MAGA Rakes Kash Patel Over the Coals Over Epstein Denial
The FBI director claimed the conspiracy theories “just aren’t true.”
Photo Illustration by Victoria Sunday/The Daily Beast/Getty Images
The MAGA mob has aimed its pitchforks at FBI Director Kash Patel after he dismissed claims of a conspiracy over disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s death.
Patel took to X to quell rumors that he was quitting the bureau over the Epstein files, saying he served at President Donald Trump’s pleasure, while also promising that no smoking gun lay in the “Epstein files.”
“The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been,” he wrote Saturday. “It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States, and I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me.”
Patel’s statement came after reports of infighting between him, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and their boss, Attorney General Pam Bondi, over an FBI-Justice Department disclosure last week that Epstein died by suicide and that he kept no “client list”—the subject of whirling conspiracy theories among the president’s supporters.
Bongino failed to show up to work on Friday and has threatened to resign after clashing with Bondi at the White House on Wednesday, where Bongino took Bondi to task for overpromising and failing to deliver on releasing further documents related to the case, according to The New York Times.
“It’s me or her,” Bongino said, according to Axios. “She goes or I go.”
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Patel’s denial angered the MAGA sphere, with some commentators on X accusing Patel of covering up the fabled “list,” of grifting, and of being named in the files himself. The furor has taken hold of Trump’s base, representing one of the most significant attacks on the party’s own since Trump was inaugurated.
FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi have met MAGA's ire after the Department of Justice and FBI acknowledged no "client list" existed for accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Kayla Bartkowski/Kayla Bartkowski/Getty
“Sounds like you might be in the files, kash,” Polling USA, a right-wing account dedicated to political polling, wrote on X.
“Release the Epstein files!” Republicans Against Trump replied, quoting Patel’s past statements that Epstein’s personal logs were under the “direct control of the FBI director.”
“It was YOU who said Bill Gates is in #EpsteinFiles & now YOU are the hiding those files. Inexcusable!" right-wing lawyer Robert Barnes replied.
Trump tried to quell the MAGA infighting on Saturday with a lengthy Truth Social post disparaging those focused on Epstein instead of Democrats.
“We are about to achieve more in 6 months than any other Administration has achieved in over 100 years, and we have so much more to do. We are saving our Country and, MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, which will continue to be our complete PRIORITY,” he wrote.
President Donald Trump snapped at critics over a memo that affirmed Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and that no "client list" exists.
Win McNamee/Getty
“The Left is imploding! Kash Patel, and the FBI, must be focused on investigating Voter Fraud, Political Corruption, ActBlue, The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020, and arresting Thugs and Criminals, instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein,” he added. “LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT!”
Bondi and Bongino have remained silent on the matter over the weekend. The FBI did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
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