JD Vance, the US vice-president, has acknowledged that the Trump administration mishandled the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a detailed interview with podcast host Joe Rogan released on Wednesday, July 15th, 2026, Vance said, “we absolutely screwed up the comms,” referring to the administration’s communication strategy.

Vance agreed with criticism that the Department of Justice’s repeated delays in releasing Epstein-related documents drew bipartisan disapproval and became a significant political liability for former President Donald Trump during his second term. He stated the administration should have released all documents from the beginning.

Highlighting remarks by former attorney general Pam Bondi, Vance pointed out that she had said the alleged “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now.” Bondi had also distributed binders titled “The Epstein files: Phase 1” and “Declassified” to conservative commentators and influencers, which mainly contained documents already publicly available. Vance noted that Bondi was publicly “roasted” for these comments, which ultimately fueled mistrust in the administration’s transparency efforts.

However, Vance emphasized that he did not believe there was any malicious intent behind the communication failures, suggesting Bondi was responding to the political moment. He said, “Like, we just did. But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No.”

Following months of controversy, lawmakers passed a measure compelling the government to release a large trove of documents related to federal investigations of Epstein.

Sources