GEOFF BENNETT: As we have reported, President Trump's allies in Congress are hoping that files tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation will shift attention or raise new questions about figures beyond Donald Trump.

William Brangham reports now on how the president's promotion of fringe theories has helped keep the Epstein case in the public eye.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: On the campaign trail and in office, President Trump has a habit of courting unfounded conspiracies.

That includes QAnon, the belief that some hidden figure in the government, Q, is explaining how Donald Trump is waging a secret battle against dark, nefarious forces, including a cabal of child sex traffickers.

This belief evolved from online obscurity to now where you regularly see QAnon signs at Trump rallies, and the president reposted a QAnon meme on social media as recently as last week.

So to understand how President Trump's amplification of QAnon fuels speculation about Jeffrey Epstein, we are joined by Will Sommer.

He's a writer at The Bulwark and author of "Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America.

Will Sommer, so good to have you on the program.

There is clearly an ideological connection between Jeffrey Epstein and QAnon.

And, Will, we can talk about that.

But, first, remind us, how did QAnon move from the fringe into this more prominent place in our politics?

WILL SOMMER, Senior Reporter, The Bulwark: Sure.

So QAnon started in October 2017 with these anonymous posts on an Internet message board from a figure calling themselves Q.

They said that the world was run by a cabal of pedophiles in the Democratic Party and Hollywood and banking, and that Donald Trump would someday send all those people to Guantanamo Bay and sort of reign as a sort of a dictator in a utopia.

And so this -- QAnon believers sort of teamed up with Q and started reading through all the clues.

And that's the origins of QAnon, but it was really on the fringe until 2019, 2020, when things like Jeffrey Epstein's death and the pandemic really drove a lot more people into conspiracy theories.

And a lot of that too was people like -- were Donald Trump and his allies embracing conspiracy theories.

Trump spoke very positively about QAnon believers during the 2020 campaign.

So it's been a very symbiotic relationship between Trump and QAnon.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As you're mentioning, Jeffrey Epstein is both a real case of an elite figure engaging in sex trafficking and abuse of young people wedded to this added conspiracy of unfounded claims and unverified allegations, including this idea of a client list full of boldfaced names that has yet to be released.

How do QAnon adherents look at this marriage of both facts and speculation?

WILL SOMMER: Yes, I mean, I think the best conspiracy theories are often based in a grain of fact.

And, in this case, I mean, Jeffrey Epstein really did abuse women and young girls.

He really did pal around with powerful and very wealthy people for kind of mysterious reasons that really haven't been explained.

And so if you take that kernel of truth, then QAnon believers latch onto it and they spin all of this stuff out of it, the idea that Democrats were involved in Satanic rituals or drinking children's blood, things like that.

And so they see Jeffrey Epstein as almost like a moment where they got a glimpse of what the cabal or the organization controlling the world was really up to.

And so that's why they put so much faith and so much effort into trying to get things like the client list or the Epstein files released.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I want to play two clips of Donald Trump talking about this particular issue.

The first is from September of last year, when Trump was -- suggested that he will release this alleged client list.

And the second, this was just after the floods in Texas, shows him sort of getting irritated that this question is still lingering.

Let's listen to those.

QUESTION: It's just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Yes, it's very interesting, isn't it?

Probably will be, by the way, probably.

QUESTION: So if you're able to, you will be... DONALD TRUMP: Yes, I would certainly take a look at it.

Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?

This guy's been talked about for years.

You're asking.

We have Texas.

We have this.

We have all of the things.

And are people still talking about this guy, this creep?

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It's like the Frankenstein monster here.

You help build the thing and then lament when it comes to get you.

WILL SOMMER: Yes, absolutely.

I mean, Trump and people like Kash Patel, Dan Bongino and the FBI, J.D.

Vance, all of these people raised the profile of the idea of the client list.

And they said, this is a really important thing, and we will release it.

We will consider releasing it.

Pam Bondi said the client list was on her desk after taking office.

And then suddenly Trump says, whoa, whoa, whoa, like, what are you talking about?

Who cares about that?

And then he goes on to even insult his supporters for being interested in it.

And so it's a very strange turnabout that I think has been really challenging for people like QAnon believers.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Do you have a sense of whether or not this is going to go away?

Will these questions be answered?

Is there a way to answer them to put, to rest these concerns?

WILL SOMMER: I don't think there's really any putting this genie back at the bottle.

I think both QAnon believers, I think Trump supporters more broadly are going to be very interested still in Epstein.

And I think, maybe most worryingly for the president, I think a lot of independent voters who maybe weren't that politically interested, but really latched on to the Epstein case because of its emotional resonance and the idea that there was this mystery at play, that something was being covered up, I think those people are still really interested in it.

And if it seems like the president is involved in a cover-up or it seems like Republicans are dragging their feet on finding out what happened or releasing information to the public, I think that will continue to be an issue.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Last question, Will.

You study conspiracies.

Where do you come down on the Epstein case?

Are there still unresolved questions?

WILL SOMMER: I think there is a lot that still needs to be answered about Epstein.

I mean, even in sort of the most sober vs. speculation mode I can be in, I think it is -- there was just some reporting suggesting that the video the Justice Department release of Epstein's jail didn't really prove that no one went up to his room the night he died.

It's kind of a useless video.

It's unclear why the Justice Department rushed it out and now won't answer questions about it.

Epstein got a very sweetheart deal in the George W. Bush administration, sort of inexplicably, that protected him from a lot of criminal prosecution.

Why was that?

I think these are pretty basic questions that reporters and other experts who have looked at the case have wondered about.

And so I think there are a lot of legitimate questions that remain to be answered.

And it's interesting that the Trump administration seems to want to close the door so abruptly.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Will Sommer of The Bulwark, thank you so much for being here.

WILL SOMMER: Thanks for having me.