Tag: investigative

Agents mock Trump’s FBI chief behind his back for ‘hiding all the Epstein files’: report

The FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are struggling to quash conspiracies that their current leaders used to espouse, according to a Tuesday report in CNN. The first of these involves the ongoing saga surrounding deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, whose recently published emails link President Donald Trump directly to him. When FBI Director Kash Patel attempted to tout what he thought was a major win for the administration on drug crackdowns last week, he was overshadowed by Epstein.”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,” CNN reports. In 2023, Patel told far-right podcaster Benny Johnson the reason the files were not released was “Simple, because of who’s on that list.”In the months since Attorney General Pam Bondi said there was no Epstein list, “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,” CNN says. Patel has only made things worse, they write, noting that “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.”In June, Patel told podcaster Joe Rogan that “we’re not gonna re-victimize women. We’re not going to put that s– back out there. It’s not happening, because he wins . You want to hate me for it, fine.”Bongino also fanned the conspiracy flames on his own podcast in May, 2024, when he said, “What the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?”Another conspiracy theory that has been resurrected to the annoyance of Justice Department officials,” is the one involving the identity of the person who planted pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee offices the night before the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. Weeks before he took his position in the second Trump administration, Bongino said on his podcast, “Folks, this guy was an insider. This was an inside job. And it is the biggest scandal in FBI history,” and on Saturday, right wing media outlet The Blaze thought for sure they had the suspect until their theory was quickly debunked.”Soon, the FBI and Bongino himself were forced to defend the agency from the same type of allegations the deputy director had once made,” CNN writes. This has angered the MAGA base, including former FBI agent and right-wing podcast host Kyle Seraphin, who angrily posted on X Sunday following Patel’s claims “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.'”That account has struggled to do just that, CNN says, attempting in its second post to defend 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.”“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. Patel sent out his own post following that one, saying, “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.”CNN also notes how Patel used to rail against the so-called ‘deep state’ and is now being mocked for becoming part of it, in the wake of recent firings in the bureau.”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.”.