The online obsession with Jeffrey Epstein has become a headache for President Donald Trump’s top brass in the Justice Department, thanks to the MAGA supporters who are driving a backlash over the DOJ’s perceived secrecy about the disgraced financier’s death.
FBI Director Kash Patel, his deputy Dan Bongino, and Attorney General Pam Bondi have come under fire from some of the same conservative influencers who helped elevate them to power after the officials recently dismissed long-held suspicions about Epstein’s 2019 death in federal custody, which authorities ruled to be a suicide by hanging. That dismissal came after the trio had pledged to publish all material related to the Epstein case in the DOJ’s possession quickly after taking office — a pledge that has gone unfulfilled for months.
Recommended Stories
- Indicted Milwaukee judge claims 'absolute immunity' in bid to dismiss obstruction charges
- Man who threatened to kill election officials sentenced to three years in prison
- Bondi ends American Bar Association oversight for Trump judicial nominations
Appearing on Fox News in a string of interviews this week, Patel and Bongino reiterated the federal government’s conclusion that Epstein died by suicide, not homicide, in 2019. They also promised to release long-sought surveillance footage from the night Epstein died at the Manhattan jail.
“There’s no DNA, there’s no audio, there’s no fingerprints, there’s no suspects, there’s no accomplices, there’s no tips, there is nothing,” Bongino said Thursday. “There’s video clear as day.”
One X account, @VoteHarrisOut, garnered over 68,000 views for a viral video calling Bongino a “sellout.” The clip splices together Bongino’s 2023 warning that the Epstein story was “a big deal” with his recent insistence that “he killed himself.”
Dan Bongino betrayed us all
— Philip Anderson (@VoteHarrisOut) May 21, 2025
He is a sell out pic.twitter.com/fZR8rANzo0
Another pro-Trump influencer, Jammin Lujan, posted a TikTok video expressing outrage: “You would call these people cowards. We want the names… What the f*** is taking so long?”
This guy has some choice words for Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, and Pam Bondi pic.twitter.com/jEiV8UmLbg
— The Disrespected Trucker (@DisrespectedThe) May 29, 2025
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the Washington Examiner the Right’s blowback is unsurprising. “Before they were appointed, Patel and Bongino made all sorts of promises related to the Epstein case,” he said.
“They accused the government of covering up his murder and said they would get to the bottom of it… Well, they’ve overpromised and underdelivered… and the MAGA base won’t forget about it,” Rahmani added.
The criticism does not end with the FBI either. In the backdrop, weeks of delays by the DOJ in facilitating the release of never-before-seen documents about Epstein’s clients and alleged atrocities he committed on film have been stalled by Bondi, who also took to Fox in February to promise there would be “truckloads” of evidence made available to the public.
“The MAGA base won’t forget about it,” Rahmani said. “Bondi’s Epstein ‘reveal’ was nothing of substance, and we’re still waiting for his client list.”
The blowback underscores a deeper challenge for Patel and Bongino, who rose to prominence by amplifying claims about the “deep state” and promising accountability once Trump regained power. Both men were fierce critics of the FBI’s handling of the Trump-Russia investigation and vowed to expose corruption. On that issue, at least, the pair have begun to fulfill their pledges, revealing new documents this week showing a key figure in the origins of the investigation made false statements to Congress in 2018 and that the DOJ at the time declined to prosecute her.
But supplying further evidence of well-documented malfeasance related to he corruption behind discredited Obama-era investigations into Trump has only gone so far to appease diehard skeptics.
Bongino, a former Secret Service agent-turned Fox News host and Rumble podcaster, said the forthcoming Epstein video would reveal there was no one else seen entering Epstein’s cell around the time of his death. But when asked by Fox’s Lawrence Jones if it would be “video of him killing himself,” Bongino scuffled around the question.
“Not the actual act, but the entire [Metropolitan Correctional Center] bay,” Bongino said, noting the FBI would release the original footage and an “enhanced” version “so you don’t think there are any shenanigans.”
Those answers have been less than satisfying to Epstein truthers online. The late financier’s connections to powerful Democrats and world leaders, including Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, have made the Epstein case a lightning rod for intrigue that Bongino promoted time and time again on his former Rumble podcast, the Dan Bongino Show.
In the 2023 podcast, Bongino told listeners that “a CIA director, the Obama fixer, Bill Clinton — all intersected paths with Epstein,” adding, “I’m not ever gonna let this story go.” Just months before being tapped by Trump for the FBI post, Bongino said Epstein’s tapes were real and that reporters were ignoring key clues.
Now, some pro-Trump lawmakers are beginning to grow impatient over the FBI leaders’ more cautious approach to Epstein.
For Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a staunch Trump ally and advocate for government transparency, the concern is less about the cause of Epstein’s death but the continuing delay of the DOJ’s evidence reveal.
“I care about how he gathered evidence on powerful people in order to blackmail them and I care about the victims used to do that,” she posted to X Thursday. “Where is that evidence?”
Bongino has asked for patience but also said this week the job is taking a toll. “Do you like it? No. I don’t,” he said of leading the FBI. “But the president didn’t ask me to do this to like it.”
Not only does the pair of Trump appointees have to achieve a delicate balance to respond to demands for answers from the public, but the bureau is also still drawing scrutiny from victims of the late financier. On Thursday, Epstein accuser Maria Farmer filed a lawsuit against the government, accusing the FBI of ignoring her allegations against him on two separate occasions, in 1996 and 2006, and failing to protect her and other victims from Epstein’s and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell’s sexual abuse ring.
Last year, the public’s outrage was reinvigorated over the FBI’s handling of Epstein’s original Florida case in the 2000s, when newly unsealed grand jury records revealed prosecutors had downplayed victims’ accounts and offered Epstein a deal despite evidence of serial abuse. Prosecutors resolved the case in a lenient 2008 plea deal that shielded him from federal charges, though he was re-arrested in 2019 after the Southern District of New York found evidence of further crimes involving dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005.
PATEL ‘NOT GOING TO RUSH’ TO RELEASE EPSTEIN FILES, DOUBLES DOWN ON SEX TRAFFICKER’S SUICIDE
Meanwhile, both FBI leaders sought to make inroads on other matters close to the MAGA base earlier this week: to investigate unresolved Biden-era controversies, including the 2021 DNC and RNC pipe bombs placed on the day of the Jan. 6 riot, the 2022 Supreme Court draft leak, and the 2023 discovery of cocaine at the White House. Bongino said Thursday that the bureau is “closing in on suspects” for the pipe bomb case.
But for many grassroots supporters, shutting down the discussion over Epstein’s demise remains a frustrating litmus test for whether Patel and Bongino are willing to match their own rhetoric on transparency and fulfill their past promises — or decide to become part of the machine they once attacked.