AARON PATRICK: Trumpland is angry the President can’t produce a list of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex clients

It is one of the most tantalising documents of the 21st century: a list said to contain some of the world’s most prominent businessmen, politicians, aristocrats and lawyers who were given access to teenage girls for their sexual pleasure.

All friends, associates or clients of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the existence of the list is one of the foundational facts of the deep-state conspiracy theory that helped elect Donald Trump.

Now, the Trump administration says there is and never was a list, an assertion supported by Epstein’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, with an important qualification. He says the FBI knows the names of men identified by the girls who were coerced into sex, but is blocked by the courts from disclosing them.

“Epstein never created a ‘client list,’” the Harvard professor wrote on Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal. “The FBI interviewed alleged victims who named several ‘clients.’ These names have been redacted. They should be disclosed but the courts have ordered them sealed. I know who they are. They don’t include any current officeholders.”

In other words, Epstein and his sex-crimes facilitator, Ghislaine Maxwell, did not compile a list of the rich and powerful men they trafficked women to. But the US Government knows the identities of those who might have enjoyed trips in Epstein’s private jet to a secluded Caribbean island, or visits to a Manhattan townhouse, where sex was one of the perks.

Upset supporters

Mr Trump’s most-ardent supporters feel betrayed. Epstein is central to their belief in a conspiracy of intelligence agencies, banks and other institutions trying to seize control of the US Government.

Part of the belief system is that Mr Trump will deliver what they call “The Storm”, according to Callum Jones, a conspiracy theory expert at Deakin University in Victoria.

On that day, the President will publish previously secret information that reveals the exist of a collection of senior officials who comprise the deep state. Mass arrests will then be carried out, saving democracy.

“There’s this perception he (Mr Trump) will be the person who brings this about and he is not doing so,” Dr Callum said on Wednesday.

The theory has adherents across the world, including in Australia. Many believers are upset and confused by the Department of Justice’s declaration that a search “revealed no incriminating ‘client list’” or evidence Epstein blackmailed powerful people.

The disappointed supporters include Senator Ralph Babet, a United Australia Party representative from Victoria who promotes conspiracy theories. “President Trump needs to release all the details about Epstein,” he posted on Tuesday. “Mossad, the CIA, MI6 - burn it all to the ground.”

Even Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a leading figure in the pro-Trump movement criticised the President.

“It’s a full reversal on what was all said beforehand, and people are just not willing to accept it,” she told the New York Times.

Australian connection

By their nature, conspiracies are difficult to disprove. Running for office, Mr Trump became a world-class propagator of them, especially the QAnon-driven theory that held Epstein was at the centre of an international network of elites trafficking in children.

In 2024, asked on the Fox Network if he would declassify the government’s files on Epstein, he said: “Yeah, I would. I guess I would.”

He said it would be “interesting to find out what happened” to Epstein when he died in custody, a reference to online allegations Epstein was murdered to protect his contacts.

One of Epstein’s Australian associates was the daughter of former prime minister Paul Keating, Katherine, who was inadvertently filmed leaving his house in 2010. She has never explained the connection.

Officials concluded Epstein killed himself, the day after court documents became public revealing one of his employees, Virginia Giuffre, alleged she was coerced into sex with Prince Andrew in that same house when she was 17.

Giuffre, who married an Australian and moved to Perth, took her life in April, unable to carry the burden any more of her lifelong fight for justice.

While accepting that Epstein also committed suicide, Professor Dershowitz said he believed the financier was helped by jail personnel, for reasons he did not speculate on.

“That seems likely to me, based on the evidence of allegedly broken cameras, transfer of his cellmate and the absence of guards during relevant time periods,” the lawyer wrote.

Trump relationship

Photographs of Epstein with Mr Trump, and a video of them at a party with young women, remain on high rotation on social media. The association has generated speculation Mr Trump was on the now-mythical Epstein list, a belief recently fuelled by Elon Musk in a now-deleted X post.

The Trump Administration’s declaration no list exists could be seen as part of a cover up to protect the President.

Professor Dershowitz, who worked for Mr Trump during his 2020 impeachment trial, argues the president is clean.

“That relationship ended when Mr. Trump reportedly banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, long before becoming president,” he wrote. “I have seen nothing that would suggest anything improper or even questionable by Mr Trump.”

Always cognisant of his supporters’ views, the President tried to calm them on the weekend.

“We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening,” he posted. “We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and ‘selfish people’ are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.”

Of all people, Mr Trump should know that conspiracy theories never die on the internet.

And Epstein is the biggest conspiracy of all.