JD Vance‘s past social media commentary on the existence of a Jeffrey Epstein client list has come back to haunt him as he defends the Trump administration’s handling of the investigation.
The Vice President this week backed Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi as they come under fire for backtracking on a campaign promise to release a highly sought after list of names connected to the disgraced billionaire sex trafficker.
After years of spouting promises to release the list, the administration this week sensationally claimed no such list exists, sparking a wave of criticism from some of Trump’s most loyal MAGA supporters.
‘Donald Trump didn’t do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein,’ Vance told podcaster Theo Von when he was confronted with Elon Musk‘s wild claim that Trump was on the so-called list.
‘Whatever the Democrats and the media say about him, that’s totally BS. I’m the Vice President to President Trump, my loyalties are always going to be with the president.’
But for the past several years, Vance himself has been one of the most outspoken critics of the way the former administration handled the Epstein investigation.
As early as 2021, posts made to X seen by DailyMail.com prove Vance staunchly believed a client list existed – and that the public deserved to see it.
‘What possible interest would the US government have in keeping Epstein’s clients secret? Oh…,’ he wrote on December 30, 2021.
Epstein (left) killed himself in prison while awaiting trial accused of child sex trafficking. His longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell (right) is serving life in prison for her involvement
The Vice President this week backed Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi as they come under fire for backtracking on a campaign promise to release a highly sought after list of names connected to the disgraced billionaire sex trafficker
At the time, Vance reposted another user’s comments which said: ‘The DOJ and Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers have made a deal that her ‘little black book’ of contacts will never be made public.’
Vance went on a rant at the journalists failing to grill politicians hard enough about the Epstein files.
‘If you’re a journalist and you’re not asking questions about this case you should be ashamed of yourself,’ he said.
‘What purpose do you even serve? I’m sure there’s a middle class teenager somewhere who could use some harassing right now but maybe try to do your job once in a while.’
Earlier this week, a reporter tried to question Trump about the Epstein investigation and was immediately rebuked by the president, who said: ‘Are you still talking about Epstein? This guy has been talked about for years. Are people still talking about this creep? I can’t believe you’re asking a question about Epstein.’
And in September of 2021, Vance again discussed the Epstein matter, writing: ‘Remember when we learned that our wealthiest and most powerful people were connected to a guy who ran a literal child sex trafficking ring? And then that guy died mysteriously in a jail? And now we just don’t talk about it.’
At the same time, he shared an article published by The Week titled: ‘The Jeffrey Epstein case is why people believe in Pizzagate. A mysterious cabal of billionaires and politicians and Hollywood bigwigs running an international sex trafficking ring — ridiculous, right?’
Vance said he thought about the contents of the article ‘about once a month.’
As early as 2021, posts made to X seen by DailyMail.com prove Vance staunchly believed a client list existed – and that the public deserved to see it
Vance said he thought about the contents of the article ‘about once a month
Back in November, ahead of the election, Vance told Von: ‘Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing.’
Vance is now being roundly mocked on his X account by critics who are drawing attention to his former position on the Epstein matter.
‘Still thinking about it JD?’ one critic said.
‘I’m disgusted with all of you,’ another wrote, while a third added: ‘You just lost the trust, game over.’
‘Just know that this is another reason to never, ever trust our government.’
Central to the problem for MAGA loyalists is that Bondi assured the public months ago that the client list was ‘on her desk’ and ready to be reviewed.
When this point was raised with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, she quickly clarified Bondi ‘was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork, all of the paper relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes’.
‘President Trump is proud of Attorney General Bondi’s efforts to execute his Make America Safe Again agenda,’ Leavitt told the Daily Mail.
‘I’m the Vice President to President Trump, my loyalties are always going to be with the president,’ Vance said of Trump
‘The continued fixation on sowing division in President Trump’s Cabinet is baseless and unfounded in reality.’
The unsigned memo donning DOJ and FBI seals also detailed that Epstein did kill himself – as the initial coroner’s report found.
British socialite and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking crimes.
The DOJ is not targeting anyone else related to the Epstein crimes, the Sunday night bombshell revealed.
In February, the AG handed over a binder of documents to pro-MAGA media personalities that was branded as ‘phase one’ of the release. It was quickly revealed that there was little to no new information in the pages and that it was instead mostly what was already made public.
On his podcast Tuesday, conservative luminary Tucker Carlson theorized that Bondi is orchestrating a cover-up in order to protect members of the intelligence community who were ensnared in Epstein’s conduct.
‘The current DOJ under Pam Bondi is covering up crimes, very serious crimes by their own description,’ Carlson said. ‘Intel services are at the very center of this story, U.S. and Israeli and they’re being protected.’
