A group of 15 pro-Trump social media personalities visited the White House for briefings with Trump administration officials and got a drop-in visit from the president.
Some of the political commentators posed outside the White House with white binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.” Attorney General Pam Bondi has promised to release more government files about the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, although experts have cautioned against expectations of any explosive revelations.
Jessica Reed Kraus, a Substack newsletter writer, who was one of the invited guests, wrote on Instagram that “only 15 binders were printed, given to 15 independent journalists now included in a growing press pool, where influencers like myself will be granted equal access to the president and the White House.”
The notion that the briefing involved “independent journalists” was undermined by the fact that several participants walked out of the White House with Trump-branded hats.
The attendees also included Michael Cernovich, Liz Wheeler and Jack Posobiec, all three of whom have promoted pro-Trump conspiracy theories for years, and thus have online fan bases on the right.
Cernovich wrote on X that Bondi “released what she had in her possession for the sake of transparency,” under embargo until later in the day.
Another one of the influencers in attendance, Emily Austin, posted a video outside the White House holding up the binder and saying “Let’s make America safe again.”
But Julie K. Brown, the acclaimed Miami Herald reporter who investigated Epstein for years, said the material believed to be in the binders “has been public since 2015. All one has to do is Google it.”
Brown also expressed concern about the triumphant way the online content creators held up the binders outside the White House.
“The sexual abuse of children is not funny – or cause to hold up files containing their agony as if it was some celebration,” she wrote on X.
