Jeffrey Epstein’s supposed client list is a fiction, dreamed up by conspiracy theorists who want to believe the infamous pedophile was also a world-class blackmail artist, even though the journalists who exposed the case have repeatedly denied that allegation. It’s weird that MAGA is so fixated on this. If such a list existed — and let me reiterate, it does not — there is one person whose name would almost certainly be near the top: Donald J. Trump....then MAGA would say: “That’s the fake list.” And why is MAGA so obsessed with this non-existent list?
...[T]he MAGA faithful are furious because they expected Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the "Epstein files." The hope is that the files will finally fulfill the QAnon prophecy of Trump revealing Hillary Clinton and Tom Hanks as blood-drinking Satanists, leading to the mass arrests of Democrats, Hollywood celebrities and anyone else they don't like. The imagined list of who will be exposed as a child-murdering pedophile varies from conspiracy theorist to conspiracy theorist, but the basic faith remains the same: the Justice Department is sitting on files showing that deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein had a "client list" that Trump would soon release, proving their most depraved fantasies true.But there is no list. As Marcotte points out, Julia Brown won awards for exposing Epstein in the Miami Herald, and
Of course, responses at that tweet include people who “know”more than Brown does about Epstein because the internet didn’t change gossip, it just made it more widely available. In fact, my biggest problem with reporting on this announcement (“There is no list”, reported as “The Administration says…”, giving the tacit assumption there must be one.) The “list” really doesn’t exist, but reporters treat that as if it’s, at best, an allegation, and at worst, an obvious lie. Such is “objective journalism.”*There is no Jeffrey Epstein client list. Period. It's a figment of the internet's imagination -- and a means to just slander people. https://t.co/KIE3QoKeFJ
— julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) February 26, 2025
Marcotte thinks Trump is using this issue to distract from other issues, but I don’t think Trump is that strategic. Which makes it worse. I’m convinced Trump and Bondi and Bongino and Patel thought they had the goods: on everybody except Trump. They believed the Q-Anon bullshit. But when they finally opened Al Capone’s vault, whaddya know? There’s nothing there!
This is their Cosmic Pizza “where the hell’s the cellar?” moment.
But now who’s gonna believe ‘em? 🤷🏻♂️
Marcotte thinks this points to the inevitable demise of the Republic, because who on the intertoobs doesn’t these days? Me, I just want to watch the conspiracy theorists eat their young. That part was always inevitable, and it’s finally here.
🍿🍾
*I have to emphasize this because I’ve seen other journalists mention it in passing on social media. It should, in other words, be common knowledge. They have to explain, because few people seem to know; but most should. But journalists, particularly, are not making it so. Why not, is another mystery.
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