“You still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?”

That was President Donald Trump’s exasperated response to a reporter during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Earlier that day, Trump’s own Department of Justice had issued a memo to say, in effect, that there was no Epstein conspiracy. The hyper-connected pedophile and sex trafficker really did kill himself in that dingy cell in Lower Manhattan in 2019.

“No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” concluded the DOJ’s memo. If Attorney General Pam Bondi had hoped that would put an end to the matter, she would soon be disappointed. Some of the right’s most influential figures were outraged. Tucker Carlson accused her of "covering up” the Epstein client list. Laura Loomer called on her to resign.

It was a strange moment: The president and his officials, who had once fueled the Epstein conspiracy theory, were now telling the country there was nothing to see here. It was also a reminder of how prominently the case still figures in the public imagination. The latest sign that this case won’t fade away came earlier today, when Wired reported that metadata from the “raw” security footage from the prison the night Epstein died suggests it was “likely modified.”

So, to answer the president’s question: Yes. We are still talking about Jeffrey Epstein. Six years after his death, his scandalous life and much-speculated-upon death still loom large.

Today we bring you two contrasting views on the case—and why Americans are so fascinated by it.

Up first: Tina Brown. The former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor’s views on the case may surprise you. As she puts it in the first line of her piece: “It’s rare that I agree with the MAGA conspiracy theory loonies.” But in this case, she does. “I have never fully believed that Epstein committed suicide, and my skepticism grows the more the mysteries accumulate.” Read her full op-ed:

Tina Brown: MAGA Is Right About Jeffrey Epstein Tina Brown Read full story

Next: Peter Savodnik. He disagrees with Tina and thinks that the alternative theories about Epstein are typical of the “conspiratorial nonthinking” he encountered when he wrote a book about Lee Harvey Oswald and the Kennedy assassination. “There is an insatiable—a self-devouring—aspect to this mindset,” argues Peter. And yet, he concedes, “it’s not all warped. In fact, it is born of a kernel of truth.” Read his take here:

The Epstein Conspiracy Theorists Will Never Be Satisfied Peter Savodnik Read full story