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Right-wing media shrugs off latest Epstein document release
A protester holds a sign related to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
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Saul Loeb
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Getty Images
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What do thousands of pages of newly released material reveal about the well-documented relationship between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump?
Not much of anything, according to some of the right-wing influencers who have long been clamoring for the government to release more information about Epstein and his crimes.
"To me, these are nothingburgers — if they're even real," pro-Trump podcaster Jon Herold said on his "Badlands Media Rumble" livestream Wednesday. Herold gained an audience in the wake of the 2020 election after spreading QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories.
His fellow Badlands Media personality, Brian Lupo, took a slightly different view on his own livestream this week. The emails didn't exactly say nothing, he claimed, but they show that Trump was informing on Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison term for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. (Epstein died by suicide while in jail during the first Trump administration.)
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"My take on this is Epstein and Maxwell are trying to figure out who's a mole or a rat or an informant in their circle of friends," Lupo said, referring to an email in which Epstein called Trump a "dog that didn't bark." (The White House has denied that Trump was an informant.)
Epstein looms large for many conspiracy theorists, including QAnon believers. He's seen as a prime example of the satanic cabal of pedophiles they believe are entrenched among the world's most powerful people. QAnon adherents think Donald Trump is destined to defeat that cabal.
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Trump has acknowledged he and Epstein were once friendly but fell out decades ago. He's denied any knowledge of Epstein's trafficking of underage girls.
While one of the newly released emails suggests Trump did know about Epstein's behavior, some right-wing media figures say the new disclosures prove Trump did nothing wrong.
"They're claiming it's a hoax, they're claiming that the Democrats are cherry-picking the things that make Trump look the worst, and that these things prove that he didn't actually do anything wrong and that he's not a criminal and that he was actually gathering information for the FBI on Epstein," said Mike Rothschild, an independent journalist and author who has written extensively about conspiracy theories and QAnon.
He said that is "very different from the song they were singing for years before that, which is that if we just bring down the Epstein ring, all of the Democrats are going to go down with him."
Many prominent Democrats are shown communicating with Epstein in the newly released emails. Still, another common thread on the right is that the release is a distraction by Democrats.
"They think that the Epstein thing is something that is going to distract you from their failures, although the Epstein thing, all it's really doing is exposing more Democrat failures," Vince Coglianese, a radio host and the editorial director of the Daily Caller, said on his Rumble livestream on Thursday.
That echoes President Trump's Truth Social posts accusing Democrats of using Epstein to deflect from fallout over the government shutdown. On Friday, he called on the Justice Department to investigate Democrats mentioned in the emails. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was appointing a federal prosecutor to lead a probe.
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Meanwhile, some prominent influencers and conservative media outlets are essentially ignoring this week's release of documents.
"They already know that their fans are on board 100% with whatever Trump does," Rothschild said. "There's nothing for them here."
At the same time, the emails are fueling new speculation on both the right and the left as people race to interpret Epstein's often cryptic language.
To Rothschild, that is a fool's errand.
"Jeffrey Epstein was not the most trustworthy person. … You're taking him at his word because you want to believe him when he says things that are either good about Trump or bad about Trump," he said. "It's absolutely maddening circular discourse and it gets us absolutely nowhere."
NPR's Huo Jingnan contributed reporting to this story.
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