca defended the work of civil society organizations, arguing that they provide critical services to vulnerable populations — often filling gaps left by under-resourced government programs.

He warned against politicizing federal grantmaking, which he said should be based on impact, not ideology.

Rahman reacted similarly to Vera’s work, defending that “The DOJ grants Vera received supported our evidence-based work with correctional staff across the country to improve prison operations, training, and culture for both officers and people incarcerated; expand access to counseling and treatment for people in mental health crisis; and support police and law enforcement to better serve deaf survivors of domestic violence.”

NEW YORK — As his supporters erupt over the Justice Department’s failure to release much-hyped records in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation, President Donald Trump’s strategy has been to downplay the issue.

His problem? That nothing-to-see-here approach doesn’t work for those who have learned from him that they must not give up until the government’s deepest, darkest secrets are exposed.

Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI abruptly walked back the notion that there’s an Epstein client list of elites who participated in the wealthy New York financier’s trafficking of underage girls. Trump quickly defended Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and chided a reporter for daring to ask about the documents.

The online reaction was swift, with followers calling the Republican president “out of touch” and demanding transparency.

On Saturday, Trump used his Truth Social platform to again attempt to call supporters off the Epstein trail amid reports of infighting between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino over the issue. He suggested the turmoil was undermining his administration — “all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”

That did little to mollify Trump’s supporters, who urged him to release the files or risk losing his base. At least one follower responded to Trump’s post by saying it seemed as though the president was just trying to make the issue go away — but assured him it wouldn’t.

The political crisis is especially challenging for Trump because it’s one of his own making. The president has spent years stoking dark theories and embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts him as the only savior who can demolish the “deep state.”

Now that he’s running the federal government, the community he helped build is coming back to haunt him. It’s demanding answers he either isn’t able to or does not want to provide.

“The faulty assumption Trump and others make is they can peddle conspiracy theories without any blowback,” said Matt Dallek, a political scientist at George Washington University. “The Epstein case is a neat encapsulation that it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle.”

A problem that’s not going away

Last week’s two-page statement from the Justice Department and the FBI saying they had concluded that Epstein did not possess a client list roiled Trump’s supporters, who pointed to past statements from several administration officials that the list ought to be revealed.

Bondi had suggested in February that such a document was sitting on her desk waiting for review, though last week she said she had been referring generally to the Epstein case file and not a specific client list.

Conservative influencers have since demanded to see all the files related to Epstein’s crimes, even as Trump has tried to put the issue to bed.

Far-right commentator Jack Posobiec said at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit on Saturday that he would not rest “until we go full Jan. 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files.”

Trump’s weekend post sought to divert attention by calling on supporters to focus instead on investigating Democrats and arresting criminals rather than “spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein.” His first-term national security advisor, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, pleaded with him to reconsider.

“@realdonaldtrump please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away,” Flynn wrote, adding that failing to address unanswered Epstein questions would make facing other national challenges “much harder.”

Other Trump allies continue to push for answers, among them far-right activist Laura Loomer, who has called for Bondi to resign. She told Politico’s Playbook newsletter on Sunday that a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the handling of the files on Epstein, who was found dead in his federal jail cell in 2019 about a month after he was arrested.

Experts who study conspiracy theories warned that more sunlight does not necessarily make far-fetched narratives disappear.

“For some portion of this set of conspiracy theory believers, no amount of contradictory evidence will ever be enough,” said Josephine Lukito, who studies conspiracy theorists at the University of Texas at Austin.

Trump and his colleagues set their own trap

The president and many figures in his administration — including Bondi, Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel — earned their political capital over the years in part by encouraging disproven conspiracy theories on a range of topics, from elections to vaccines.

Now, they’re tasked with trying to reveal the evidence they’d long insisted was there — a challenge that’s reached across the government.

Last week, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin posted on X what seemed like an endorsement of a notorious conspiracy theory that the contrails left by aircraft are releasing chemicals for potentially nefarious reasons. But a second post from Zeldin underscored the fine line the Trump administration is trying to walk by linking to a new page on the EPA website that essentially debunked the theory.

The value of conspiratorial fabrications is that they help people get political power, said Russell Muirhead, who teaches political science at Dartmouth College. He said Trump has exploited that “more ably than anybody probably in American history.”

But the Epstein case brings unique challenges, he said. That’s because it’s rooted in truth: A wealthy and well-connected financier did spend years abusing large numbers of young girls while escaping justice.

As a result, Trump needs to come forward with truth and transparency on the topic, Muirhead said. If he doesn’t, “large segments of his most enthusiastic and devoted supporters are going to lose faith in him.”

A potentially costly distraction

As right-wing outrage over Epstein dominates the political conversation, Democrats and other Trump rivals have been taking advantage.

Several Democratic lawmakers have called for the release of all Epstein files and suggested Trump could be resisting because he or someone close to him is featured in them. Conservatives expressed concerns that Trump’s approach on Epstein could hurt them in the midterms.

“For this to go away, you’re going to lose 10% of the MAGA movement,” right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon said during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Friday.

There’s also the challenge of governing.

Bondi and Bongino had a tense exchange last week at the White House over a story about Epstein, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

And Loomer, who is close to Trump, said Friday she was told that Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning.” Bongino showed up at work Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss personnel issues. The FBI declined to comment.

