By Evan Perez, Holmes Lybrand, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — When the FBI director came back from Asia touting a major win for the administration’s drug crackdown last week, his victory lap was cut short by yet another development in the Jeffrey Epstein saga.
When Patel took the podium in the White House press briefing room Wednesday, the news of the administration’s efforts to stem fentanyl production — a major priority for the president — took a backseat to headlines about the latest dump of documents by the House Oversight Committee.
For Patel and other FBI and Justice officials, the first 10 months in office have featured a series of headaches, with theories once peddled by the president’s loyal supporters-turned-government officials getting in the way of their new priorities.
The FBI declined to comment for this story.
The Epstein files
In a 2023 podcast interview, conservative commentator Benny Johnson asked Patel why the so-called Epstein “list” had not been released.
“Simple, because of who’s on that list,” Patel responded, adding that Republicans should “put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are.”
While the existence of an actual list of powerful people accused of participating in Epstein’s sex ring has never been verified — the Justice Department does hold records related to the investigation.
In the early weeks of the current administration, Attorney General Pam Bondi orchestrated a White House event ostensibly to fulfill President Donald Trump’s transparency promises and to release the Epstein files. But the event backfired when MAGA influencers invited to the White House realized the binders Bondi presented were filled mostly with documents that had long been public.
In the months since, Bondi, Patel, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, and other Trump administration officials have sought to close the books on Epstein — only to be confronted by the reality that the conspiracies they fueled won’t allow them to. Justice Department and FBI officials have grown frustrated that the Epstein debacle has continued to obscure other priorities.
Much of the pressure has come from influential conservatives on social media and pro-Trump members of Congress. Trump appeared to cave to that pressure late Sunday when, after days of lashing out at Democrats who he blames for the Epstein scandal, he reversed course and told Republicans to vote for the release of the Epstein files.
The latest twists in the administration’s Epstein problem came after Congressional democrats released emails from Epstein, the convicted sex abuser. The release reignited the Justice Department’s battle to tamp down claims that powerful people were trying to keep damaging information about those in Epstein’s inner circle from being released.
The emails, which were provided under subpoena to Congress by the Epstein estate, showed that Epstein mentioned Trump by name multiple times in his private correspondence. Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the White House cast the issue as a “hoax.”
After a day of scrutiny, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on X of the emails that law enforcement “didn’t have” those emails previously and said the estate “hid” them for years. Bongino, who has also pushed unproven Epstein theories before joining the bureau, reposted it on his personal account.
The claim prompted an attorney for the Epstein estate to dispute that anything had been “hidden” from investigators. The back-and-forth made clear that the trove of documents in the Justice Department’s possession didn’t include records now being sent to Congress, a problem for Blanche and Justice officials who have sought to assure the public that they had reviewed everything and decided there was no additional evidence of wrongdoing to be investigated.
Justice officials’ monthslong effort to move on from the Epstein debacle had been wiped out, and Trump publicly called on Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to high-profile Democratic figures.
That investigation is now underway, Bondi has said, months after DOJ and FBI officials concluded that there were no additional prosecutions that could be brought based on their comprehensive review of the Epstein investigation.
As director, Patel has told Congress the FBI went through all investigative materials related to Epstein and found no evidence of a grand conspiracy of Epstein trafficking women to the wealthy and elite despite his previous support of the idea.
Patel wasn’t alone in fanning the Epstein flames. Bongino, on his own podcast, lamented in May 2024: “What the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?”
“What do Clinton, Obama officials, big money leftists, a former prime minister of Israel — why do they want to make this Jeffrey Epstein story go away so bad?” Bongino asked.
The contrast is sharp between then and more recent times.
Bongino told Fox News host Sean Hannity in June his views had evolved and acknowledged being frustrated at the backlash from right-wing media.
“I’m not paid for my opinions anymore,” he said. “I work for the taxpayer. I’m paid [based] on evidence.”
That same month, Patel told podcaster Joe Rogan about the Epstein files “We’re not gonna re-victimize women. We’re not going to put that shit back out there. It’s not happening, because he wins … You want to hate me for it, fine.”
Pipe bomber identity
The Epstein case, while consuming the most oxygen online and in the media, is not the only conspiracy-laden storyline that has been resurrected to the annoyance of Justice Department officials.
For years, some figures in right-wing media have fixated on theories that the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol was an “inside job.” One of the biggest mysteries of that day remains who planted crude bombs near the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee offices. The devices were discovered around the time of the riot and, for a time, diverted police away from what was unfolding at the Capitol, fueling additional suspicions of possible coordination.
