“Buckle Up,” blared a headline on Fox personality Sean Hannity’s website, teasing the imminent release of “bombshell” documents related to the government’s legal case against alleged billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi told another Fox host, Jesse Waters, “What you’re going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information.”
Instead, the public got a big fat nothingburger. No bombshells, such as the eagerly sought client list thought to include many high-profile politicians and celebrities. Much of the information it contained was already known.
Epstein, facing sex trafficking charges, was found dead in his jail cell in 2019.
Bondi, seeking to deflect the criticism, which included calls for her resignation, sent a letter to newly minted FBI director Kash Patel demanding the “full and complete” Epstein files.
“By 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including all records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients, regardless of how such information was obtained,” wrote Bondi, who demanded a “full investigation” into the matter.
Bondi defended the initial document dump, saying the files shed light “on Epstein’s extensive network and begins to provide the public with long overdue accountability.”
“I am also directing you to conduct an immediate investigation into why my order to the FBI was not followed,” the attorney general wrote. “You will deliver to me a comprehensive report of your findings and proposed personnel action within 14 days.”
MAGA nation has tempered their expectations.
“Can’t wait to be gaslit for phase 2 today,” right-wing influencer Laura Loomer posted on X. “Maybe we will find out today that a man named Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself and the big bad deep state in New York, and former Trump AG Bill Barr lied about it all.”
In a follow-up post, Loomer, who later called on “total liar” Bondi to resign, wrote, “@PamBondi please send us an email of 5 things you did last week. Thank you. — Your Boss”
Bondi further hyped the Epstein release by staging a photo op Thursday, hanging out “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” binders to a number of excited conservative influences.
“This isn’t ‘disclosure.’ This is horsesh-t,” said far-right provocateur and radio host David J. Reilly.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones summed up the disappointment with a meme showing a carrot being dangled in front of a cartoon rabbit.
Trump has thus far avoided any blowback, even though, as president, he has unchallenged authority to declassify documents. So if the Epstein files “are heavily redacted,” it’s either because “Trump wants it that way” or because the FBI is being insubordinate, journalist Ken Klippenstein wrote.
Gizmodo reported that a majority of the redactions in the documents appear to have been there to shield the identities of Epstein’s victims, as well as the contact information of the people in his contact list.
But MAGA nation is always careful to protect Trump, and the online narrative is gravitating to a conspiracy involving the New York field office of the FBI, according to Gizmodo. On Thursday, accusations circulated online that the New York wing of the bureau was responsible for shielding the missing Epstein documents.
Glenn Beck asked, “Who is subverting POTUS?”
“The #Epsteinfiles are a total joke,” he wrote. “I know Kash, Pam B and The President. This is not the file. WH tells me that they believe the usual suspects FBI/SDNY has the actual #EpsteinClientList and are refusing to turn it over. THIS IS AN INTERNAL CIVIL WAR if true.”
