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 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 US president in the belief that Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (Maga) movement stood for exposing corruption. However, 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 and was 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.
McBride hailed the changing of the guard, expressing hope there could now be renewed focus on the Epstein issue. His wish was granted this week when First Lady Melania Trump unexpectedly denied associating with Epstein and called for a congressional hearing for his victims.
The Epstein story came crashing back into the news, yet the discontent among Trump's supporters like McBride persists. He believes Bondi needed to go because she wasn't prosecuting 'the people she needed to'.
McBride thinks there might be some 'high-status arrests', but after that, other issues like Iran, immigration raids, and the midterms will likely overshadow the Epstein story.
Maga Fallout Over Epstein
Many Epstein conspiracy theorists have long counted themselves amongst Trump's most ardent supporters. They suspect that Epstein's prison death was not a suicide and insinuate government involvement in a cover-up to protect powerful people who participated in his crimes.
McBride feels let down by Trump, stating that his dismissive remark about the Epstein files marked the end of the Maga movement's promise. He reflected on the shifting sentiment among his peers who now question their voting intentions. It won't stop me voting, but I am definitely not voting for anybody implicated by the Epstein files or anybody sponsored by President Trump, he asserts.
