Elon Musk warded off critics of Attorney General Pam Bondi who were furious about how she handled the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
After she released some Epstein records on Thursday, a social media firestorm sparked, including concern over why thousands of documents were missing. Bondi said that evening that the FBI failed to follow her directive to release all the files. FBI Director Kash Patel was ordered to “deliver the full and complete Epstein files to [Bondi’s] office” by Friday morning, the attorney general wrote in a letter calling for an investigation into the matter.
While some allies of the Trump administration questioned Bondi’s rollout and sparked a deluge of theories as to the Epstein “cover-up,” Musk defended the freshly appointed leaders of the Department of Justice and FBI, suggesting they were the victims of a “hostile crew” of employees leftover from the Biden administration who were trying to thwart the full and transparent release of the Epstein files.
“Imagine if you were suddenly appointed AG or head of the FBI,” Musk said on Friday. “You were just thrown on a ship with a hostile crew.”
“Until you appoint some new crew members and figure out the ropes, you can’t steer the ship effectively. It’s literally impossible,” he continued in a post to X.
Bondi was confirmed by the Senate and took the reins at the DOJ on Feb. 4. Patel was confirmed on Feb. 20.
The highly anticipated release of secret documents detailing Epstein’s sexual trafficking scandal turned into a viral debacle for the DOJ on Thursday due to complaints that crucial files were missing, allegations over a dirth of transparency, and criticisms that the files had first been released to a handful of independent journalists and media influencers, not legacy outlets. The files revealed little new information about Epstein, who was accused of repeatedly raping underage young girls, setting up sexual encounters between minors and high-profile people such as Britain’s Prince Andrew, and was known to share relationships with powerful figures in the United States such as former President Bill Clinton.
GOP personality Laura Loomer blasted Bondi for releasing the Epstein “props” to “right-wing paid influencers” who “engaged in deception to run cover for pedophiles.”
Social media influencers who first received Bondi’s Epstein binders argued the move was “part of the Trump admin’s push to bring independent journalists and media to speak directly to the highest members of the administration in an effort to be the most transparent admin in history.”
However, Loomer persisted in accusations against Bondi.
“1 week ago, @PamBondi said ‘the Epstein files are on my desk,’” Loomer said in a post to X. “Now she’s claiming the ‘deep state’ set her up. What deep state? Trump is in office & all of his cabinet members are bragging about how they fired the deep state. I’m confused. I was told we fired the Deep State!”
Bondi said that the New York City FBI office and the Southern District of New York courthouse were deliberately withholding the documents, causing a delay in their release. As the attorney general prepared to hold the press conference releasing the Epstein files, a whistleblower from the SDNY revealed Wednesday evening that it had kept thousands of documents from the dossier Patel had handed over to Bondi.
“Before you came into office, I requested the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein. In response to this request, I received approximately 200 pages of documents,” Bondi wrote in a Thursday evening letter to Patel. “I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents.”
“Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment Of Epstein,” Bondi continued, writing that when she had spoken to Patel on Wednesday about the revelations, the FBI director was “just as surprised as I was to learn this new information.”
After the letter’s release, Musk agreed with another social media post arguing that Bondi “is fighting a leftist culture within the DoJ and FBI.”
“People don’t understand that you don’t get instant power here,” he said Thursday in response to an X user who said Bondi should be “given a chance.”
“She is not hiding anything, she is not covering up Epstein. She wants the info released,” the post read.
Patel released a statement Thursday evening appearing to confirm Bondi’s accusation that the FBI’s New York field office and the SDNY were covering up Epstein’s files.
BONDI ACCUSES FBI OF WITHHOLDING ‘THOUSANDS OF PAGES’ OF EPSTEIN FILES
“…There will be no cover-ups, no missing documents, and no stone left unturned — and anyone from the prior or current Bureau who undermines this will be swiftly pursued,” the FBI director said in a post to X. “If there are gaps, we will find them. If records have been hidden, we will uncover them. And we will bring everything we find to the DOJ to be fully assessed and transparently disseminated to the American people as it should be.”
Epstein first faced criminal charges regarding the allegations in 2006, when he was imprisoned for soliciting prostitution with a minor. Over a decade later, he was again arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. He was subsequently found dead in his prison cell in what investigators ruled a suicide.
