On Friday, Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI took a duvet day. He didn’t show up in the office and it was unclear when – or if – he would be back.
His absence was attributed to a crisis of belief triggered by last Thursday’s decision by attorney general Pam Bondi not to release the federal files on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
Like his immediate boss Kash Patel, Bongino had, during his less onerous years as a podcast host, repeatedly asserted that those files contained the key to a “deep state” scandal, involving Epstein, who was found dead in a Manhattan prison cell on the charge of sex trafficking minors, and a client list of depraved – and Democratic – elites.
“I’m not letting it go,” Bongino once said.
RM Block
“Ever.”
On Monday, he returned to the office but his future is uncertain. It was clear by then that he faced a choice: either let it go, or let the job go.
Over the weekend, president Trump made a very public appearance with the beleaguered Bondi in the unlikely setting of the Fifa Club World Cup final, between Chelsea and PSG, at the MetLife stadium. Trump caused a minor controversy by all but hijacking the Chelsea cup-celebration ceremony. But the outing achieved its aim. He was on team Bondi on this one. Earlier on Sunday, when asked about Bongino, the president breezily asserted that there is no issue.
“I think so. I spoke to him today. Dan Bongino is a very good guy. I’ve known him a long time. I’ve done his show many, many times. And he sounded terrific, actually, no, I think he’s in good shape,” he said.
The implicit message to Bongino was obvious: pull on your FBI fedora and get back to work. Nothing to see here. But the Epstein files continued to cause a background clamour within the Trump’s Maga fan base.
Debate over what the president and the administration should do about the issue dominated the conversations at the weekend’s Turning Point USA summit for young conservatives, in Tampa, Florida, where Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon were among the speakers.
“I don’t think it’s really about Epstein,” a 13-year-old attendee said during a question-and-answer segment during Bannon’s session.
“I think it’s about the deep state and everything surrounding Epstein. He’s just the top of the iceberg.
“Is this coming from you or hearing your parents talking?” Bannon asked.
“This is coming from you, Charlie Kirk, basically everyone here” was the succinct reply.
On Monday, Trump was busy hosting North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) secretary general Mark Rutte, on whom he lavished praise as he showcased a decisive break in faith in Vladimir Putin’s intention of entering peace talks with Ukraine. The Epstein issue was, he hoped, last week’s news.
But the spectre of those files refuses to go away. Unreleased, they are there to provoke and tantalise the Maga imagination. Sitting on the information is a fundamental breach of the Maga covenant.
The problem for the Republicans is that so many prominent officials, from Patel to vice-president Vance have called for their release before taking office. Even Trump haltingly allowed that he would release them when asked about the matter on the campaign trail.
It all led to Monday’s farcical situation where the Maga heartland found themselves endorsed by leading Democrats.
“The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in relation to this whole sordid Jeffrey Epstein matter,” House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said.
“Democrats didn’t put the Jeffrey Epstein thing into the public domain. This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and these Maga extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last year. And now the chickens are coming home to roost. The American people deserve to know the truth. What, if anything, is the Trump administration and the Department of Justice hiding? What are you hiding? If you are not hiding anything, prove that to the American people. And if you are trying to hide something, as many of Donald Trump’s Maga supporters apparently believe, then the Congress should actually work hard to try to uncover the truth for the American people.”
The catch-22, entirely of the Trump Republican’s own making was presented like this by Jeffries.
“Option one: they lied for years. Option two: they are engaging in a cover up. At this point, it seems reasonable that it can only be one of the two things. So, it’s Congress’s responsibility in a bipartisan way to ask the questions and try to get answers on behalf of the American people.”
Even Laura Loomer, the most devout of Trump’s right-wing agitators has called for a special counsel to investigate the matter.
On Monday afternoon, Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and former chair of the Republican National Committee made a timely appearance on the podcast hosted by Benny Johnson, another ardent believer in the Epstein files. She hinted that Trump is not deaf to the discontent among his supporters.
“He hears all the noise and I believe there will probably be more coming on this. And anything they are able to release that doesn’t damage any witnesses or anyone under age I believe they will probably get out sooner or later. But to anyone out there all worked up, there is no great plot to keep this information away.”
Whether they can release enough to sate those fevered imaginations or whether this can issue will become a deepening fault line in the Maga movement is an issue for the administration.
But it is unlikely to rest on Dan Bongino’s choice between staying or packing up his trinkets and walking out of the FBI headquarters carrying a little brown box.
