The Epstein files influencer 'clusterfuck'
Yesterday afternoon, Trump’s Department of Justice invited 15 far right influencers to the White House to give them binders containing a handful of files on notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The influencers met the Vice President and other members of the administration before they were taken into the Oval Office to meet directly with the President. The group then posed outside the White House with their thick white binders allegedly full of Epstein info, compiled by Attorney General Pam Bondi herself, according to one influencer who attended.
But while the influencers, which included far right extremist Chaya Raichik and Mike Cernovich, a former Pizzagater who himself has been accused of sexual assault, smiled and gloated while holding their binders in the air, the high didn’t last for long.
First, it turned out that AG Bondi did not actually want the public to know about the distribution of the binders, “a caveat that came too late,” according to a report from the right wing website The National Post.
Then, the minute the influencers began actually releasing the documents contained in their binders, all of which were heavily redacted, it became clear that the entire thing was a flop. There were no new revelations and the content in their binders had been available publicly on the internet for years.
The influencers attempted to drum up interest in Epstein’s flight logs and other files that were already dissected by the public years ago, but their followers quickly became angry that after all the hype, the influencers had failed to deliver.
The creators soon became disillusioned themselves. Right wing podcaster Liz Wheeler, admitted that the files lacked anything of interest. “Now what’s interesting is we’re all waiting for bombshells,” Wheeler told followers in a live stream on X. “We’re all waiting for juicy stuff. And that’s not what’s in this binder. That’s not what’s in this binder at all. And that’s exactly how the attorney general presented it to us.”
“It’s fine to feel frustrated,” she added. “You should feel frustrated.”
Other right wing influencers were also outraged at the way the entire thing was made into a spectacle. “Don’t get me wrong, I like most of those in the photos,” Tony Kinnett, a right wing creator posted to X. “…Releasing the files like this so it’s a little photo op? Cringe. Childish. Not at all how a list of sex abusers should be released. That should be a simple online post via the DOJ.”
Several influencers also copy-pasted language given to them directly by the Trump administration, parroting the government’s talking points word for word.
“Rote posting the proffered language from the office itself?” Kinnett vented, “How is this different than the legacy media?”
Kinnett also chastised the influencers for using the opportunity to try to drive subscriptions and get followers. “One thing Millennials, Gen Z, and iAlpha HATE is the ‘like and subscribe to see EXCLUSIVE’ nonsense,” he added. “Just release it. If you’re good at your job, I’ll subscribe. Don’t hold me up like a shady bouncer.”
The official GOP House Judiciary Committee account, controlled by Jim Jordan, posted a link purporting to be to the documents that was actually just a Rickroll, pissing even more conservatives off.
Realizing the entire thing was a fiasco, Bondi struggled to do damage control. She claimed that more details would be coming. In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel which was made public Thursday afternoon, she claimed that she had been told “the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.”
Bondi then demanded that the “full and complete Epstein files” be delivered to her office by 8 a.m. Friday, “including records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients.”
According to Business Insider’s Jacob Shamsian, Bondi is now using “the Epstein Files vaporware as an excuse to fire a bunch of people from the FBI field office in New York.”
The entire thing ultimately shows how reliance on influencer-driven media can completely backfire. A bunch of dubious influencers over-hyping a pile of regurgitated, stale information only further underscores the need for rigorous, investigative journalism that actually holds power to account.
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How the 00s changed the tech world forever
The 2000s were a formative decade for tech. From the dot com bubble to the rise of social media, to the chaotic days of early blogging, the iMac, and emergence of the PayPal Mafia, the 00s shaped our online world in ways we’re still reckoning with.
Colette Shade, author of the brand new bestselling book Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was) joined me this week on Power User to unpack the lasting impact of the 00s on our tech landscape.
We discuss what we can learn from the golden age of dial-up internet and tech optimism, and how the aughts ultimately set the stage for today’s hyper-surveilled, algorithm-driven platform hellscape. Watch below and subscribe to my YouTube channel!
