Elon Musk is mocking the Trump administration’s handling of the so-called Epstein files.
Weeks after claiming President Trump’s name was in the files, Mr. Musk responded to an Axios report that the Department of Justice concluded there was no evidence that Mr. Epstein, the well-connected financier who police said killed himself in jail after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges, had a client list or was murdered in prison.
“What’s the time? Oh look, it’s no-one-has-been-arrested-o’clock again,” Mr. Musk said on X.
The post included an “Official Jeffrey Epstein Pedophile Arrest Counter” — a digital clock that showed time had run out.
In another post an hour later, Mr. Musk likened the way the Trump administration’s evolving tone about the FBI’s Epstein files to a person putting on makeup to transform themselves into a clown complete with a rainbow-colored wig and a red nose.
With each new layer of makeup, the captions progress from “We Will Release The Epstein List” to “We Just Need More Time” to “The Epstein List Is On My Desk” to a full clown face with “There Is No Epstein List.”
Federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking conspiracy and one count of sex trafficking with underage girls.
He pleaded not guilty but died in prison before his trial.
The Epstein saga has been the source of numerous conspiracy theories about how he died, who traveled to his private island in the Caribbean, and whether he had blackmailed celebrities and government officials by holding onto a client list.
Mr. Musk’s post appeared to allude to Attorney General Pam Bondi saying in a Fox News interview earlier this year that the Epstein list “is sitting on my desk right now to review.”
Asked whether she had seen anything that surprised her, Ms. Bondi said, “Not yet.”
In another interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Ms. Bondi accused the Biden administration of sitting on thousands of pages of documents related to the Epstein case.
Alina Habba, who served as the president’s former spokesman and personal lawyer before being tapped as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney, also played up what was to come.
“In this case, in Epstein’s case, it’s incredibly disturbing,” she said in an interview with Piers Morgan earlier this year. “We have flight logs, information, names that will come out.”
Asked whether the information released was going to be shocking, she said, “I don’t see how it is not shocking that there were so many individuals that were hidden and kept secret, and not held accountable.”
She added that she would withhold judgment on a person’s guilt until they are tried in a court of law.
Mr. Trump was in office when Epstein was arrested in 2019. He suggested on the campaign trail last year that he would seek to open the government’s files on him.
