The Epstein Media conspiracy theory enters a new dangerous phase

CNN
–

What happens when the personalities of the irresponsible media promise a conspiracy theory, only to see him unravel before his eyes?

We are discovering it right now.

The innumerable figures of the right -wing media have suggested that the government is hiding secrets related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile who died for suicide in 2019 while waiting for a trial for federal charges of sex traffic.

Many versions of the conspiracy theory have affirmed that the Government is covering a list of powerful men who also committed atrocious crimes.

This theory has often been short as a “customer list” of Epstein, despite the fact that the reporter with more information in this rhythm, Julie K. Brown, of Miami Herald, saying “Those who have worked with the FBI in the case for decades say there is no evidence that Epstein maintained a major book or a list of clients who were involved in their sexual traffic operation.”

However, President Trump, who was a friend of Epstein decades ago, spoke during the 2024 presidential campaign about the potential release of government archives on the dishonored financial.

While Trump was not completely committed, “you don’t want to affect people’s lives if it’s false things there,” he said in Fox last year, he said his administration would probably open the records.

And that is what Attorney General Pam Bondi sought to do earlier this month, saying that Trump ordered him to review the government archives on Epstein and provide transparency to the public.

As the New York Times observed, “it was a moment that said a lot about the Trump administration:” Bondi and the director of the FBI, Kash Patel, “they chose to prioritize a case concluded for a long time to calm the conservative media and the obsessive nucleus of Trump’s supporters who see the case as a nefarious imminent business.”

Bondi evidently decided to give a group of fifteen personalities of the pro-trump social networks that were in the White House for informative sessions on Thursday.

The influencers (many of which have promoted other conspiracy theories for years and, therefore, have large fans bases on the right) left the White House with white folders labeled “Epstein’s archives: Phase 1”.

Some of the attendees seemed triumphant, as if they had finally discovered what the government had been hiding.

“But they quickly cracked after opening the folders,” wrote Julie K. Brown, “realizing that they contained pages of written material and flight records that have already been made public in 2021”.

In fact, many evidence related to Epstein’s crimes have been in the public domain for years, but the stars of the pro-trump media have insisted that there must be more, and that it was hiding for political reasons.

The lack of new revelations on Thursday led to angry publications in X and other social media sites of the right -wing media.

Some voices of the conservative media, such as the senior writer of the National Review Noah Rothman, criticized the conspiracy theorists, writing“They are telling you that you are the deception” by “giving you false folders of things that have been of public knowledge for almost a decade and putting false disclassification markers for photographs. They are making silly.”

But many heavyweights of Maga could not or would not reach that conclusion. Radio presenter Glenn Beck asked in his place: “Who is subverting Potus?” He imagined a new plot.

It is often how the conspiracy of thought works: objectives of objectives have to change. A new theory has to take shape. A new villain must be blamed.

Just in the example, Bondi wrote a letter to Patel claiming that thousands of documents related to Epstein were being held by the FBI New York field office. He demanded the documents and asked Patel to investigate why they were retained. She proposed a deadline on Friday morning.

This allowed conservative television presenters such as Laura Ingraham to make fun enthusiastically the launch of the “Epstein archives” on Thursday night while warned, as the Kevin Corke correspondent did: “We will probably learn much more tomorrow morning.”

Or not. After all, the most effective conspiracy theories are those that are never completely resolved.