The U.S. Department of Justice proved to many how utterly unserious it is right now by replying to Pop Base on the Epstein files on X. The pop culture account with over 2.4 million followers posted a letter Epstein allegedly wrote mentioning President Donald Trump, and the DOJ just had to respond—in a tweet.
Now the story is about how ridiculous this timeline is.
The DOJ @’s Pop Base
The release of the Epstein files, while heavily redacted, has been a huge subject over the weekend and into the week of Christmas. They include horrific accounts from victims and witnesses to some of the nauseating things Trump allegedly said about underage girls.
They also included an eye-catching item that @PopBase and others claimed to be “a letter that Jeffrey wrote to fellow sex offender Larry Nassar, alleging that Donald Trump ‘shares [their] love of young nubile girls.’”
Rather than addressing the letter in a more traditional manner, like a press release or conference, the DOJ hopped into Pop Base’s replies.
“The FBI has confirmed this alleged letter from Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar is FAKE,” the department wrote. “The fake letter was received by the jail, and flagged for the FBI at the time.”
The DOJ claimed that the handwriting doesn’t match the sex trafficker’s and that the letter “was postmarked three days after Epstein’s death,” among other points, and made sure to call it “fake” one more time. It then stressed that just because something comes out of the Justice Department, that doesn’t make it true.
This final remark proved handy for critics of the Trump administration.
“The same FBI that said the files didn’t exist,” @UmCoolLikeDat pointed out.
“WIRED: Replying to Pop Base”
Few bothered to argue with the DOJ on the veracity of the letter or the claims in their tweet. Instead, the focus landed on the simple fact that the U.S. Justice Department is replying to Pop Base to address something that it should be taking very seriously.
“You had five years to look into this, did nothing, and just did two hours of research and are responding to ‘squints’ Pop Base on Twitter,” wrote comedian Tony Posnanski.
“I didn’t find the DOJ credible before but now they you’ve responded to Pop Base I’ll believe anything you post,” joked @BradWCAttorney.
“Tired: Prosecuting Epstein co-conspirators,” wrote @3YearLetterman. “WIRED: Replying to Pop Base.”
The department’s reply does not appear to be inspiring American pride.
“This is honestly so f*cking embarrassing like who else government is moving like this??” asked @howlsponyo. “A government-run account responding to PopBase of all people like oh my god EVERYBODY on the government social media team needs to be fired.”
Meanwhile, @itsCSB__ simply concluded that “our government is beyond cooked.”
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here.
