Dems See an Opening in the MAGA Rift Over Epstein Files
This is your TPM evening briefing.
While the Democratic Party by and large has, in recent years, kept its distance from the conspiracy theories related to the death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, individual lawmakers and party officials are now leaping into the rift forming over the saga within the MAGA movement, and attempting to stoke the infighting.
For the most part, Democrats are using the moment to hit on a familiar theme: Trump lied to you, Trump supporters. Some have gone further, suggesting there may be more to the administration’s actions than meets the eye.
Last week, the Trump FBI — which is led by Trump allies who made a splash in the MAGA influencer sphere before entering the Trump administration, in part, by theorizing about Epstein’s death — put out a memo that sent corners of the MAGA world into a spiral. It stated that an “exhaustive review” of DOJ files on Epstein’s crimes and death had found no new evidence for additional charges and no supposed sex trafficking client list. The memo also affirmed other public reports on Epstein’s death — that he died of suicide.
Extremely online MAGA types are now questioning whether Attorney General Pam Bondi is just another cog in the cover-up machine, and whether, improbably, FBI leaders Kash Patel and Don Bongino have been recruited by the Deep State. As my colleague Josh Marshall pointed out, Trump’s own public engagement with the memo’s findings has only fueled suspicions: As a conspiracy theorist himself who is always content to engage with the news and political questions of the day, Trump’s angry effort to quickly shut down reporters’ questions about the memo during one of his televised Cabinet meetings last week were so out of character, they may have sent MAGA followers into a deeper spiral. That, combined with his defensive and bizarre Truth Social post over the weekend — spinning up a new conspiracy theory about how all government documents on the Epstein case are maybe fake because they were, per him, written by Democrats, has allies like Tucker Carlson and Michael Flynn questioning what is going on. Elon Musk’s Twitter musings about Trump being “in the Epstein files” haven’t helped Trump either.
That’s all created a moment for Democrats to seize on, as they often try, and sometimes fail, to do during moments of intra-MAGA tensions. The Democratic National Committee created a new Twitter account last week that reminds followers daily that Trump has not released the Epstein files. In a statement to NBC News, DNC senior adviser Tim Hogan outlined how exactly the Democratic Party is threading the needle in its messaging: “Trump administration officials are either lying about the file and keeping it covered up to protect themselves, or they lied about its existence in a shameless political ploy to get elected. Either way, it is disgusting, and they have to be held accountable,” he said.
Some elected Dems are going further, with Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX) announcing he would soon introduce a resolution that demands the Trump administration release all investigative files on Epstein.
Others like, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), are going all in, wondering, “Who are the rich & powerful being protected?”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) joined some of his colleagues on Monday in calling for the full tranche of Epstein documents to be released to the American public.
“Option 1: They lied for years. Option 2: They’re engaging in a cover-up. At this point, it seems reasonable that it can only be one of the two things,” Jeffries told reporters Monday. “And so it’s Congress’s responsibility, in a bipartisan way, to ask the questions and try to get answers on behalf of the American people.”
Republican Senator Acknowledges Danger of Rubber Stamping Rescissions—Anonymously
Ahead of a potential vote in the Senate this week on the White House’s $9.4 billion rescissions package that would cut federal spending on NPR, PBS and slash multiple foreign aid programs, at least one Republican is worried about the whole ceding-authority-to-the-executive-branch thing. Per a Republican senator granted anonymity who spoke to The Hill:
Some Republican senators are disgruntled about ceding more authority to the administration after the Department of Government Efficiency shuttered federal agencies, pushed federal workers into early retirement and cut congressionally appropriated funding without getting any input or authority from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
These GOP lawmakers worry that if they send the pending $9.4 billion rescissions package to Trump’s desk this week, the administration will follow up with additional requests to claw back the money they’ve already approved.
“The bigger question is that I don’t like the rescissions process at all,” a GOP senator who requested anonymity said. “It basically gives the keys to the car to the administration to everything that we’re doing on the appropriations side.
Supreme Court Allows Education Dept Dismantling
In an unsigned order Monday, the Supreme Court lifted a lower court ruling blocking Trump’s plan to conduct mass firings at the Department of Education and allowed the Trump administration to proceed, for now. The high court’s decision will put the lower court ruling on hold while the legal case against the widespread layoffs plays out.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned the dissent, arguing against the high court’s decision to allow the Trump executive branch to continue its power grab from the legislative branch. She writes that the decision “is indefensible.”
“It hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to
carry them out,” she writes. “The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave.”
In Case You Missed It
Trump’s Brazil Tariffs Are Mostly About His Buddy, Jair Bolsonaro
It’s Dangerous When Pam Bondi Is Under Pressure To Be More MAGA
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Josh Has An Epstein Conversion? (No, But …)
What We Are Reading
Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein post contradicts what top Fox hosts have argued
Trump finds himself on the wrong side of a conspiracy theory
Why Gov. Greg Abbott Won’t Release His Emails With Elon Musk
For years now, Bill Clinton has been named and kinda-sorta shamed for palling around with Epstein, and certainly for repeated flights on the "Lolita Express"...IF — and a big IF — there is anything even remotely salacious or morally damning explicitly tied to the "Big Dog" in the Epstein files, it's NOT coming out. And that's about the only reason I can see that the Biden Administration didn't either release or allowed to be leaked the so-called Epstein "lists" or "files". Most of the other big-money and heavy hitters linked to Epstein and "his" girls have been well aired publicly, and if tRump himself was seriously implicated in under-age sex games at various Epstein venues, those items would have been brought to light.
But, if Bill Clinton was also flagged, that would have stopped ANY release of ANY lists, even something citing tRump, and here we are today.
Either there is No there there, or both Clinton and tRump are similarly culpable, and thus ends the whole sordid business. What we see today is MAGA inside-baseball conspiracy-mongering and finger-pointing, of interest ONLY to that dark world, full stop.
BASTA!