From praise to rage: conservative response to Epstein release is mixed | Jeffrey Epstein
Conservative reactions to the partial release of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case have been mixed; Trump administration supporters highlighted the prominent presence of Bill Clinton and other Democrats in the photos, while others complained about how the heavy redaction put Donald Trump and Republicans in a bad light.
Administration officials defended the redactions with heated hyperbole. “No President or Department of Justice in American history has ever been more transparent with the American people on such a sensitive law enforcement matter,” said deputy attorney general Todd Blanche. a six-page letter explaining the editing process.
While Trump’s name and picture are included in some documents, the redactions raise questions about what may be hidden behind the black blocks. Some Republicans immediately called for more transparency.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the right-wing Georgia representative who recently fell out with Trump, criticized the release, describing the “heavily edited Epstein files,” “not all of them released by today’s legal deadline,” and the editing of “politically exposed individuals and government officials” as “NOT MAGA.”
“People get angry and walk away,” he wrote.
One social media postRepublican Kentucky representative Thomas Massie said the fixes violated the law and suggested a future Congress could impeach attorney general Pam Bondi for the violation. “Unfortunately, today’s document release @AGPamBondi And @DAGToddBlanche It largely does not comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law. @realdonaldtrump It was signed just 30 days ago.”
But some right-wing commentators and Trump loyalists have rallied behind the administration.
The statement, issued by a justice department led by Bondi, a close Trump ally, contains hundreds of pages of fully redacted case material, with the faces of many of the men depicted in the photos redacted.
But some don’t, including high-profile figures like Clinton, pop singer Michael Jackson and academic Noam Chomsky. Clinton’s presence, in particular, allowed some right-wing figures to go on the offensive.
“It’s pretty rich for Democrats to falsely accuse President Trump of being a pedophile, only for the Trump Justice Department to release the Epstein files showing Bill Clinton skinny dipping in a pedophilia pool with a pedophile,” writes conservative commentator Laura Loomer. “Maybe now the media will stop obsessing over these files.”
“New Epstein Files show Bill Clinton topless in a hot tub with a woman who is not his wife, Hillary Clinton,” wrote attorney Rogan O’Handley, whose Instagram account dc_draino has more than 3 million followers. “There is only one reason why Epstein would photograph a US President with a girl in a jacuzzi: Blackmail.”
Clinton has repeatedly said that she did not know of any wrongdoing by Epstein and that he was not alleged to have committed any crime. “The White House not only kept these files for months, but distributed them late Friday simply to protect Bill Clinton,” Clinton spokesman Angel Ureña said. He said the following in his statement about X:.
“This is about protecting themselves from what’s coming, or what they’ll try to hide forever. So they can post grainy over-20 photos all they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. It never was, it never will be,” he added in the statement.
But general commentary on the right remained relatively muted on Saturday; especially when compared to the vociferous demands for action that preceded a congressional vote to pass a law requiring the release of the document.
Loomer, who recently accepted a press clearance at the Pentagon after traditional newsrooms revolted against reporting restrictions adopted by the administration, was among the loudest advocates of the release.
In February, Loomer rebuked the administration generally and Bondi specifically after a group of right-wing influencers were given physical files containing no new information earlier this year.
