'Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain': Republicans squirm as MAGA demands answers

WASHINGTON — The Jeffrey Epstein saga continues, in spite of the Trump White House and many congressional Republicans wishing it would go away already.

Epstein, a financier and convicted sex trafficker, died in federal custody in New York in 2019, his death ruled a suicide. Speculation about his links to powerful men, including President Donald Trump, has flourished ever since.

But in trying to put the Epstein scandal behind them, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the FBI and Department of Justice have awoken the sleeping giant that is Trump’s MAGA base, including members of the congressional GOP.

“I don’t trust them,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told Raw Story of Bondi and her DOJ.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats can hardly get enough of this latest conspiracy-tinged GOP civil war. Many are echoing calls for transparency from the Republican far right, arguing too many Trump officials campaigned on an Epstein coverup only to change their tunes.

“Why have they changed? Did they lie then? Are they lying now? Something Pam Bondi said is not accurate,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told Raw Story.

“I either want her to say there was no [Epstein client] list and she lied about that” — Bondi first said such a list existed — “or there is a list and they can’t release it and here are the reasons why.

“It’s one or the other, right? She said the list was on her desk. So that was either not true or she’s not releasing the list."

‘A hell of a lot more problems’

“We’ve got a hell of a lot more problems than Epstein,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) told Raw Story.

More senior Republicans avoided wading in.

“No. I don’t know anything about it. Nothing,” said Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID). “I didn’t look into it to begin with, not looking into it now.”

“I really haven’t paid much attention to it, to be honest with you,” said Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV). “It’s just not something I’m focused on. Just let the story play out however it does.”

Many party leaders, including Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY), are echoing President Trump and trying to move past the controversy.

“No. It’s not something that comes up in Wyoming,” Barrasso told Raw Story. “Nobody at all is asking about that topic.”

As much as they want to move past the Epstein scandal, GOP leaders can’t avoid it, in part because rank-and-file Republicans keep raising questions.

“I have no information on it whatsoever. I’m as curious as everybody else,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story. “I’ve got questions, I don’t have any answers.”

In the House of Representatives, Republicans have been formally investigating the Epstein affair. Many blame Bondi for blocking their probe.

‘It’s been overwhelming’

At the start of this Congress, House Republican leaders established a formal Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets.

The panel’s tasked with investigating conspiracy theories of old, including the assassinations of John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, and even the decades-long hunt for UFOs.

The Task Force has also been looking into more contemporary conspiracy theories, including the origins of COVID-19, the 9-11 terrorist attacks, and Epstein. Many on the panel have been frustrated with Bondi for months.

“I’ve already done everything I can from my perspective. I literally have multiple inquiries that went unanswered, so it’s not in my hands,” Task Force Chair Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) told Raw Story.

While Trump has tried to dismiss the Epstein scandal as “boring,” Luna and others on the far right have only fanned conspiratorial claims about evidence destruction at the DOJ.

“I’ve been looking into this for a while, and there was still, back I think it was February, a whistleblower came forward that he had firsthand knowledge or secondhand knowledge that there were files being destroyed,” Luna said. “But either which way, there’s still information that can be released.”

Luna and others on the Secrets Task Force say their voters demand Epstein answers.

“I’m getting calls on it, emails, texts, DMs, comments in the last hundred hours. It’s been overwhelming,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told Raw Story.

Mace says Bondi should appoint a special counsel and stop dodging questions.

“If they do the special counsel, have a press conference and there’s more transparency from the DOJ, I think everyone will have a better understanding of what has been going on and what really happened,” Mace said.

Many Republican lawyers, like former Missouri attorney general Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), are demanding transparency too.

“Make it all public. That’s my view. I’m in favor of getting it all out there,” Hawley told Raw Story. “I know they’ve got an ongoing series of prosecutions. Unload it all on the public. I think they deserve to know.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has jumped on the bandwagon,

“I’m for transparency,” the speaker told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson this week. “It’s a very delicate subject. We should put everything out there and let the people decide it.”

‘They made this a campaign issue’

The president’s MAGA base has grown increasingly frustrated with FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino.

The two conspiracy-peddling firebrands helped stoke the Epstein flames throughout the 2024 election, but since becoming senior FBI officials have been mum, causing consternation, cursing and new conspiracies on the right.

“I just find this fascinating. They made this a campaign issue, right?” said Moskowitz, the Florida Democrat. “And all of a sudden it’s like, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, there’s no files.

“It’s amazing how they pivoted. The very same people who talked about it, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, wind up in the administration, probably got their jobs because of the attack on Epstein, get in there and they’re like, ‘Let’s just move on to something else.’

“It makes us more interested. The polling on this, Democrats, Republicans, Independents think the [justice] department is not being transparent. And so that makes you want to pull the string more.”

With competing conspiracies flying, many Democrats are now lined up with the far right as they call for the Trump administration to release the so-called Epstein files.

“I’d love to see more information,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) told reporters this week.

As vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Warner can’t help but crack a smile as he watches the president and his top cops squirm.

“It is more than a little ironic,” Warner said. “Meaning that, when you create what appears to be a false flag operation and then there’s nothing there, and you’ve gotta live with the ramifications of that — a little poetic justice seems to be coming about.”