The DOJ’s January 30 release of over 3 million pages of files from its Epstein investigation contained correspondence, photos, videos, and/or other records involving various powerful businessmen and former government figures — including former President Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Larry Summers, and Bill Gates.

The new documents specifically reference multiple figures affiliated with the Trump administration, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick had said in October 2025 that he hadn’t associated with Epstein after a 2005 encounter at Epstein’s home, but emails in the latest batch of documents contradict that claim. Lutnick admitted to Congress last week that he met with Epstein on his private island in 2012 — years after the financier pled guilty for solicitation of prostitution with a minor. One Republican senator told Semafor that Lutnick would be at risk of losing his job “if it were anybody but President Trump” in charge. Semafor also quoted the senator calling Lutnick's behavior ”despicable" and added that Lutnick “looked at the American people and lied like a dog.”

The documents also revealed more about the cozy relationship between Epstein and Steve Bannon, who had planned to help rehabilitate Epstein’s image by producing a documentary about him. Numerous emails in the latest batch of files showed frequent and familiar correspondence between the two men. NBC summarized: “Bannon and Epstein texted and emailed at all hours, name-dropping prominent figures they had met or planned to meet. They traded political intelligence, speculated about Trump’s legal troubles and made plans to spend time together in far-flung locations such as Paris and New York.”

The files also contained thousands of references to Trump himself. The New York Times reported that it identified “more than 5,300 files containing more than 38,000 references to Mr. Trump, his wife, his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, and other related words and phrases” in the January 30 release.

Fox has repeatedly tried to cushion the blowback from the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files since his reelection. 

After Attorney General Pam Bondi’s disastrous “Phase One” rollout in February 2025, her Fox allies cried sabotage by the deep state, then dropped the story altogether at Trump’s behest.

Network personalities who had jockeyed for the files’ release as early as 2021 — including host Jesse Watters, who in 2023 incredulously asked, “Who protects a dead pedophile when children are raped?” — began to deflect and dismiss the story’s significance, choosing instead to rehash Russiagate hysteria. 

Fox was silent in the hours following House Democrats’ November release of Epstein emails that specifically mentioned Trump, including noting that “of course he knew about the girls.” Days later, host Greg Gutfeld warned viewers that future releases of Epstein files “will be distorted.”

The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files has deepened rifts in the right-leaning podcast sphere as well as right-wing media more broadly. Bondi has become a scapegoat among some right-wing media personalities, many of whom called for her resignation after her disastrous testimony regarding the Epstein case. 

Now, with only a sliver of the American population satisfied with the administration’s handling of the Epstein files, Fox is mostly ignoring the problem.

Fox News mentioned “Epstein” only 239 times from January 30 through February 17.

MS NOW made 3,321 “Epstein” mentions during the same time period, while CNN made about 2,304. Even Fox’s right-wing cable competitor Newsmax mentioned Epstein 1,464 times within the same time period — logging over 1,000 more mentions than Fox. At least one Newsmax segment called out Fox News for burying the story.

The relatively few substantive acknowledgements of the Epstein files on Fox focus mostly on Epstein’s association with the Clintons and Bill Gates. 

The Monday following the DOJ’s January 30 files release, Fox’s straight news programming mentioned “Epstein” only in relation to Trump’s threat to sue Grammys host Trevor Noah over an Epstein-related joke about the president. 

As the week progressed, host Will Cain’s segment on the new documents mentioned only Bill Gates and the Clintons, while Laura Ingraham hosted House Oversight and Reform Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) to discuss the Clintons’ upcoming testimony in the House’s Epstein investigation. A chyron reading “It’s time for the Clintons to answer” aired during the segment.

On Fox’s top-rated show The Five, liberal co-host Jessica Tarlov noted Lutnick’s affiliation with Epstein and claimed that Trump has “an Epstein files problem,” to which Gutfeld retorted, “No one has a problem more than the Clintons.”

Fox has also made light of Epstein’s sexual abuse of children. In a bizarre exchange on The Five, host Jesse Watters dismissed Epstein as a “fixer” who “helps people with their problems — sometimes those problems are you need a girl.” He also emphasized that “Epstein got his money from two Jewish billionaires” and “a little bit of money from the Jewish banking dynasty, the Rothschilds.” Gutfeld called Epstein a “sex rabbi” and he and Watters cackled.  

Media Matters searched transcripts in the Kinetiq video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, MS NOW, and Newsmax TV for the term “Epstein” from January 30, 2026, when the Department of Justice released approximately 3.5 million documents from the Epstein files to the public, through February 17, 2026.

We considered each instance of the term a single mention.