From praise to rage: conservative response to Epstein release is mixed | Jeffrey Epstein
Conservative reaction to the partial release of documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case has been mixed, with supporters of the Trump administration pointing to the prominent presence of Bill Clinton and other Democrats in the photographs, while others lamenting how the heavy redaction casts Donald Trump and Republicans in a bad light.
Administration officials defended these redactions with fervent hyperbole. “Never in American history has a president or the Justice Department been so transparent with the American people on such a sensitive law enforcement issue,” said Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general, who released a six-page letter describing the drafting process.
Although Trump’s name and image appear in some documents, the redactions raise questions about what may be behind the black blocks. Some Republicans immediately called for more transparency.
Right-wing Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — who recently fell out with Trump — criticized the release, calling “the heavily redacted Epstein files,” “failing to release them all within today’s legal deadline” and the redaction of “politically exposed individuals and government officials” as “NOT MAGA.”
“People are furious and leaving,” she wrote.
In a social media post, Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said the deletions violated the law and suggested a future Congress could impeach Attorney General Pam Bondi for the violation. “Unfortunately, the document released today by @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche completely disregards the spirit and letter of the law that @realDonaldTrump signed just 30 days ago.”
But some right-wing commentators and Trump supporters have strongly supported the administration.
The release — from a Justice Department led by Bondi, a close Trump ally — contains hundreds of pages of fully redacted documents and many of the men depicted in the photographs have their faces redacted.
But some don’t, including high-profile figures like Clinton, pop singer Michael Jackson and academic Noam Chomsky. Clinton’s presence, above all, allowed certain right-wing figures to go on the attack.
“It’s pretty striking how Democrats falsely accused President Trump of being a pedophile, only for Trump’s DOJ to release Epstein files that show a skinny Bill Clinton swimming with a pedophile in the pedophile pool,” writes conservative commentator Laura Loomer. “Perhaps now the media will stop being obsessed with these issues. »
“New Epstein files show Bill Clinton shirtless in a hot tub with a woman who is not his wife Hillary Clinton,” wrote Rogan O’Handley, a lawyer whose Instagram account dc_draino has more than 3 million followers. “There is only one reason why Epstein would photograph an American president with a girl in a hot tub: blackmail.”
Clinton has repeatedly stated that he was not aware of any criminal actions by Epstein and that he had never been accused of committing any wrongdoing. “The White House has not been hiding these files for months only to throw them out late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton,” Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña said in a statement on X.
“This is about protecting themselves from what comes next, or what they will try to hide forever. So they can post as many grainy 20+ year old photos as they want, but this is not about Bill Clinton. It never was and never will be,” the statement added.
However, overall comments on the right were relatively muted Saturday, especially compared to the strong demands for action that preceded Congress’s vote to pass a law requiring the document’s release.
Loomer, who recently accepted his Pentagon press credentials after a revolt by mainstream newsrooms against reporting restrictions adopted by the administration, had been one of the most vocal advocates for a release.
In February, Loomer widely reprimanded the administration and Bondi in particular after a group of right-wing influencers received physical binders earlier this year containing files containing no new information.
