Van Jones: MAGA 'bamboozled' on Epstein files

CNN pundit Van Jones said the “Make America Great Again” movement has been “bamboozled” over the Trump administration’s handling of records relating to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"Look, MAGA has been took, had, bamboozled. I don‘t know, like — look, you have everything, that you just said, every Republican was saying, and now 'nothing to see here,' ” Jones, an ex-adviser to former President Obama, said during a Monday night appearance on CNN’s “OutFront.”

“So Hakeem Jeffries is 100 percent correct. Either, they were lying the whole time, saying they had all the goods on all these rich people, or they‘re lying now and covering it up. Either way, if I were in MAGA, I might think to myself, what else are they being dishonest about? Somebody is tricking somebody,” the CNN political commentator told host Erin Burnett. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said earlier Monday that the administration should release all of the files related to Epstein. The Democratic leader pointed to two possible scenarios of why the documents related to the case are not public. 

“Option 1: They lied for years. Option 2: They’re engaging in a cover-up. At this point. it seems reasonable that it can only be one of the two things,” Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol. “And so it’s Congress’s responsibility, in a bipartisan way, to ask the questions and try to get answers on behalf of the American people.”

Many MAGA supporters have been outraged over the administration’s posture around the Epstein case, particularly after the FBI and DOJ published a memo earlier this month stating there’s no evidence Epstein had a “client list” and reaffirming that he died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi has faced strong blowback from the MAGA base. She said during a February Fox News interview that she had the Epstein “client list” on her desk, comments she clarified earlier this month, saying she meant she had the Epstein case file. Trump has stood by Bondi’s side, praising her on Saturday for doing a “FANTASTIC JOB” and told his backers to move on. 

Jones on Monday used the controversy to knock the Trump administration's policies.

“Are they being dishonest when they say that there are tens of millions of violent immigrants, and therefore we should have people snatched off the streets? What else should you start asking questions about? Because obviously the people in charge of the Republican Party and the people in the White House are not being honest with you about this,” Jones said.