• Vice President JD Vance told Joe Rogan that the Trump administration “absolutely screwed up the comms” of the Epstein files release.
  • Vance said former Attorney General Pam Bondi “overstated what we had and what we didn’t have” when she told conservative commentators that Epstein’s alleged client list was on her desk.
  • The release of heavily redacted Epstein files in December drew bipartisan criticism after the Justice Department missed a congressional deadline.
  • Vance said he did not believe the administration was trying to hide anything, attributing the failures to communications mistakes.

Vance says Bondi overstated what Epstein files contained

Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration “absolutely screwed up the comms” of the Jeffrey Epstein files release, telling podcast host Joe Rogan in an interview published Wednesday that the White House botched its communications after raising expectations about what the documents would contain.

The admission comes after months of controversy over the Justice Department’s handling of records related to the convicted sex offender, which has become a persistent political liability for the Trump administration. The Department of Justice’s repeated delays in releasing the documents drew bipartisan disapproval last year.

In the interview on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Vance said the administration should have released all the documents from the beginning. He pointed to comments from former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who told conservative commentators and influencers that Epstein’s alleged “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now.”

“I know Pam. I like Pam. I don’t think there was anything malicious going on,” Vance told Rogan. “I think Pam was trying to respond to the political moment. I think she overstated what we had and what we didn’t have.”

Bondi had offered conservative commentators and influencers binders called “The Epstein files: Phase 1” and “Declassified,” which largely featured documents that were already publicly available. Because of Bondi’s comments, she was “roasted” publicly, Vance said, which ultimately fueled mistrust in the administration’s transparency efforts.

“We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files. Like, we just did,” Vance said. “But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No.”

After months of persistent controversy, lawmakers passed a measure compelling the government to release a large trove of documents related to federal investigations of Epstein. In December, the Justice Department began releasing heavily redacted files, including photos, call logs, grand jury testimony and interview transcripts. But the redactions and the department’s failure to meet a deadline to release the full files drew criticism from lawmakers and the public.