{"id":10637,"date":"2026-07-19T15:16:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10637"},"modified":"2026-07-19T15:16:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T10:16:25","slug":"vance-we-did-mishandle-epstein-files-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=10637","title":{"rendered":"Vance: &quot;We did&quot; mishandle Epstein files release"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/Sn1zEtHEjc5mqegGT87HsZaXxIA=\/0x227:3806x2368\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/15\/1784139526354.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Vice President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/06\/vance-summer-trump-heir\" target=\"_blank\">JD Vance<\/a> said the Trump administration &#8220;mishandled&#8221; last year&#8217;s release of the Epstein files during an appearance on &#8220;The Joe Rogan Experience.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters: <\/strong>Vance&#8217;s comments are among the clearest public acknowledgments yet from the Trump administration that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/epstein-files\" target=\"_blank\">Epstein<\/a> files release became a major <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/11\/13\/trump-epstein-files-fiasco\" target=\"_blank\">political liability<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>Many noted at the time that the Epstein files release came with clumsy messaging and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mtracey\/status\/2003511463965786184\" target=\"_blank\">puzzling<\/a> redactions \u2014 fueling sustained political pressure on President Trump and his administration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>&#8220;If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty. We did mishandle it \u2014 especially the communications of it,&#8221; Vance told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/04\/20\/trump-woos-rogan-after-split\" target=\"_blank\">Rogan<\/a> on the episode that premiered Wednesday.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files. Like we just did,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/vtxyvD58eDg?si=NG-IwYhASOEpqVB7\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Vance said then-Attorney General Pam Bondi&#8217;s claim about having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/04\/02\/pam-bondi-epstein-files-trump\" target=\"_blank\">binders of documents on her desk<\/a> made &#8220;people mistrust the entire effort.&#8221; He added that &#8220;she overstated what we had and what we didn&#8217;t have.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in:<\/strong> Vance told Rogan that the U.S. should have released the documents as quickly as possible, acknowledging that redactions to victims would require time.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The vice president said the investigators &#8220;collected 6 million documents&#8221; \u2014 with about 3 million having &#8220;something to do with the Epstein estate.&#8221; <\/li>\n<li>Vance accused Epstein of having deep connections to Israeli and American politics.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;He clearly had connections to the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Context: <\/strong>Vance&#8217;s comments come after the Trump administration faced criticism from many Americans, including his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/07\/10\/trump-epstein-files-bondi-maga\" target=\"_blank\">MAGA base<\/a>, over the handling of the documents last year.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No other political issue created as much sustained political fallout for Trump and his administration last year like the files release, which inspired a revolt from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/07\/15\/trump-epstein-republicans-congress-bondi-bongino\" target=\"_blank\">congressional Republicans<\/a> and social media commentary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Go deeper: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/15\/epstein-investigation-new-mexico-justice-department-us-doj\" target=\"_blank\">New Mexico AG, federal DOJ clash over Epstein records<\/a><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration &#8220;mishandled&#8221; last year&#8217;s release of the Epstein files during an appearance on &#8220;The Joe Rogan Experience.&#8221; Why it matters: Vance&#8217;s comments are among the clearest public acknowledgments yet from the Trump administration that the Epstein files release became a major political liability. Many noted at the time&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/Sn1zEtHEjc5mqegGT87HsZaXxIA=\/0x227:3806x2368\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/15\/1784139526354.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}