Amid all the controversies of President Donald Trump’s second term so far, the one that may be causing him the biggest problems among his right-wing base is about a man who died six years ago: Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein, the well-connected financier who was indicted for sex trafficking underage girls and died in prison in 2019, has been an obsession on the right ever since. Online MAGA influencers and Fox commentators have speculated for years that Epstein might have been murdered, that he was blackmailing powerful people, and that the US government is hiding information that would reveal what really happened.

In 2024 and the initial months of 2025, Trump allies like Pam Bondi and Kash Patel — the current attorney general and FBI director, respectively — played to the base and egged on these theories, promising to release the “Epstein Files.”

But now they can’t — or won’t — deliver.

On Monday, the Justice Department and FBI released a memo saying, basically, that they’ve got nothing. The memo says that, after a review, they found no Epstein “client list” and no “credible evidence” that he blackmailed people. The memo also restated the FBI’s conclusion that Epstein killed himself.

Key right-wing influencers reacted with fury, despair, or contempt — refusing to accept the administration’s assurances that there’s nothing to see here.

Trump was........

© Vox