Poll: Nearly 70% of Americans — including a majority of Republicans — think the government is hiding something about Jeffrey Epstein

Yahoo

2 days ago

About a quarter believe the well-connected sex offender committed suicide. Twice as many think he was murdered.
Bipartisanship is rare in U.S. politics these days. But according to a new Yahoo/YouGov poll, there's now at least one thing that more than two-thirds of Americans seem to agree on: that the government is 'hiding' information about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The survey of 1,729 U.S. adults, which was conducted from July 24 to 28, shows that a clear consensus has formed across party lines about how the government has handled the questions surrounding Epstein's life and death.
When respondents are told that President Trump's Justice Department has 'concluded that Epstein did not have a 'client list' of famous associates who engaged in wrongdoing with him,' 69% of them still say the government is 'hiding information about Epstein's client list.' That group includes a majority of Republicans (55%).
Just 8% of Americans, meanwhile, say the government isn't concealing information about a client list.
About a quarter of U.S. adults (23%) believe the Justice Department's conclusion that Epstein died by suicide after hanging himself in jail. The rest think Epstein was murdered (47%) or say they're not sure what happened (30%). Nearly as many Republicans (42%) as Democrats (51%) believe Epstein was killed.
As a result, nearly seven in 10 Americans (67%) say the government is hiding information about Epstein's death. Again, that group includes a majority of Republicans (52%).
What do people think is going on?
About half of Americans (48%) — including 81% of Democrats and 53% of independents — think the government is hiding information about Epstein's client list 'because it would implicate Trump.'
Even among Republicans, 13% say the same and 16% say they're unsure.
The new Yahoo/YouGov poll comes amid ongoing right-wing backlash over how the administration has handled its investigation into Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for allegedly paying dozens of teenage girls, some as young as 14, to perform sex acts.
The disgraced financier has long been the focus of conspiracy theories that claim he was murdered to conceal the names of powerful people on a secret 'client list.' During the 2024 campaign, Trump said he would consider releasing additional government files on Epstein. Then, after returning to the White House, he directed the Justice Department to conduct an exhaustive review of any evidence it had collected.
Earlier this month, the DOJ and FBI released a two-page joint memo concluding that Epstein had 'committed suicide in his cell" and compiled no such 'client list' — echoing previous findings by the Biden administration. The move enraged some Trump loyalists, who accused the president and his administration of breaking their promise to release all of the Epstein files. It also put the spotlight back on Trump's own relationship with Epstein.
Speaking to reporters Monday in Scotland, Trump said he never visited Epstein's notorious private island, even when given the chance.
'I never had the privilege of going to his island, and I did turn him down,' Trump said. 'But a lot of people in Palm Beach were invited to his island. In one of my very good moments, I turned it down. I didn't want to go to his island.'
Low marks for the administration's approach
For the president, the Epstein controversy now seems to be creating a credibility gap with the public — including some of his own supporters.
Just 21% of Americans approve of the way the president is handling the investigation, his lowest rating this year on any individual issue; nearly three times as many (61%) disapprove. Meanwhile, 44% of Republicans — roughly half the number who applaud his approach to immigration — approve of how Trump has dealt with the investigation.
A majority of Americans (55%) say the president has 'not gone far enough' in his efforts to 'get to the bottom' of the Epstein case; combined, less than a quarter say that his approach has been about right (16%) or that it has gone too far (7%). A third of Republicans (33%) say Trump has not gone far enough.
Attorney General Pam Bondi — the face of the administration's Epstein efforts — is now deeply unpopular: 26% of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of her.
And while confidence in the Justice Department wasn't high the last time Yahoo and YouGov asked about it, in August 2022 — back then, 44% said they had 'a lot' of confidence or 'some' confidence in the DOJ; 56% said they had 'a little' or 'none' — today those numbers are even worse: 39% and 61%, respectively.
Why the Epstein story has broken through
The new Yahoo/YouGov poll suggests three potential explanations.
First, ubiquity: Nearly all respondents (91%) have heard either a lot (50%) or a little (41%) about the story. That's the fourth highest 'heard a lot' score recorded in any Yahoo/YouGov poll since 2020; only the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 (70%), Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Academy Awards that same year (66%) and Trump getting indicted in 2023 (57%) have topped it. Meanwhile, a full 84% of Americans say they think Epstein was guilty — including 91% of Democrats, 90% of independents and 77% of Republicans.
Second, Epstein's bipartisan circle. In the poll, respondents were reminded that Epstein 'had a wide circle of influential friends and acquaintances, including former President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump.' Then they were asked if either president 'engaged in crimes' with the financier — and nearly half of Americans said yes for Clinton (47%) and Trump (48%). In contrast, the share who said the two presidents did not engage in crimes with Epstein —12% for Clinton, 26% for Trump — was much lower. Conspiracy theories may be more attractive when they have the power to hurt the other side as well.
Third, conspiracy theories in general seem to have become more mainstream recently. For example, a majority of Democrats (51%) believe "many top politicians are involved in child sex-trafficking rings.' A majority of Republicans (51%) believe that "regardless of who is officially in charge of the government and other organizations, there is a single group of people who secretly control events and rule the world together.' A majority of Democrats (57%) believe 'the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pa. was staged in order to help him win the 2024 election.' A majority of Republicans (58%) believe 'Trump's would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, didn't act alone.' And a majority of Republicans (63%) also believe that former President Barack Obama 'committed treason to try to sabotage Donald Trump in the 2016 election' — as Trump has been claiming lately, without proof.
What's next?
Americans are clear about what they want: More than eight in 10 (84%) say they would approve of the government 'releasing all of the information it has on Jeffrey Epstein.' Just 5% would disapprove.
Conversely, more than two-thirds of Americans (69%) disapprove of the decision last week by Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, to send "the U.S. House of Representatives home early for the summer to avoid having to vote on releasing the Epstein files.' Only 10% approve.
Previously, Johnson had said that Congress 'should put everything out there and let the people decide it.'
With Dylan Stableford
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The Yahoo survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,729 U.S. adults interviewed online from July 24 to 28, 2025. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 election turnout and presidential vote, party identification and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Party identification is weighted to the estimated distribution at the time of the election (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). Respondents were selected from YouGov's opt-in panel to be representative of all U.S. adults. The margin of error is approximately 3.1%.