STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
House Speaker Mike Johnson is the highest-profile Republican to call for the Trump administration to release more information about Jeffrey Epstein.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE JOHNSON: It's a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it.
INSKEEP: Speaker Johnson said that to the podcaster Benny Johnson. Epstein, of course, was the convicted sex offender with connections to many rich and famous people who died by suicide while in jail during the first Trump administration. NPR's Shannon Bond is following the story. Shannon, good morning.
SHANNON BOND, BYLINE: Morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. Speaker Johnson says it's delicate. It is, for a lot of reasons, one of them being the politics that involves President Trump. So how did he phrase his argument?
BOND: Well, Johnson singled out Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has been a target for many in the MAGA movement who are feeling betrayed by the administration over all this Epstein business but who don't seem willing to pin that blame on the president. So back in February, Bondi told Fox News that Epstein's alleged client list was on her desk for review, indicating she might - would want to release that. But now the Justice Department says there is no list. They're not going to release more information. And Bondi now says she was referring to the entirety of the Epstein files. Mike Johnson said Bondi needs to, quote, "come forward and explain that to everybody."
Now, Bondi has brushed off questions about her handling of this material, and so far, Trump is defending her. Yesterday, the president said she's been handling this all quite well. But he also said, quote, "whatever she thinks is credible, she should release," which sounds a lot, Steve, like what many of his supporters have been calling for.
INSKEEP: What has made this case so important to so many people who are Trump supporters?
BOND: Well, for many conspiracy theorists, Jeffrey Epstein's story is really this striking example of what they believe is a satanic cabal of pedophiles who are entrenched among the world's most powerful people. You know, that is the central belief animating the QAnon conspiracy theory, which also posits that Donald Trump is destined to defeat that cabal. And Trump and his allies have in the past, you know, embraced some of these ideas. Trump promised to release the government's files about Epstein while he was on the campaign trail last year. He appointed FBI leaders who had helped promote conspiracy theories about Epstein and his death. So, since the Department of Justice said last week, look, nothing to see here, case closed, many of those who have bought into this conspiratorial world view, they've been trying to make sense of this administration's backtracking.
INSKEEP: How's that going for them?
BOND: Well, it's been a challenge because Trump himself is so core to this belief about an existential battle with the so-called deep state. I spoke to Mike Rothschild, a journalist and author who focused on conspiracy theories.
MIKE ROTHSCHILD: It's trying to reconcile two things that both cannot be true at the same time and finding a way to make both of them true.
BOND: Now, for many people, this process involves pivoting to new explanations. And this is what Trump himself did on Truth Social this weekend. He spun up a new baseless conspiracy theory that, actually, the Epstein files were created by President Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Biden administration. Then there's others who have been pivoting to another iteration of the deep state conspiracy, which is often antisemitic. They're claiming, without evidence, that Epstein was involved with Israeli intelligence. And then for still others, the administration's failure to release the files is just further proof that the deep state is just too powerful for Trump to overcome, even as president. And so even as Trump is telling his supporters to forget about Epstein, they are demanding that the administration release whatever it is that they have on him.
INSKEEP: Adjusting the theories to account for new inconvenient information. Shannon, thanks so much.
BOND: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Shannon Bond. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
