Utah Sen. Mike Lee, no stranger to spreading baseless conspiracy theories, has started to claim that accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was some sort of government asset.
President Donald Trump’s MAGA supporters erupted with outrage this week after the Justice Department and FBI released a memo revealing that there was no evidence that Epstein did not keep a long-rumored "client list" and concluding that that he did not commit suicide.
In February, Lee caterwauled alongside the chorus of Republican voices demanding that the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi, release documents about Epstein.
Now that the administration has changed its tune about Epstein, Lee has quickly changed his story - suggesting that Epstein was somehow a government “asset.”
On Thursday’s Guy Benson Show, Lee was asked if he had an explanation for the dramatically changed story about the Epstein files.
“It seems to almost to be an about face, almost a complete reversal from where they had been in the past. I don’t know how to explain this. I don’t know what’s going on,” Lee said.
Instead of dwelling on why the story changed so dramatically in a span of a few months, Lee immediately offered a more exotic explanation - that Epstein’s alleged trafficking was part of a government operation.
“One question that I have had and that many people have speculated about, is this the sort of thing that happens when somebody has been running corporate operations for the government,” Lee said before showing some unexpected self-awareness.
“I’m just stabbing in the dark, looking for any plausible explanation for why there would be this much hype followed by this little action.”
If this velleity of self-reflection gave him pause, it was short lived. As of Thursday evening, Lee had posted several times on social media about his theory that Epstein's alleged activities were condoned by the government.
