One of the fundamental lessons in business, in politics, and in life generally is to manage other people’s expectations. We tend to get in trouble when we overpromise and underdeliver, when we promise prime rib and deliver bottom sirloin.

Pam Bondi must not have gotten the memo.

Back in February, when the attorney general was asked by Fox News’s John Roberts whether her Department of Justice “may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients,” Bondi replied, “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review. Um, that’s been a directive, um, by President Trump.”

That’s pretty unequivocal, no? But now we’re being asked to believe that what was sitting on her desk all that time was a big ol’ nothingburger. Uh-huh.

Throughout Joe Biden’s four-year Weekend at Bernie’s, we on the side of law and order were clamoring for the release of the client list, and our claims of a cover-up and of two-tiered justice seemed to be well-founded. They still are. The build-up, after all, was box-office stuff.

More recently, we were told by two deeply committed law enforcement professionals, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, that Epstein wasn’t strung up in his prison cell by that elusive assassin Hillaryanovich Clintonakov, but that he did, in fact, kill himself. “They have a right to their opinion,” said Patel of the doubters, “but … you know a suicide when you see one, and that’s what that was.”

Bongino sounded every bit as convinced: “He killed himself,” he said. “I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.”

But now Bongino might be ready to resign over the DOJ’s mishandling of the case, having taken Friday off work after heated discussions with both White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and AG Bondi.

Patel tried to calm things down over the weekend, posting, “The conspiracy theories just aren’t true, never have been. It’s an honor to serve the President of the United States @realDonaldTrump — and I’ll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me.”

It didn’t work. Not even President Trump has been able to quell the uprising among some of his most ardent supporters, although he did his best on Saturday with the following post:

What’s going on with my “boys” and, in some cases, “gals?” They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and “selfish people” are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, it’s Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 “Intelligence” Agents, “THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,” and more? They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called “friends” are playing right into their hands. Why didn’t these Radical Left Lunatics release the Epstein Files? If there was ANYTHING in there that could have hurt the MAGA Movement, why didn’t they use it? They haven’t even given up on the John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. Files. No matter how much success we have had, securing the Border, deporting Criminals, fixing the Economy, Energy Dominance, a Safer World where Iran will not have Nuclear Weapons, it’s never enough for some people. We are about to achieve more in 6 months than any other Administration has achieved in over 100 years, and we have so much more to do. We are saving our Country and, MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, which will continue to be our complete PRIORITY. The Left is imploding! Kash Patel, and the FBI, must be focused on investigating Voter Fraud, Political Corruption, ActBlue, The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020, and arresting Thugs and Criminals, instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein. LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB — SHE’S GREAT! The 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and they tried to do the same thing in 2024 — That’s what she is looking into as AG, and much more. One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it’s the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World. Let’s keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

With all respect, methinks the president doth protest too much. Still, he had me until “somebody that nobody cares about.” Clearly, folks on the Right care about that dead dirtbag human-trafficking pedophile Epstein and his well-to-do clients because folks on the Right want justice to be served on those who raped young girls. Anything less leaves a bad, Swampy, two-tiered taste in our mouths.

First, let’s give a jackhammer stiff arm to all the Democrats who say MAGA is some sort of cult. That’s rubbish. It clearly isn’t, and this Epstein row is definitive proof. Think about it: “Cult” leader Donald Trump wants his MAGA legions to move on, but they’re not moving on. They’re lighting up the Twitterverse. They’re asking questions and demanding answers. Some cult.

Next, let’s dispense with the feverish notion that Donald Trump himself is in the Epstein files, and that all this is an attempt to keep a lid on it. This is laughable on its face. There’s not a chance he’s protecting himself. Not a chance. Think about it: If he were on that list, it would’ve been leaked, guaranteed, by the deep state just prior to the 2020 or 2024 election. Remember: These are the same people who brought us the Russia collusion hoax and told us Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation. Does anyone remember this guy’s statement? And does anyone think the Obama-Clinton-Brennan-Comey cabal wouldn’t have outed Trump at a most opportune time if there was even a whiff of involvement?

Still, Trump clearly wants to move on. But if he’s not protecting himself, what on earth is he trying to protect?

Everyone seems to be speculating, so I’ll bite too: My guess is that the president is protecting his agenda. Which, after all, is your agenda. What if he’s protecting the slim House and Senate majorities he currently enjoys? What if he already knows that both Republicans and Democrats are implicated in the Epstein files, but that Republicans will be hurt worse? That they’ll lose more seats in the 2026 midterms because Republican voters tend to hold their elected representatives to higher moral standards than the Democrats?

Even worse, what if Republican lawmakers were found to be on Epstein’s client list (if there is an Epstein client list), and the Republican rank and file demanded immediate resignations and thereby surrendered the current governing majorities? Pop goes the Trump agenda.

Ultimately, we elected Donald Trump to make the tough calls on our behalf. And this Epstein thing is the toughest of calls.

Yeah, I know, this is putting politics over Rule of Law. But it’s all I’ve got at the moment.