The White House announced a new task force on Monday. Its job is to fix the "messaging breakdown" around the Epstein files. The move comes after Vice President JD Vance called the rollout a communication failure on a popular podcast.
Vance spoke to Joe Rogan last week. "If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release, guilty," he said. "We did mishandle, especially the communications of it." He did not mention that some files are part of a criminal probe in New Mexico.
The Vice President then offered a reason for the redactions. He said some victims also acted as co-conspirators. It is hard, he said, to tell them apart. This explanation had never been shared with the public before.
Don the Con stayed out of sight. A senior aide told reporters the former president is "watching how the story plays." The aide said Mr. the former president feels "the real story is the media's failure to cover the communications challenge."
The task force will be run by Meredith Fick. She once handled public relations for a pizza chain after a norovirus outbreak. Her team has a budget of $2.4 million. They will create materials to explain the delayed release.
Fick said her first step is a "transparency pause." No more documents will come out for 90 days. "We need to build a story plan first," she said. "Just dropping files without context is not fair." She added that victims deserve clarity and closure.
Fick described a new group of people in the documents. She called them "victim-adjacent co-conspirators." The task force will release a color-coded chart. It will show how a trafficked teenager could also be listed as a co-conspirator. "The Vice President captured this nuance on Rogan," Fick said. "We just failed to amplify it."
The New Mexico Attorney General was not told about the pause. Her office wants unredacted files for a criminal case. A spokesman learned of the delay from a news alert.
On the same podcast, Vance said Jeffrey Epstein likely had ties to U.S. and Israeli spy agencies. He gave no proof. Then he moved on to a chat about elk meat.
Fick called his remarks "real audience connection." She said the White House may start a podcast network. The goal is to share "unfiltered leadership."
A listening session with victims' groups was pushed to next quarter. The task force needs time to "align messages." Fick said the process may stretch into 2030 if polling shows confusion is still high.
Behind the scenes, the task force hides a bigger split. Two aides, speaking off the record, described Vance's podcast tour as a "soft launch" for 2028. They said the former president is "not thrilled." One aide recalled the former president throwing a shoe at a TV tuned to Rogan.
"The Vice President is just explaining the facts," the aide said. "If the Boss can't handle it, that's a communication issue of its own."
The White House press secretary called the shoe incident "a lively chat about media strategy." She said no shoes were harmed.
The 90-day clock starts after the communication plan gets approved. That plan must go through a second review panel. Its members have not been named. Fick expects the full review to wrap by early 2030.
