Attorney General Pam Bondi badly misjudged just how much President Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters cared about the release of files connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a blunt assessment from inside the West Wing.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said Bondi “completely whiffed” the moment — and the audience — in an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, offering one of the sharpest internal critiques yet of how the Epstein files have been handled.
“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles said. “First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”
Bondi has faced sustained backlash from Trump’s base after repeatedly teasing revelations tied to Epstein, only for the promised bombshells to fail to materialize. In a February interview with Fox News, Bondi said the files were “sitting on my desk,” a remark that ignited expectations among supporters who have long viewed the Epstein case as proof of elite corruption being buried by the government.
In subsequent interviews, Bondi continued to promote the files without providing specifics, describing Epstein’s conduct as “pretty sick” while hinting at disturbing details yet to be revealed.
Then came the deflation.
A Justice Department memo released over the summer concluded there was no incriminating “client list” among the documents. The memo further stated that federal investigators “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” undercutting years of speculation embraced by corners of Trump’s political base.
The disconnect left Bondi exposed. What had been framed as a long-awaited reckoning instead landed as a bureaucratic shrug — and, in Wiles’ telling, a fundamental failure to understand the emotional and political stakes for Trump’s most committed supporters.
The controversy unfolded as President Trump moved to formalize transparency around the case. In November, he signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act after it passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support. The law gave the Justice Department 30 days to release the bulk of the remaining Epstein-related files, setting a deadline that arrives this month.
Now, with expectations already bruised and trust eroded, the administration faces a narrowing window to prove that transparency does not mean emptiness. Inside the White House, Wiles’ comments suggest the lesson has already been learned — even if, for many in Trump’s base, it came far too late.
