Epstein files: Truth, accountability and a million new conspiracy theories

The Epstein files were supposed to be an exercise in government transparency, but they have also spawned their own opaque subgenre of conspiracy theories.

Some of them are new and some are mutations of older rumors — fed by AI, teased by politicians, and flourishing in various corners of the Internet.

They range from serious to strange, and include the CIA, naturally, but also school picture day.

It is becoming more and more difficult to separate what the files do show – a chummy superclass of rich elites and the coarse conversations of men prowling for younger women and the alleged sexual assaults of underage girls – and what they do not show. That divide between what is real and what is fake underscores how misinformation and the stoking of conspiracy theories are built into the American discourse – and a distraction from a common pursuit of justice.

Was Jeffrey Epstein a spy for the Russians or the Israelis? Is a youth sports team pizza party a pedophile code? Is Epstein alive on a beach playing video games? Is that really him with Zohran Mamdani and Nigel Farage? Why are Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting?

Does the CIA know something?

Rep. Nancy Mace, the South Carolina Republican who has broken with her party over the files, told NPR she has reason to believe the CIA has information tied to Epstein and promised to demand answers from the nation’s spies. The agency, whose secretive nature and checkered past put it at the center of so many conspiracy theories, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. But the Justice Department claims not to have withheld any Epstein documents for national security reasons.

Was Epstein working for the Russian government?

There’s conjecture that Epstein was working for the Russians. Or the Israelis. He did try on several occasions to get an audience with Vladimir Putin through former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The Kremlin said the idea of Epstein working as a Russian spy is not serious.

But Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said this month his government will be investigating possible ties between Epstein and Russians.

Was he with Mossad?

Barak, the former Israeli leader long known to have been an associate of Epstein’s, says he regrets knowing the convicted sex offender. Barak has said he never witnessed or participated in any improper behavior.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X that Epstein’s relationship with Barak, his longtime out-of-power political opponent, actually proves Epstein was never working for the Israelis.

Netanyahu then tried to feed conspiracy theories by adding that Barak “has for years obsessively attempted to undermine Israeli democracy by working with the anti-Zionist radical left in failed attempts to overthrow the elected Israeli government.”

The idea that Epstein worked for Israel’s spy agency, Mossad, is among the most persistent theories about him, feeding into questions about how Epstein amassed his fortune. Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who helped force the Trump administration to release the files, has publicly wondered about Epstein’s ties to Israel.

Real scandals versus fake scandals

The Department of Justice has cautioned that the files contain what the DOJ described as “unfounded and false” allegations. There is, for instance, a list of unvetted and unproven tips and sexual harassment allegations the FBI fielded about President Donald Trump.

Other allegations have been fabricated online after the release of the documents — at times alongside real controversies.

The French government released a statement alleging the Russian propagandist group Storm 1516 was trying to spread misinformation online about Epstein contacts with French President Emmanuel Macron, which didn’t exist.

At the same time, the French government is investigating Epstein’s ties to the former French Culture Minister Jack Lang. The files uncovered years of correspondence and financial links between Epstein and Lang, who has now resigned from his research organization, the Arab World Institute. Lang denies any wrongdoing and said on X he welcomes the investigation with “with serenity and even relief.”

It’s true that Epstein’s ties to a former top leader in the Labour Party, former British Ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson, actually has threatened the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

But it’s a fake, AI-generated photo that sought to tie Epstein to the conservative Reform UK Party leader Nigel Farage.

Same with the fake photo that seemed to show New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a child, posing for a photo with Epstein, former President Bill Clinton and billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. It was a parody account that first posted the image, but that didn’t stop it from spreading online and generating fact checks by news organizations.

Less serious, perhaps, is the AI-generated video Irish filmmaker Ruairí Robinson posted of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise fighting, in which they suggest Epstein had ties to Russia and knew too much. It was clearly a joke, but not everyone online got it.

