Jul.08

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GOP 53

The Epstein Conspiracy Theory Comes to an End... Er, Gets New Life

That Jeffrey Epstein became the focal point of right-wing conspiracies was nigh-on-inevitable. To wit:

• He was (nominally) a Democrat
• He palled around with prominent Democrats, notably Bill Clinton
• He was Jewish
• He was a pedophile
• He died unexpectedly, by his own hand
• There is some amount of documentation related to him that has been kept under lock and key

Do you realize how many of the right-wing conspiratorial boxes that checks? The only way Epstein could have been a better candidate for such theorizing is if he wore an Illuminati t-shirt, or if he made clear his favorite food was pizza.

Among the people who achieved a fair bit of notoriety, and with it influence, by peddling Epstein-related conspiratorial thinking, are FBI Director Kash Patel, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and "Attorney General" Pam Bondi, with the latter promising (in February) to make Epstein's "client list" public. Naturally, since that trio runs federal law enforcement these days, there's been much MAGA pressure on them to make good on that promise, and also to reveal the "truth" about Epstein's suicide. Over the weekend, in a clear effort to use the holiday and the chatter about the BBB as a shield, the FBI quietly released an unsigned memo to Axios, in which it says that there is no client list (despite Bondi claiming, in February, that it was sitting on her desk), and that Epstein really died by his own hand, and there is no cover-up.

Predictably, the right-wing conspiracists went nuts. Effectively, there are four ways they might have dealt with this new information:

• Oops!: The conspiracists could decide they were wrong, at least this time, and that there's no smoke and no fire here. This is only theoretical; conspiracists NEVER admit to being wrong.
  
  
• Blame Trump: The conspiracists could declare that there's a cover up, specifically to protect Donald Trump from being outed as one of Epstein's clients. This was an uncommon, but not unheard of, response yesterday, likely coming from people who like Elon Musk better than they like Trump, and who have bought into the South African's insinuations that the Epstein materials implicate Trump.
  
  
• The Deep State Deepens: The conspiracists could accuse Bondi, Patel and Bongino of having been co-opted by the Deep State, such that they are now doing its bidding. This was the most common response yesterday; Bongino, in particular, is absolutely getting flayed on social media.
  
  
• 3-D Chess: The conspiracists could assert that this is actually a brilliant plan by the Trump administration, and that the Epstein client list exists, but that the White House is pretending it doesn't so that it can use that information to blackmail the Deep State, and thus to tame the Deep State. You really have to stand on your head to go through this many mental gymnastics, which is why it's not surprising that the foremost advocate of this perspective yesterday was certifiable loon Alex Jones.

We do not know exactly what this means for MAGA, long-term. We do know it illustrates the perils of building your political base out of people who don't care about facts or evidence, and who believe whatever the heck they want to believe. Put another way, he who lives by the conspiracy theory often dies by the conspiracy theory. (Z)