After Cayden McBride finishes class in Rome, Georgia, the 19-year-old goes home, opens his laptop, and starts searching. For the past few months, he has been spending hours at a time combing through the Jeffrey Epstein files on the US Department of Justice (DOJ) website, and following others online who are doing the same.
Flight logs. Transcripts. Images. Videos. The material released by the DOJ has given new insight into the crimes of Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, and into his high-profile connections.
McBride believes the Epstein files still matter, even if the headlines have moved on to the Iran war recently.
As a Christian, I don't believe anybody should endure what these women have been through, he says. There is so much bad stuff in these files.
McBride was a self-described Trump guy and very anti-establishment. He said he would always defend the president in the belief that Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement stood for exposing corruption. But the DOJ's delay in releasing all the files, and the perceived lack of accountability afterwards, has left him and many others disheartened with the movement, the president, and especially with Pam Bondi, Trump's former attorney general.
Bondi was removed from her post just last week, to be replaced, in the interim, by her deputy Todd Blanche.
Trump has lauded Bondi for doing a tremendous job, and Blanche denied reports that his predecessor's handling of the Epstein files had been a factor in her departure.
But McBride hailed the changing of the guard, expressing hope for renewed focus on the Epstein issue.
His wish was granted this week from an unlikely quarter. The Epstein story came crashing back into the news when First Lady Melania Trump unexpectedly denied she had ever had a relationship with him and called for a congressional hearing for his victims.
It is unclear how much that will galvanise interest, but Bondi's removal has done little to quiet the discontent amongst Trump's supporters like McBride. He believes that she needed to go because she wasn't prosecuting the people she needed to.
He expects there might be some high-status arrests, but after that, other matters like Iran and midterms will, in his words, sweep the Epstein story under the rug.
Many Epstein conspiracy theorists have long counted themselves among Trump's most ardent supporters. They believe that Epstein's death in prison was not a suicide, as the FBI has found. For years, they have insinuated that the government was involved with some sort of cover-up, protecting powerful individuals who participated in his crimes.
During his 2024 campaign, President Trump expressed willingness to release the Epstein files, but after returning to the White House, he seemingly changed his stance.
Trump later signed a law that compelled the DOJ to release thousands of files. However, many Epstein conspiracy theorists don't buy the government's claim that all files have been released.
The fallout from the Epstein saga continues to present challenges for Trump's base, especially among younger, previously enthusiastic supporters like McBride, who now feel disillusioned and question their allegiance.
