Vance Says Trump Team Botched Epstein Files Release

Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration mishandled communications around the release of Jeffrey Epstein files, arguing that everything should have been made public immediately while insisting the administration was not trying to conceal information.

Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience in an episode released on Wednesday, Vance said officials had “absolutely screwed up the comms” relating to the files. He was asked whether attempts to keep the documents under wraps involved “undue influence” or were intended to hide something.

“I say this with all candor, like we absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files, like we just did,” Vance said. He added that he did not believe the reason for the communications failure was concealment.

“But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No,” he said.

Blowback over handling of the files

Vance’s comments came as the administration faced criticism from within the president’s own support base over how it dealt with the Epstein records.

In discussing what he said went wrong, the vice president pointed to public remarks made by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, who suggested a purported client list was on her desk. Vance also referenced a set of binders provided to right-wing social media influencers in February 2025, describing them as “largely documents that were already released”.

He said he did not know the purpose behind those actions, but argued their impact was to increase public mistrust in the overall effort.

“I don’t know what the purpose of it was, but I know the effect of it was to make people mistrust the entire effort,” Vance said. He added that he did not think Bondi was acting “anything malicious”.

Bondi “overstated” what the administration had

Vance said Bondi was trying to respond to the political moment but overstated what materials were available.

“I think Pam was trying to respond to the political moment. I think she overstated what we had and what we didn’t have, and I think she got roasted for it publicly by a lot of people, including me,” he said.

He returned to the broader handling of the case, describing himself as an early proponent of Epstein-related conspiracy theories and saying he had “gone down every single rabbit hole”.

Vance argued that the “original sin” of the Epstein investigation was in 2007 and 2008, when he said it was pursued “way too narrow”. He cited former US Attorney Alex Acosta, who negotiated a controversial plea deal with Epstein, as central to what he described as the failure of the investigation.

“If there was a broader conspiracy — and you know my view is that there probably was — the evidence that existed in 2007, that was the opportunity to get it out,” Vance said.

He also responded to questions about claims that Epstein may have had links to Israel’s Mossad or other intelligence services, saying: “Yeah, Mossad or CIA or some other deep state.”

“He clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence,” he added.

Defending Trump’s decision to release records

Vance defended President Donald Trump’s role in releasing the Epstein files, rejecting claims that Trump acted only because of pressure. He argued that Trump could have prevented the congressional push to compel the Justice Department to release the records if he had wanted to.

“Trump could have killed” the effort, Vance said, referencing prior attempts by Trump and Republican leaders to quash the move before he reversed course at the last minute.

Despite defending the decision to release the files, Vance conceded the process took longer than it should have.

“If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty. We did mishandle it, especially the communications of it,” he said.

He added that the administration should have moved faster.

“I think that we should have just dropped everything at the very beginning,” Vance said. “We should have just done it as quickly as possible.”

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16 July 2026