Vice President Vance admitted Wednesday that the Trump administration mishandled the public rollout of Department of Justice files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling the communication failures a clear mistake but denying any intent to hide information.
In a nearly three-hour interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, Vance said: “We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files. But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No.”
Rogan pressed Vance on whether the episode showed President Trump could be easily manipulated, a charge the vice president flatly rejected. “That’s not true, dude,” he responded.
The podcast host noted the “tremendous amount of resistance” to releasing the files, pointing to the slow, redacted release that frustrated lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Vance deflected criticism toward former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who had claimed an Epstein “client list” sat on her desk—information Vance said was already public. Rogan questioned the “purpose of that performative display.”
“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 replied. He added that he believes Bondi acted without malice but “was trying to respond to the political moment. I think she overstated what we have and didn’t have, and I think that she got roasted for it, publicly by a lot of people, including me.”
Vance, who described himself as “one of the OG Epstein conspiracy theorists,” said he had explored every theory about the case. His comments come as Bondi faced bipartisan criticism over the Justice Department’s handling of the documents, which trickled out over a month after a congressionally mandated deadline under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The release included heavy redactions and, in some cases, identified victims in violation of the law.
The vice president defended Trump’s initial reluctance to support the House bill requiring disclosure. Trump eventually signed it after the measure passed via a discharge petition and cleared the Senate. Critics have long speculated the files might contain incriminating material about Trump, who had a past relationship with Epstein. Trump and his administration have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
“By the way, like do I think there is any—I’ve never seen a single piece of credible evidence that the President of the United States engaged in wrongdoing with minors ever,” Vance said. “So, like, when the president says, ‘The hoax,’ what he’s talking about is this Democratic idea that he somehow was a pedophile. It’s absurd.”
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has sought to interview Bondi about the Epstein files. Last month, the panel released a 111-page transcript of a four-hour session in which Bondi declined to answer several questions, instead pointing to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Vance’s remarks on Rogan are likely to intensify scrutiny of the administration’s transparency on the Epstein matter.