What I’m reading
Andrew Tate’s Return Is A Huge Win For The Internet’s Most Influential Misogynists
The Trump administration reportedly pressed Romania to free Tate — signaling that the sexual abuse of women won’t just be brushed under the rug, but rewarded. — HuffPost
Microsoft Says It Has Created a New State of Matter to Power Quantum Computers
Microsoft’s new “topological qubit” is not based on a solid, liquid or gas. It is another phase of matter that many experts did not think was possible. — NY Times
Dylan Mulvaney Wanted to Write About Girlhood. Then She Had to Grow Up Fast
A transphobic hate campaign forced the theater and TikTok star to rethink her memoir and how she navigates fame. — Rolling Stone
My Afternoon With the ‘Normal Gay Guys’ Who Voted for Trump
Gay MAGA is hypermasculine and anti-woke—and it wants a break from the LGBTQ+ movement. — GQ
Notes From a Post-DEI Art World
Even if DEI dies, arts organizations should still move toward the accessibility that has always been at the core of the effort. Here’s how. — Hyperallergic
Techno-Fascism Comes to America
The historic parallels that help explain Elon Musk’s rampage on the federal government. — New Yorker
The New Aesthetics of Slop
What happens when vulgar technocrats control the arts. — The Honest Broker
User Mag news rundown
- MrBeast is seeking to raise a couple hundred million dollars to expand his business in a funding round that would value his company at about $5 billion, after claiming that he lost “tens of millions” of dollars on his Amazon reality show.
- It seems like every day I’m reading about a new “robot attack.”
- The U.S. economy depends more than ever on rich people. The highest-earning 10% of Americans have increased their spending far beyond inflation. Everyone else hasn’t.
- Moth holes in clothes are trending. (h/t )
- “It’s not that Gen Z doesn’t believe in experts. Rather, it’s that social media has rewired the way they think about credibility.”
- A new hyper-realistic AI generated Twitch streamer is going viral.
- Elon Musk plans to use his own AI to facilitate his mass firing of federal workers.
- We’ve reached peak “deep.”
- MAGA influencer Jack Posobiec says Trump can’t violate the Constitution because “Trump is the living embodiment of the American Constitution.”
- Gen Z centrist Dem influencer Dean Withers did a TikTok Live with leftist streamer Hasan Piker.
- “Starting an Ultimate Frisbee league to repair a war-torn country sounds like the plot of a buddy comedy, yet it’s a reality in Iraqi Kurdistan.”
- Graza has released a new high-heat olive oil for cooking and frying called “Frizzle,” with a smoke point of 490 degrees.
- An Instagram “error” turned some people’s Reels feeds into a never ending scroll of murder, death, animal abuse, and violence.
- Wellness clubs are Gen Z’s country clubs.
- And here’s a club for women looking to hit up the club.
- A bunch of people on Instagram are planning a one-day boycott of the economy today, encouraging people not to buy anything.
- Gen Z TikTok collab house The Sway Boys reunited on Thursday for the first time since 2020.
- Recession pop is making a comeback.
- Forcing employees to return to the office does not actually make them even remotely more productive, McKinsey reports.
- The OnlyFans model to conservative grifter pipeline is alive and well as streamer Amouranth says that the LGBTQIA+ activists should have been burnt during the LA fires.
- A bombshell class action lawsuit was filed against OnlyFans competitor Passes, which hosts big name influencers like Livvy Dunne and has a formal partnership with the University of Michigan, has been accused of cultivating underage influencers and distributing child porn.
- IG Reels may launch its own stand alone app as TikTok’s future is in jeopardy.
- Biden was prepared to spend a few hundred thousand dollars on Teslas for the State Department. The Trump administration altered that to $400 million, then back-dated the records to make it look like Biden did it.
- Cartier held a game night in honor of Timothée Chalamet’s Oscar nomination and GQ has a great party recap.
- A new Substack publication called Hard Reset, about tech, labor, and holding corporate power accountable, written by veteran reporters Ariella Steinhorn and Eli Rosenberg, just launched!
- Scented products cause indoor air pollution on par with car exhaust.
- A very funny TikTok about how Europeans respond when you bring up racism.
- Think twice before sharing that crab meme because it may be unwittingly promoting eugenics.
- Trans Americans are turning to guns for protection.
- A $129 AI bookmark.
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Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors