Ken Dilanian: Dan Bongino and Kash Patel Are Telling the Public the Truth About Epstein Files and ‘They’re Paying for It in the MAGA World’

Tur: “They’re just not buying it. Joining us now, NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian. Watch out what you reap, or what you sow, or what is — what is the — what’s the — you reap what you sow. Yeah, they’re reaping what they sow.”

DILANIAN: “Yeah, that’s for sure, Katy. The first thing, though, to be said, I think, is that it’s good for America that the Justice Department did the right thing here and acknowledged what our colleagues who have covered this case for years have long known, which is that these conspiracy theories are not true. Because that hasn’t always been the case with this administration. Just last week, Kash Patel and the FBI were touting files that they said, you know, fueled an election-related conspiracy theory that was bogus. So, good that they did the right thing. But, as you said, the problem is that Pam Bondi went on television, on Fox News and said that she had the Epstein files on her desk and she implied that there was a client list. There’s some confusion about that. Now she’s — her people are saying she didn’t mean that there was a client list, but she set the table for the expectations that long had existed, that there were these hidden secrets buried in these files. And of course, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino for years have been fueling them in podcasts and other right-wing circles. And as you can imagine, MAGA World is furious now, no less than Laura Loomer, who has nearly 2 million followers on X and who has been on Air Force One with Donald Trump, is posting today that Pam Bondi should resign, that she’s a liar. And she said that Dan Bongino in his heart must know that the Justice Department is lying. In fact, Dan Bongino, as you said, he’s on the inside now. He’s seen the files. He knows the truth, but they have to deal with these expectations that were set. You know, look, no matter what happened, there’s a certain segment of the population that was never going to believe anything that the government released about Epstein. They believe that he didn’t commit suicide. You know, when Patel and Bongino said that a few months ago, they said publicly, look, we believe he’s committed suicide. They got a lot of blowback then. But this is a theme here is that, you know, these guys have set these expectations and fueled these conspiracy theories. And now they have to deliver on them. And in this case, they have chosen not to try to deliver on them. And as you said, they’re reaping what they have sown.”

Tur: “Yeah. There you go. I couldn’t think of the saying at first. Is this why Dan Bongino the other day got emotional on Fox News? Was it because he was feeling a lot of pressure and a lot of anger from a base of people that he had helped whip up?”

DILANIAN: “You know, it’s perilous to be an armchair psychologist, but he’s a complicated figure, right? He was a Secret Service agent for many years. So he was a law enforcement officer, presumably he’s a patriot, and now he’s helping to lead the nation’s foremost law enforcement agency around a lot of people who are patriots and trying to do the right thing. But he spent years calling that agency corrupt, and people lauded him for that, and he made a lot of money doing that. And so, now he’s torn. So he’s getting hatred from circles or people that used to love him, but at the same time, he’s trying to, you know, do the right thing in the job that he’s holding. And, you know, what I’ve seen is that sometimes they indulge and they allow themselves to engage in these conspiracy theories, as with, for example, election fraud. They’re not letting go of that one. But in this case, they’ve decided for whatever reason that they just cannot carry these theories on anymore and they have to tell the public the truth. And boy, are they paying for it in MAGA world.”

Tur: “Well, it would be nice if they told the truth about the election as well. Ken Dilanian. Ken, thank you so much.”