JD Vance said Tuesday he would follow up on an email in the Epstein files after telling a Turning Point USA audience in Athens, Georgia, that the message sounded like the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory but still merited investigation.
The vice president, speaking at a sparsely attended event at Akins Ford Arena, said he had read an email that mentioned “some really nice, like, pizzas and grape sodas or something like that,” language he said reminded him of the false theory that spread during the 2016 election. “My reaction to that was, ‘We should absolutely investigate that person,’” Vance said, adding, “I’m going to follow up on that to see whether we’ve investigated that person because we should.”
Vance framed the issue as one that should cut across status and power. “We absolutely should when you see evidence of sexual assault, sexual misconduct regardless of whether you are powerful or not, you should probably investigate it more, if you’re a powerful person,” he said. He also said he had become unusually focused on the matter, telling the crowd, “I’m probably more obsessed with this than most officials.”
The comments land as scrutiny over the Epstein files continues inside the Trump administration and around the late sex offender’s ties to powerful figures. Vance said Epstein “clearly had extraordinary connections with intelligence services, both inside the United States and outside the United States,” while Todd Blanche has said there is no evidence of Epstein being connected to foreign intelligence.
Blanche, who earlier this month said the Epstein files “should not be a part of anything going forward,” also said in a March podcast interview that Pizzagate had already been firmly debunked. That conspiracy theory emerged during the 2016 presidential election and falsely claimed hacked emails belonging to Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta contained coded references to a child sex-trafficking ring run by prominent Democrats out of a Washington pizzeria. Law enforcement quickly dismissed the claims.
The false theory later turned dangerous. In December 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch drove to the restaurant and fired an AR-15-style rifle three times inside while trying to “self-investigate” the alleged ring. No one was injured. Welch was sentenced to four years in prison by then-U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and police killed him in North Carolina in January 2025 after he pointed a gun at officers during a traffic stop.
The connection Vance drew between a line in the Epstein files and Pizzagate sharpens the administration’s own split-screen: one senior official warning that the conspiracy theory was debunked and should not shape what comes next, another saying the material still demands a closer look. On Tuesday, Vance answered that question plainly — he said the inquiry should continue.
