MAGA’s revolt over the Trump administration’s flip-flops on the Jeffrey Epstein files just got louder with Joe Rogan joining the chorus.
“Why’d they say there was thousands of hours of tapes of people doing horrible s–t? Why’d they say that?” Rogan said on his podcast Tuesday.
In May, Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed the FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn” amid mounting pressure to release the next batch of files on the late convicted sex offender.
But she effectively shut the door on the case last week. A joint Justice Department and FBI memo concluded that no “further disclosure” of Epstein-related material “would be appropriate or warranted.”
“They’ve got videotape and all of a sudden they don’t,” Rogan said, speaking with fellow podcaster Danny Jones.
The podcaster—who endorsed Trump on the eve of the 2024 election—noted that FBI Director Kash Patel had already started walking back expectations during a June appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience.
“You know, you had the director of the FBI on this show saying, ‘If there was, nothing you’re looking for is on those tapes.’ Rogan said. “Like, what?”
In the same June interview, Patel and Rogan reacted in real time to Elon Musk’s now-deleted post on X claiming that Trump “is in the Epstein files” and “that is the real reason they have not been made public.”
“How does he know?” Rogan asked Patel. “Does he know that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files? Does he have access to the Epstein files?”
Patel replied, “I don’t know how he would” adding only that the spat between the Tesla CEO and Trump was “way outside” his lane.
Rogan, who has recently been critical of Trump’s immigration crackdown, on Tuesday joked that the president’s June 21 airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites were meant as a distraction from the Epstein fallout.
“Just bomb Iran and everybody forgets. Everybody forgets about it,” he said.
Rogan joins a swelling crowd of MAGA-aligned critics upset over the administration’s shifting story on Epstein—a former friend of Trump’s.
Before joining the administration, Bondi, Patel, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino had all hyped up the Epstein files—demanding the release of a purported “client list” of powerful individuals tied to the financier and fueling conspiracy theories about the circumstances of his death.
But the joint DOJ-FBI memo said there was no evidence Epstein kept such a “client list” or was murdered, quickly drawing backlash from Trump supporters who had hoped his return to office would finally expose secrets about powerful elites.
