Joe Rogan threw cold water on President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the Jeffrey Epstein controversy is a “hoax” orchestrated by Democrats.
“Well, it’s certainly not a hoax if you go to jail,” the podcaster said during Tuesday’s episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience,” referencing the two occasions disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Epstein spent time in behind bars.
Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail in 2018 after pleading guilty in Florida to charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor. The sentence was part of a controversial plea deal that spared him at the time from federal charges, in spite of evidence of his abuse of multiple girls.
After the Miami Herald reexamined that deal and highlighted the stories of survivors of his abuse, Epstein was arrested again in July 2019 on federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. While being held without bail in a federal detention facility in New York City as he awaited trial, Epstein was found dead in his cell on August 10, 2019.
Multiple authorities concluded that Epstein died by suicide.
Since then, the case has been seized on by right-wing conspiracy theorists. Yet last month, Trump’s Justice Department and the FBI released a two-page memo, claiming there was no evidence that Epstein was murdered or had a “client list” of powerful figures he could potentially blackmail as conspiracy theorists had insisted.
The DOJ’s memo release sparked widespread criticism, including from Trump supporters, considering it contradicted past claims from the agency’s own leadership about the alleged list. Democrats and Epstein survivors and their families have since joined in on calls for the administration to release more information about Epstein, the evidence against him and any references in the files to his one-time friend, Trump — leading the president to declare the whole thing is a hoax.
“Certainly not a hoax if Ghislaine Maxwell’s in jail, too … She’s in jail for sex trafficking,” Rogan told guest Jesse Welles, who said he heard the Epstein controversy was a “Democratic hoax.”
Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate, is currently imprisoned after being sentenced to 20 years in federal court in New York City in 2022 for her role in the sex trafficking of minors with Epstein.
“But the question is: to who? You have to be sex trafficking to someone in order to go to jail, right? So how’s that work? She’s been in jail for years. So how’s that work?” Rogan continued.
Rogan has slammed many of the Trump administration’s actions in recent weeks, including its detainment of pro-Palestine students and the lack of transparency it had promised with the Epstein files.
Elsewhere in the episode, Welles questioned why the Justice Department moved Maxwell to a minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas, earlier this month, which happened not long after she met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“They move her to kill her?” Welles asked after Rogan mentioned the recent transfer.
“Could be,” Rogan replied. “But why would you waste the money to move someone if you wanted to kill them? I’m sure they could kill her pretty easy.”
No one in the Trump administration has yet explained why Maxwell was transferred, but her new facility is less restrictive and known for housing white-collar criminals.
“I didn’t know about it at all, nope,” Trump claimed on Aug. 5 when asked by a reporter if he approved the transfer. “I read about it just like you did.”
The president later added that the transfer was “not a very uncommon thing” — which former federal prison officials have said is untrue.
Listen to the “Joe Rogan Experience” below.