Patel also took to social media Friday to dismiss what he called “conspiracy theories” that he himself would be leaving the administration.

Dallek, the George Washington University professor, said it’s alarming that the country’s top law enforcement officials are feuding over a conspiracy theory.

“It’s possible at some time voters are going to notice the things they want or expect government to do aren’t being done because the people in charge are either incompetent or off chasing rabbits,” he said. “Who is fulfilling the mission of the FBI to protect the American people?”

Swenson and Riccardi write for the Associated Press. Riccardi reported from Denver. AP writers Eric Tucker, Melissa Goldin and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.

July 11 (UPI) — Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files has FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino contemplating resigning from his position, according to several news reports.

Bongino and Bondi clashed over the matter earlier this week after she said there is no list of client names to be made publicly available, CNN reported on Friday.

The clash occurred at the White House on Wednesday after Bondi also said evidence confirms Epstein committed suicide and was not murdered while jailed in New York City in 2019.

Unnamed sources told Fox News, Axios and CNN that Bongino has said he might resign due to the conflict and has not been in his office since Wednesday.

Bondi, though, has said she won’t resign, and FBI Director Kash Patel, likewise, intends to stay with the federal law enforcement agency.

“President Donald Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law-and-order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable and delivering justice to victims,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields told Fox News.

“Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all,” Fields said.

Epstein was a financier and a convicted sex offender who was found dead inside a New York Metropolitan Correctional Center jail cell while awaiting trial on federal charges in August 2019.

He was pronounced dead of suicide after being taken to a nearby hospital.

Trump said he might release the information from files while campaigning in 2024, and Bondi suggested she would release information after becoming the nation’s attorney general.

The Justice Department on Monday announced there is no client list and no evidence that he was killed.

Reports of conflict between the Justice Department and the FBI are false, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Friday in a post on X.

A lot of people online have been very, very upset over the Trump Department of Justice’s twofold conclusion, announced last Sunday, that Jeffrey Epstein’s death in jail in 2019 was a suicide and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had no “incriminating ‘client list’ ” among its Epstein files.

The tremendous uproar against the Justice Department and FBI has crossed partisan lines; if anything, it has been many conservative commentators and some Republican elected officials who have expressed the most outrage, with accusations and implications that the government is hiding something about the case to protect powerful individuals.

Given the sordid nature of the underlying subject matter and the fact the feds closely examined “over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography,” the obsession with the “Epstein files” gives off a vibe that is, frankly, somewhat creepy. To be sure, it is always righteous to seek justice for victims, but many don’t want public scrutiny.

The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files has not been its finest hour. During a February interview on Fox News, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said, in response to host John Roberts’ question about whether the Justice Department would release a “list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients,” that the list was “sitting on [her] desk right now to review.” It is an astonishing about-face for Bondi to now disavow that investigators have any such list. The Trump administration owes us all a clear explanation.

With that large caveat aside, though, the fact remains: This is just not the biggest deal in the world — and if you think it is, then you probably need to log off social media.

The midterm elections next fall are not going to be determined by the existence — or absence — of a “client list” for an extravagantly wealthy dead pedophile. Nor will they be decided on the absurd grounds of whether FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have somehow been “compromised.” (They haven’t.) Instead, the election — and our politics — will be contested on typical substantive grounds: the economy, inflation, immigration, crime, global stability and so forth. This is as it should be. There are simply better uses of your time than fuming over the government’s avowed nonexistence of the much-ballyhooed client list.

You might, for instance, consider spending more time, during these midsummer weeks, with your family. Maybe you can take the kids camping or fishing. Maybe you can take them to an amusement park or to one of America’s many national park treasures. You can spend less time scrolling Instagram and TikTok and more time reading a good old-fashioned book; you will learn more, you will be happier and you will be considerably less likely to traffic in fringe issues and bizarre rhetoric that alienates far more than it unifies.

Instead of finding meaning in the confirmation biases and groupthink validations of social media algorithms, perhaps you can locate meaning where countless human beings have found it since time immemorial: religion. Spend more time praying, reading scripture and attending services at your preferred house of worship. All of these uses of your time will fill you with a sense of stability, meaning and purpose that you will never find deep in the bowels of an X thread on the Epstein files.

Too many people today who are deeply engaged in America’s combustible political process have forgotten that there are more important things in life than politics. And even within the specific realm of politics, there are plenty of things that are more deserving of attention and emotional investment than others. Above all, it is conservatives — those oriented toward sobriety and humility, not utopianism and decadence — who ought to be able to properly contextualize America’s political tug-of-war within our broader lives and who ought to then be able to focus on the meaningful political issues to the exclusion of tawdry soap opera drama.

Like many others, I expect that the Justice Department’s recent — and seemingly definitive — waving away of the Epstein files saga will not actually prove to be the final word on the matter. To the limited extent that I allow myself to think about this sideshow, I hope that the administration does squarely address the many legitimate and unanswered questions now being asked by a frustrated citizenry that has seemingly been misled by the Trump administration, either in Bondi’s February statement or in this month’s report. But I also hope that the extent of this past week’s rage might serve as an edifying moment. Let’s return to the real things in life and focus on what matters most.

Josh Hammer’s latest book is “Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West.” This article was produced in collaboration with Creators Syndicate. @josh_hammer