JD Vance Says the Trump Administration ‘Absolutely Screwed Up’ the Release of the Epstein Files

Someone on the inside finally admitted what many Americans have believed for more than a year.

In an appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday, Vice President J.D. Vance told host Joe Rogan that President Donald Trump’s administration badly mishandled the release of files pertaining to convicted sex offender and suspected sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

“We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein Files,” Vance said. “Like, we just did.”

The vice president made that admission in response to questioning from Rogan. Moments earlier, the host had suggested that perhaps people in or close to the administration whose names appeared in the files exercised too much influence over the president.

After admitting failure in communications, Vance said he did not believe anyone in the administration deliberately concealed the truth.

From there, the host and his guest engaged in a lengthy conversation about the Epstein saga.

First, Vance conceded that former Attorney General Pam Bondi “overstated” what the administration had in its possession.

After Rogan pressed him on Bondi’s catastrophic public relations gaffe in February 2025, when she made a photo-op out of handing binders full of Epstein-related materials to a group of conservative influencers — binders that revealed almost nothing new — the vice president did not defend her.

Then, Vance characterized the narrowness of the warrant that launched the original investigation in 2007 to 2008 as the case’s “original sin.” Because of that, the vice president speculated, evidence of Epstein’s likely nefarious activities since the 1980s simply disappeared.

Unlike other members of the administration, Vance proved willing to discuss the Epstein case at length. In fact, he characterized himself as a “conspiracy theorist” who had gone down the Epstein “rabbit holes.”

“There is a story there,” the vice president said, “and I will go to my deathbed believing there’s a story there. But I can’t prove it.”

Indeed, Vance offered various theories about Epstein’s activities.

He acknowledged “blackmail” of rich and powerful people as one possibility. He also advanced a theory about Epstein using tax schemes to control clients. And, the vice president said, those same rich and powerful people might simply have failed to recognize Epstein for the “scumbag” he was.

“Most people think he was Mossad,” Rogan said, referring to the Israeli national intelligence agency.

Vance acknowledged that Epstein may have had foreign or domestic “deep state” ties, and possibly had both.

“He clearly had connections to the highest levels of American intelligence,” the vice president said. “He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”

Vance then observed that while Epstein maintained connections to both Republicans and Democrats in the United States, the convicted sex offender associated primarily with “elements of the Israeli deep state” that the vice president characterized as “left of center.”

Amid all the speculation and the back-and-forth with Rogan, however, Vance again admitted what even friends of the administration have long lamented.

“If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty,” the vice president said.

Readers may examine the available Epstein files for themselves. Those files, thanks to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, are housed on the Department of Justice’s website.

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