A sitting vice president rarely uses the word “guilty” when discussing his own administration’s conduct. J.D. Vance did exactly that this week.
The admission came during a wide-ranging appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” posted to YouTube on Wednesday.
Rogan pressed Vance on whether insiders connected to President Donald Trump, individuals named within the Epstein files, had swayed the administration’s actions.
Vance did not dodge the question. Instead, he conceded a communications failure in blunt terms.
“We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein Files,” Vance said. “Like, we just did.”
He drew a sharp line, however, between poor messaging and intentional deception. Vance insisted no one inside the administration had knowingly withheld the truth from the American public.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi became a focal point of the discussion.
Vance acknowledged that Bondi had “overstated” the volume and significance of Epstein-related materials the administration actually held.
Rogan referenced Bondi’s February 2025 photo-op, an event where she distributed binders of supposed Epstein files to a handful of conservative media figures.
The contents largely repeated information already public. Vance offered no defense of that episode when Rogan brought it up.
Attention then turned to the case’s origins. Vance pointed to the narrow search warrant issued during the original 2007-2008 investigation into Epstein, calling it the case’s “original sin.”
That narrow warrant, Vance argued, allowed potential evidence spanning back to the 1980s to slip through investigators’ hands entirely.
Rather than deflect further questioning, Vance leaned into the conversation. He described himself using an unusual term for a government official: a “conspiracy theorist” who had explored various Epstein “rabbit holes.”
“There is a story there,” Vance said, “and I will go to my deathbed believing there’s a story there. But I can’t prove it.”
Several competing theories surfaced during the exchange. Vance raised blackmail as one explanation for how Epstein maintained influence over wealthy and powerful associates.
A second theory involved alleged tax schemes, which Vance suggested Epstein may have used as leverage over his clients.
A third, simpler explanation also emerged: some associates may never have recognized Epstein as the “scumbag” Vance believes he was.
Rogan then floated a widely circulated claim of his own, telling Vance that most people suspect Epstein worked for Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.
Vance did not rule it out. He acknowledged Epstein may have held ties to domestic intelligence circles, foreign intelligence circles, or both at once.
“He clearly had connections to the highest levels of American intelligence,” Vance said. “He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”
Vance expanded on the international angle further, noting Epstein’s relationships crossed party lines within the United States, touching both Republicans and Democrats.
Overseas, Vance claimed, Epstein’s closest ties ran through what he called “elements of the Israeli deep state,” which the vice president described as “left of center.”
The conversation kept circling back to accountability. Vance repeated his admission near the interview’s end, using even more direct language than before.
“If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty,” Vance said.
Notably, Vance’s candor stood apart from the broader pattern within the administration. Few other officials have engaged with the Epstein case at this level of detail in public settings.
The interview arrives as public scrutiny of the Epstein matter continues, fueled in part by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. That legislation forced the release of additional documents tied to the case.
Those files now sit publicly available through the Department of Justice’s official website, where any member of the public can review them directly.
Whether Vance’s remarks will quiet critics of the administration’s earlier handling of the files, or intensify calls for further disclosure, remains to be seen.
The vice president’s own words leave little ambiguity about his assessment of how the rollout unfolded.
For now, Vance’s mixture of confession, speculation, and theory-testing has given the Epstein saga fresh momentum, this time driven not by document leaks but by the vice president’s own microphone moment alongside one of the country’s most-listened-to podcast hosts.
