For six years now, the MAGA movement and Republicans seeking its votes have sought to raise suspicions, cast aspersions and tease the public imagination about how socialite Jeffrey Epstein, involved in the sex trafficking of women and children, really came to die in jail awaiting federal trial.

It was plausibly ruled suicide, but some, including social-media loyalists of President Donald Trump, remained wedded to a "theory" by which Epstein's "clients" decided he had to be done away with. That meshed with creative tales of elite figures in a global pedophilia ring.

One problem: There was no evidence. But Trump backers hinted promisingly of releasing it if in power. In 2021, JD Vance, now vice president, encouraged media people to ask away. "What possible interest would the U.S. government have in keeping Epstein’s clients secret? Oh …" Vance posted coyly in 2021. FBI Director Kash Patel repeatedly accused Democrats of suppressing the truth. 

Now Vance’s boss, Trump, has abruptly demanded that everyone stop asking. "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?" Trump scowled in response to a reporter's question last week to Attorney General Pam Bondi. "This guy's been talked about for years."

As MAGA talkers imply a cover-up, and all the attention makes others wonder what really is happening, why not launch an independent investigation?

Trump is defending a recent Justice Department memo from Bondi that concludes Epstein killed himself in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan on Aug. 10, 2019. There was no "client list" and "no evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions," the memo said. The conspiracy-bound faithful were told to stop the clamor. Justice isn’t served by "perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein," it said.

In February, on Fox News, Bondi opaquely suggested she had the Epstein "client list" sitting on her desk for review. Still trying to quell the raging sense of betrayal, Trump quizzically implied Tuesday that there could be more. He said Bondi will make the calls: "Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release."

But the genie of contrived speculation has long since left the bottle conspiracists rubbed, and new distressing questions go viral.

Why were there gaps in those MCC security videos? Was Epstein an asset for foreign intelligence services? As for Trump’s very public friendship with Epstein only two decades ago: When and how did it end?

If in Year One, Trump and his top aides wish to establish public credibility, America needs a truly independent inquiry. Congress  so far to have punted.

Bondi should use her power to appoint a special counsel, an outsider, to see if there are conflicts of interest or possible new prosecutions to be brought. Longtime Epstein companion Ghislaine Maxwell, serving 20 years for sex trafficking, should be questioned about Epstein now that she has nothing to lose.

This could establish some truth separate and apart from the paranoid political noise machine in our midst these days.

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