A developing controversy over missing Epstein files made its way to late night Wednesday, with Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert each zeroing in on reports that the Justice Department withheld more than 50 pages of FBI material said to focus on allegations against President Trump. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel came out swinging.
Citing an NPR report that the DOJ allegedly withheld 53 pages of FBI notes and memos summarizing interviews with a woman who accused Trump of sexually abusing her when she was 13, Kimmel argued that the public doesn’t know more “because the people who work for the president blacked out his name a bunch of times and made interviews disappear.”
“Why are they being allowed to hide this stuff?” he asked, before adding that if the files “were on Hunter Biden’s laptop, we’d know every word of them.”
Kimmel, who recently began a campaign to rechristen the Epstein files “the Trump-Epstein files,” then turned the moment into a direct challenge.
“Seems to me, the best thing for President Trump—who I’m sure did nothing wrong—is to order them to unredact his name and release all of the Trump-Epstein files,” he said. “So he can prove how unbelievably innocent he is.” The audience responded with sustained applause.
Over on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the approach was different but no less pointed.
The show opened with a Cold Open built around a mock DOJ statement claiming “a dog ate” the Epstein files—specifically those mentioning the president. The bit spiraled into increasingly absurd denials, complete with dogs, goats, and even a monkey devouring paperwork as the faux department insisted it had not “paid the dog” to eat anything.
Colbert returned to the subject in his monologue, shifting from absurdism to legal framing. “We don’t know exactly what’s in there or if it’s true,” he said, before focusing on the reported withholding itself. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, he reminded viewers, does not allow redactions “on the basis of embarrassment or reputational harm.”
“That the files are missing should be the biggest story in the world,” Colbert said, arguing that the disappearance of the documents—not just their contents—warranted scrutiny. He then pivoted to a meditation on scandal fatigue, suggesting that even a development of that scale now competes with viral distractions for attention.