A truth commission in New Mexico

In New Mexico, a 2019 email to a local radio DJ alleging the murder of two “foreign” women at Epstein’s Zorro Ranch has resulted in the state legislature voting in a bipartisan way to form a “Truth Commission” to investigate. The tipster’s email address is redacted, but their request for bitcoin in exchange for a USB drive is not. The DJ, Eddy Aragon, said he forwarded the email to the local FBI office, but didn’t hear any more about it. The state land commissioner called for an investigation when the anonymous tip was released as part of the Epstein files.

We aren’t seeing everything

It’s not helping that the Trump administration says release of the documents is effectively over but for a small number of documents held up as part of a court proceeding. At the same time the administration acknowledged reviewing around 6 million documents but only releasing around 3.5 million.

Heavy redactions and formatting issues have created even more questions as online sleuths and reporters try to figure out what some of the documents mean. Lawmakers, supervised by government lawyers in a closely controlled environment, have been slowly looking at what’s underneath the redactions.

Hillary Clinton alleges cover-up

Hillary Clinton sees a “continuing cover-up by the Trump administration” in the slow, uneven, heavily redacted release of the Epstein files, as she told the BBC this week.

“Something is going on. They know it. I know it,” Clinton said as she argued that testimony by her and her husband Bill Clinton before a Republican-led congressional committee this month should be in public and transparent. Republicans want the testimony conducted behind closed doors.

Clinton has been talking for decades about Republican efforts to undercut her and Bill Clinton. It was in January of 1998, as the Monica Lewinsky scandal percolated, that Hillary Clinton alleged a “vast right-wing conspiracy” bent on bringing them down.

The return of ‘Pizzagate’

Clinton has a deeply held belief that she and Bill Clinton have been targeted by a conspiracy, but other theories involving them are clearly preposterous. 2016 saw the spread of a ridiculous conspiracy theory known as “Pizzagate,” which claimed a cabal of pedophiles were running the government and sacrificing children. The theory circulated in the dark corners of the Internet just before Clinton’s election loss to Donald Trump and ultimately led to an attack by a Pizzagate believer on a DC pizza restaurant.

It was entirely predictable that the Epstein files would resuscitate the Pizzagate theory.

One email in the files, not directly tied to Epstein, is from Epstein’s longtime assistant and appears to be about a youth sports team’s pizza party. It’s in line with multiple other emails mentioning the U9 Red team. The term U9 Red will sound familiar to anyone with a child playing on a travel sports team, but online theorists saw coded Pizzagate language about the murder and abuse of children for which there is no evidence at all.

There are not yet any known conspiracy theories attached to the multiple mentions of lasagna in Epstein-related emails.

School pictures company on defense

Lifetouch, a company that takes and stores school pictures, says it is not in the files.

But Leon Black, a key Epstein benefactor, is in there. Black’s Epstein ties led him to resign from his firm Apollo Capitol Management back in 2021. Apollo is a major investor in Shutterfly, the company that owns Lifetouch, which photographs millions of American children each year.

It’s not exactly a direct connection, but some on social media have expressed concern that pedophiles have access to Lifetouch’s photos. The Associated Press and others have written about school districts in Texas and Arizona that either canceled picture day or discontinued their relationships with the company.

Lifetouch posted a statement on its website stating it takes student privacy seriously and said it does not share photos with third parties. It further said that Apollo has no role in the company’s day-to-day activities.

“Lifetouch is not named in the Epstein files,” wrote CEO Ken Murphy. “The documents contain no allegations that Lifetouch itself was involved in, or that student photos were used in, any illicit activities.”

None of this is to say parents shouldn’t be concerned with privacy or ask the company to delete their child’s image from its database if they wish. But any connection to Epstein is hard to find.

Epstein was not a Fortnite gamer

The owner of the video game Fortnite issued a statement on X trying to shoot down the theory that Epstein was recently alive and gaming. A Fortnite handle that matched Epstein’s YouTube handle was active after Epstein’s death.

It was all a “ruse,” according to Fortnite’s statement, which said in part:

“… an existing Fortnite account owner changed their username from something totally unrelated to littlestjeff1, following the revelation of littlestjeff1 as a name on YouTube.”

The company said it has no record of Epstein’s email being associated with a Fortnite account, but since the release of the files, “people have created Fortnite accounts with similar-looking email addresses and user names.”