Elon Musk is mocking the Trump administration’s handling of the so-called Epstein files.
Weeks after claiming President Trump’s name was in the files, Mr. Musk responded to an Axios report that the Department of Justice concluded there was no evidence that Mr. Epstein, the well-connected financier who police said killed himself in jail after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges, had a client list or was murdered in prison.
“What’s the time? Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again,” Mr. Musk said on X.
The post included an “Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter” — a digital clock that showed time had run out.
In another post an hour later, Mr. Musk likened the way the Trump administration’s evolving tone about the FBI’s Epstein files to a person putting on makeup to transform themselves into a clown complete with a rainbow-colored wig and a red nose.
With each new layer of makeup, the captions progress from “We Will Release The Epstein List” to “We Just Need More Time” to “The Epstein List Is On My Desk” to a full clown face with “There Is No Epstein List.”
Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump kicked off the year as arguably the most dynamic duo in politics after the president tasked the world’s richest man — and major campaign contributor — to lead the Department of Government Efficiency efforts to identify government waste.
However, their relationship soured after Mr. Musk stepped away from DOGE and came out against Mr. Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” When the bill cleared Congress and became law, Mr. Musk announced he was launching a new America Party.
Along the way, he suggested that the reason the Trump administration was being coy about the Epstein files was that Mr. Trump was in them.
Federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking conspiracy and one count of sex trafficking with underage girls.
He pleaded not guilty but died in prison before his trial.
The Epstein saga has been the source of numerous conspiracy theories about how he died, who traveled to his private island in the Caribbean, and whether he had blackmailed celebrities and government officials by holding onto a client list.
Names previously linked to Epstein included Mr. Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, lawyer Alan Dershowitz and the late New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson — though none have been directly implicated in sex crimes.
The right-wing online universe often speculated that the documents would expose Mr. Clinton, while left-wing chatter focused on Mr. Trump’s ties to Epstein.
“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” the justice department memo says. “There was also no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”
“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” it said, adding that Mr. Epstein “committed suicide in his cell” on August 19, 2019.
Meanwhile, Mr. Musk’s posts on Monday appeared to allude to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said in a Fox News interview earlier this year that the Epstein list “is sitting on my desk right now to review.”
Asked whether she had seen anything that surprised her, Ms. Bondi said, “Not yet.”
In another interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Ms. Bondi accused the Biden administration of sitting on thousands of pages of documents related to the Epstein case.
Alina Habba, who served as the president’s former spokesman and personal lawyer before being tapped as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney, also played up what was to come.
“In this case, in Epstein’s case, it’s incredibly disturbing,” she said in an interview with Piers Morgan earlier this year. “We have flight logs, information, names that will come out.”
Asked whether the information released was going to be shocking, she said, “I don’t see how it is not shocking that there were so many individuals that were hidden and kept secret, and not held accountable.”
She added that she would withhold judgment on a person’s guilt until they are tried in a court of law.
Mr. Trump was in office when Epstein was arrested in 2019. He suggested on the campaign trail last year that he would seek to open the government’s files on him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the DOJ memo shows the Trump administration is “committed to truth and transparency.”
“That is why the attorney general and the FBI director pledged at the president’s direction to do an exhaustive review of all the files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes and his death,” she told reporters at the White House.
Asked about Ms. Bondi’s comments, Ms. Leavitt said the attorney general was not referring to a client list.
“She was saying the entirety of all the paperwork, all of the paper in relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes,” Ms. Leavitt said.
On Monday, rightwing radio host Alex Jones hatched a new theory, telling his followers on social media he suspects Mr. Trump has “deep-sixed” the files because the CIA was involved with Epstein, along with the Israeli and British intelligence agencies.
“If Trump was actually to prosecute this, it would bring down the CIA,” Mr. Jones surmised in a video post. “This is the swamp winning. The question is: Is Trump DOJ using this to control the deep state, or are they just so overwhelmed by it they are tapping out?”
