Riley Gaines has sensationally turned on Donald Trump over his refusal to release the Jeffrey Epstein files after accusing the President of hypocrisy.
This week Trump rolled out his toughest attacks yet on members of his own MAGA movement for demanding more information about Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges 11 years after his first conviction. He had pleaded not guilty.
He has repeatedly branded it the ‘Epstein hoax’ when asked about the disgraced late sex offender, while also calling out Republicans he claimed were being ‘duped’ by pursuing the matter further.
Yet despite backing him heavily in last year’s election – specifically due to his vow to keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports – Gaines has now taken aim at Trump for U-turning on the matter.
The conservative activist wrote on X: ‘Was it stupid & foolish when he campaigned on releasing the files? Are Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, and Alina Habba all foolish & stupid for peddling this for the past 6 months?
‘Why on earth is he doing this?’
The saga burst back into the news last week after the Trump administration reversed course on its previous pledge to release documents it had suggested would reveal major revelations about Epstein and his alleged clientele. That reversal has enraged some of Trump’s most loyal followers.
In an effort to contain the fallout, Trump and White House officials are weighing a range of options including unsealing new documents, appointing a special prosecutor and drafting executive actions on issues such as pedophilia, according to two White House sources with knowledge of the matter.
The President and senior aides have also reached out to key MAGA-aligned influencers, urging them to dial down their criticism of the administration’s handling of the Epstein investigation and shift focus to broader priorities for the America First movement, one source said.
On Tuesday, Trump urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to release whatever she believes is ‘credible’ about Epstein while facing a rare backlash from his supporters.
‘She’s handled it very well, and it’s going to be up to her,’ he told reporters. ‘Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release.’
Bondi has been criticized by some of Trump’s political base after her department recently claimed there was no evidence that Epstein kept a ‘client list’ – which appeared to contradict her previous statements and those of other MAGA allies.
When asked by a journalist if Bondi had told him whether his name appeared in any of the records, Trump replied: ‘No, no.’
As well as questioning the fascination over the ‘sordid but boring’ issue, he added: ‘Only really bad people, including the fake news, want to keep something like this going.’
