During a Sunday, May 18 appearance on right-wing Fox News, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino discussed the August 10, 2019 death of billionaire financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Patel is known for being a far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist, but on Fox News, him and Bongino described Epstein's death as a suicide — much to the chagrin of other MAGA Republicans.
In an article published on May 20, Axios reporter Tal Axelrod notes, "Those comments contradicted a popular conspiracy theory that he was killed to protect high-profile clients of his sex trafficking network."
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Axelrod cites MAGA displeasure with Patel and Bongino's comments on Fox News as an example of the "MAGA masses" growing "disillusioned with" U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials "who are failing to deliver damning information on a laundry list of hot-button issues, especially Jeffrey Epstein's suicide."
In a May 18 post on X, formerly Twitter, Bongino wrote, "I was asked about some of the details surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case. I have reviewed the case. Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. There's no evidence in the case file indicating otherwise. I'm not asking you to believe me, or not. I'm telling you what exists, and what doesn't. If new evidence surfaces I’m happy to reevaluate."
Axelrod reports, "MAGA podcasters were delighted and later outraged when they were invited to the White House earlier this year to get supposedly new documents on Epstein's death from Attorney General Pam Bondi, only to learn that little new information was included in their beefy binders. Prominent voices in the movement like Laura Loomer have also demanded arrests of Biden Administration officials who, in their telling, weaponized the justice system against then-candidate Trump…. After Bongino reiterated that Epstein killed himself, he was flooded with responses of disbelief."
One of those responses came from far-right Loomer.
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During a May 19 appearance on Steve Bannon's "War Room" vodcast, Loomer mocked Bondi as "Pam Blondi" and complained, "We are months into the Trump Administration, past the 100-day mark, and Pam Blondi has failed to bring any real charges against anyone."
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Read the full Axios article at this link.