JD Vance admits Trump admin mishandled Epstein files

Vice President JD Vance publicly acknowledged on Wednesday that the Trump administration mishandled the release of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, calling the communication around the process a failure. Vance made the admission during an interview on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, stating the administration should have released all documents more quickly at the outset.

"If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty," Vance told host Joe Rogan. "We did mishandle it, especially the communications of it." He added that officials should have "just dropped everything at the very beginning," while acknowledging a review process was needed to redact information to protect victims.

The vice president's remarks address sustained criticism over the administration's handling of the files, which included the release of thousands of pages of documents. Critics have accused the White House of failing to deliver on early promises of transparency, slow-walking disclosures, and issuing heavily redacted documents. The interview focused on a February 2025 event where then-Attorney General Pam Bondi presented binders labeled "The Epstein Files" to conservative...