WASHINGTON — The assertion by Elon Musk last month that Donald Trump was named in the FBI files concerning disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein signaled a loud, public crack in the president’s support system.

That crack has become a chasm in recent days after the administration suddenly reversed course on its long-standing promises to reveal previously unknown details of the investigation into Epstein, who was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges before his death in 2019.

The remaining files, administration officials suggested, included a “client list” that many involved in the case insist never existed. Suddenly, some of Trump’s most ardent and outspoken supporters declared that they smelled a cover-up, even if they did not agree on who was involved or why.

Over the weekend, Trump urged his supporters to move on, imploring them on social media not to “waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”

The unfolding fallout from the Trump administration’s decision to keep the files secret highlights the ways in which Epstein is a more politically potent figure now than when he killed himself six years ago in a Manhattan jail cell.

What Is the Origin of the Case?

Epstein paid teenage girls money to perform sex acts, and used his onetime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell to recruit and manage his stable of victims.

An FBI and Florida police investigation led to his indictment in 2006. Two years later he pleaded guilty in state court to two felony charges, including soliciting a minor, in a deal that avoided federal charges that could have meant far more serious prison time.

A series of articles years later by The Miami Herald revealed how the criminal justice system had bent over backward for Epstein, despite the reams of evidence against him.

In 2019, he was arrested by federal agents in the New York area, accused of trafficking dozens of girls, some as young as 14, and engaging in sex acts with them. Authorities say he hanged himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein for nearly a decade to aid his abuse.

The very nature of the charges against Epstein contributed to some of the confusion about what he did. By calling him a sex trafficker, federal officials left many with the impression that Epstein was selling children to others to be abused, but that was never part of the criminal case against him.

Why Is the Epstein Investigation the Source of so Many Conspiracy Theories?

The case has many of the real-life elements that fuel speculation and propel conspiracy theories: a rich, politically connected person getting away with horrific crimes for years, an apparent unwillingness by government officials to punish the offenders, and then a sudden death under seemingly suspicious circumstances.

The Epstein case offers a twist on those elements. Conservatives seized on Epstein’s acquaintance with former President Bill Clinton, while liberals point to his yearslong friendship with Trump and his death in custody during Trump’s first term.

While Epstein’s death heightened suspicions of government from liberals and conservatives alike, Trump’s supporters have publicly embraced the notion that he would finally expose sordid crimes by elites against children. The Epstein obsession became just the latest and strongest iteration of other conspiratorial notions that have captivated Trump loyalists over the years, including outlandish and shadowy theories like QAnon and Pizzagate, both of which involved specious allegations of child molestation.

In an unsigned memo last week, the Justice Department and the FBI said that the Epstein files did not contain the kind of evidence that would justify investigating other people. The video recordings of child sexual abuse material found by investigators were not, as some have suggested, videos that Epstein recorded of crimes by himself or his friends, but material he downloaded, Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

So what is in the material that Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have refused to release? FBI files about the rich and famous tend to be a mix of real intelligence, strange rumors and absurd speculation. For example, federal agents once entertained the notion that Frank Sinatra was in a secret conspiracy with his dentist, as they sought to determine whether the singer and actor was a communist sympathizer.

What Was Trump’s Relationship With Epstein?

Contrary to what Musk suggested, merely being mentioned in an FBI file is not by itself incriminating, since such files often contain witness statements, victim information and bad tips. And a wealth of reporting shows that Epstein and Trump were friends for years who saw each other frequently at high-society parties in Florida and New York.

In a 2002 interview with New York magazine, Trump called Epstein a “terrific guy” whom he had known for 15 years. Trump added, “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Two years later, though, in November 2004, the two ended up competing to buy a Florida estate out of a bankruptcy. Trump ultimately outbid Epstein for the property.

There is little public record of the two men interacting after that real estate battle. Trump sold the property four years later to a Russian businessman, getting more than double what he paid for it.

Not long after the November auction, police in Palm Beach fielded a tip that young women had been observed going in and out of Epstein’s home, the police chief said in a deposition.

Four months later, police received a more substantive complaint, from a woman who said her teenage stepdaughter had been paid by Epstein to give him a massage while she was undressed, according to a police report. That led to an investigation that later identified at least a dozen potential victims.

Epstein survived that investigation with his fortune and freedom largely unscathed. His 2019 arrest, followed by his death in custody, gave new meaning to a case that had posed disturbing questions about the role that money and influence play in criminal cases.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Devlin Barrett/Haiyun Jiang
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