(Photo Mark Schiefelbein)
Vice President JD Vance admitted to Joe Rogan Wednesday that the administration mishandled the release of the Epstein Files.
The vice president conceded that the Epstein files release was “absolutely screwed up,” particularly noting former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s TV appearances and influencer binder stunt.
“If people want to say that we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty,” Vance said. “We did mishandle it, especially the communications.”
“I think we should have just dropped everything at the very beginning,” Vance added. “Like, obviously it takes a little time to review the stuff, to find the stuff, to redact things where you have victims and so forth, but we should have just done it as quickly as possible.”
JD Vance admits to Joe Rogan that the White House “absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein Files” and addresses Pam Bondi’s fake “Epstein Binders” publicity stunt pic.twitter.com/KxqvdFCidl
— John Loftus (@JohnCFLoftus1) July 15, 2026
Although Vance openly criticized the communications surrounding the release, he refuted accusations that the files were mishandled as part of a coordinated cover-up.
“I say this with all candor, 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 was because we were trying to hide something? No.”
“I don’t know what the purpose of it was, but I know that the effect of it was to make people mistrust the entire effort.”
Vance also noted Epstein’s likely connections to intelligence, which many have speculated played a key role in his illicit activities.
“He clearly had connections to the highest levels of American intelligence,” Vance said of Epstein. “He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”