Federal agents have followed thousands of leads in their pursuit of the would-be bomber, who was clad in a hoodie and facemask, but they have so far come up empty handed.
Weeks before he took his post as second-in-command of the agency, Bongino suggested that evidence was being buried because the FBI was somehow involved. “Folks, this guy was an insider,” he said on his podcast. “This was an inside job. And it is the biggest scandal in FBI history.”
On Saturday, The Blaze, a right-wing media outlet, published an article that named a former Capitol Police officer as the suspect based on video analysis comparing the way the officer walked to the stride of the alleged bomber.
Soon, the FBI and Bongino himself were forced to defend the agency from the same type of allegations the deputy director had once made – including one post from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie that seemed to draw particular ire from Bongino.
Massie posted a letter from a self-proclaimed FBI whistleblower that alleged FBI leadership was trying to bury information on the pipe bomber’s identity.
“This is disgusting, even by the low standards many have for politicians,” Bongino said in a lengthy X post addressed to Massie. “You know my number, and you’re free to call me anytime. But it’s easier to tweet and throw BS bombs.”
He continued, “a week of near 24-hour work on RECENT open-source leads in the case has yet to produce a breakthrough, and some of the media reporting regarding prior persons of interest is grossly inaccurate and serves only to mislead the public.”
Former FBI agents and officials who once supported Patel and Bongino and welcomed the ushering of a new age at the agency have now turned their backs on the pair, including over the pipe bomb investigation.
“You can actually hear the shovel hitting the bullshit, right? Is it just me?” former FBI agent and right-wing podcast host Kyle Seraphin posted on X Sunday following Patel’s claims on Fox News that the FBI was thoroughly investigating the pipe bombs.
FBI Rapid Response
As officials try to dodge conspiratorial distractions from some of their own erstwhile supporters, the FBI created a new social media account on Wednesday called the “FBI Rapid Response.”
The stated goal of the account: Combating “lies, smears and falsehoods from the fake news and others seeking to undermine our work and national security.”
The FBI began working to establish the account months before the recent Epstein backlash, though it took some time to get the proper legal approvals through the government bureaucracy, a person briefed on the matter told CNN.
The account’s second post defended the FBI against claims it had lied, this time from right-wing media star Tucker Carlson, who claimed the FBI had lied about Donald Trump’s would-be assassins’ online presence.
In July 2024, Thomas Crooks opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, injuring Trump’s ear, killing one rally-goer and injuring others.
“This FBI has never said Thomas Crooks had no online footprint. Ever,” the FBI posted about the man who shot Trump at a rally last summer and killed an attendee.
The director himself sent out a lengthy post on social media touting the extensive investigation the FBI conducted on Crooks, defending the agency seemingly against Carlson’s claims.
“The investigation, conducted by over 480 FBI employees, revealed Crooks had limited online and in person interactions, planned and conducted the attack alone, and did not leak or share his intent to engage in the attack with anyone,” Patel wrote.
Bongino, in an interview alongside Patel, told Fox News in May that there was no “big, explosive ‘there’ there.”
“If it was there, we would have told you,” Bongino said.
‘Deep state’ mockery
Patel, who, during Joe Biden’s presidency, published books and made scores of podcast and media appearances lamenting the “deep state” of the government and FBI now praises the work of the agency, saying he has allowed “good cops to be cops.”
This consistent praise, however, has not stopped internal mockery of the director who, in his nine months on the job, has overseen a spate of firings in the agency against perceived political enemies. One of those fired included former acting director of the FBI, Brian Driscoll, who shielded agents that worked on January 6 cases from political retribution by the Trump administration earlier this year.
In recent days, FBI agents have been sharing with each other an AI generated music video that pokes fun at Patel for “hiding all the Epstein files,” among other public missteps by the director, sources inside the agency told CNN.
Some FBI employees have been taken back by Patel’s use of an FBI aircraft to fly to sporting events and to visit his girlfriend, according to sources. A spokesperson for Patel said he has complied with the law requiring him to pay the cost of a regular plane ticket for his flights.
In the video, the music plays as a computer-generated Patel dressed in a leather jumpsuit dances under colorful lights in an FBI office. He also flies on the bureau’s private jet with his girlfriend, shoves heaps of caviar into his mouth and punches a hole in a school locker.
“Don’t be mad at how I downsize, had to snuff out some liberal spies. Now my caviar is always supplied and all my people pray that I’m fired,” the song goes.
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