Friends,

Anyone wanting to understand the brouhaha over Pam Bondi’s refusal to turn over (or even acknowledge) the Epstein files need look no further than what the Supreme Court just did.

In McMahon v. New York, the Supremes gave Trump a simple way to revoke federal spending authorized by Congress: just fire everyone responsible for implementing that spending.

The high court is allowing Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon to fire over half the people who work for the Department of Education until there’s a full hearing on the constitutionality of their action. But by then it will be too late to save much of the department.

Note that the Supreme Court made this astounding decision on its so-called “shadow docket,” where it doesn’t even have to explain itself (the only record we have is Justice Sotomayor’s dissent).

No matter that Congress created the Department of Education; apparently, Trump can effectively end it. No matter that Congress in the 1974 Impoundment Control Act prohibits a president from unilaterally refusing to spend money that has been authorized by Congress; apparently, Trump can disregard the act.

Trump now has unbridled power to repeal federal laws by the simple expedient of firing federal employees who implement them.

Why? How? On what basis? Who’s behind this? We don’t know. We may never know.

Which gets us to the brouhaha over Jeffrey Epstein.

For years, Trump has talked darkly of a “deep state” — a secret cabal intent on destroying America by harming the nation’s children.

Such as, perhaps, six justices who let him shut down the Education Department without even setting out their reasons?

Recall “Pizzagate,” the QAnon conspiracy theory that in 2016 allegedly linked Democrats to a ring of child sex-traffickers. It’s still around but has morphed into a less partisan conspiracy theory involving an alleged worldwide elite of child sex-traffickers.

Jeffrey Epstein and his death fit perfectly. Many right-wing media personalities have posited that the billionaire convict was murdered in prison as part of a cover-up of a sprawling sex-trafficking conspiracy.

Senior Trump administration officials built up great fanfare around the release of the supposed Epstein “client list.”

Even JD Vance accused the government of hiding the list. “If you’re a journalist and you’re not asking questions about this case,” Vance said, “you should be ashamed of yourself.”

But that was back in 2021, before Vance became part of the, um, conspiracy.

In February of this year, Attorney General Pam Bondi acknowledged the existence of Epstein’s client list. She said the client list is “sitting on my desk right now.”

Now the Trump-Vance administration says Epstein’s client list doesn’t exist.

The Epstein case illustrates Trump’s “deep state” no less than does an unsigned “shadow docket” Supreme Court decision allowing Trump to wipe out the Department of Education.

The phrase “Epstein didn’t kill himself” — a rebuttal to the official explanation of Epstein’s death — has taken on a cultural meaning way beyond the facts of the case. It means an unaccountable elite doing evil things in secret.

Trump built his political base on that premise. Once in office, he said time and again, he would expose that unaccountable, secret, evil elite.

No wonder 70 percent of voters believe “law enforcement is withholding information about powerful people connected to Epstein,” including 61 percent of Trump voters. And 58 percent of voters said Trump “maybe was or definitely was” involved in a cover-up.

Conspiracy theories thrive when elites act in secret. I have no idea whether Epstein killed himself or was murdered. But Wired magazine’s metadata — showing that the FBI’s “raw” surveillance video from the night Epstein died is seemingly missing 2 minutes and 53 seconds — got my attention.

As did the Supreme Court’s bonkers secret decision in McMahon.

And I’m no conspiracy theorist.