The exchange among President Trump, J.D. Vance, and Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office was indeed entertaining.  It also came at a convenient time for Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel.

Zelensky’s embarrassment was fortuitous for both.  The spectacle redirected public attention away from the Jeffrey Epstein files and placed it squarely inside the West Wing.

On Thursday, Bondi handed out binders emblazoned with the title “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” to conservative political commentators, who walked out of the West Wing hoisting them with the promise of much more to come on Friday.

As it turns out, the binders were more of a publicity stunt than a substantive salvo.  They contained little more than previously released documents.

Not to worry.  Bondi set the tone for Friday with a letter to Patel.  In it, Bondi instructed her direct subordinate to “deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office” no later than 8:00 A.M.  Moreover, she issued a direct order to Kash that he had 14 days to produce a “comprehensive report” that explains why the voluminous Epstein files hadn’t been delivered to her upon her earlier request.

Kash issued a bold statement via Twitter/X, throwing down the gauntlet with his FBI subordinates on the eve of the required release.  In that statement, he made it clear that he would be dishing out accountability for non-compliance.

The next day, we saw non-compliance.  The accountability ball is now in Kash’s court.

As Americans have come to expect, everything moves slow in the nation’s capital, especially when relying on an intransigent bureaucracy.  As such, we could expect delays in records production on Friday morning.  As time crept along and minutes turned to hours, those expecting a showdown between Bondi and Patel and an entrenched administrative machine got one.

It just didn’t come from the place they expected.  It came from the Oval Office.  As a result, the headlines changed on a dime.

Intentional theatrics? Possibly. It certainly did have the scent, even choreography.  Trump clearly wanted it to be seen and, in the end, even said, “This is going to be great television” toward the end of the exchange.

The much larger problem is the power the administrative state has decided to usurp without consequence.  Here is the top law enforcement official (Bondi) and the top cop (Patel) in the land presenting a united front, and they have been met with thumbed noses.

The story that’s not being told right now is that Bondi and Patel have just lost a battle with the administrative state.  How they respond will be revealing.  If no one inside the FBI pays a price for insubordination and stonewalling, any threats uttered by the A.G. or the FBI director will be perceived by these subordinates in name only as idle ones.

By allowing the Oval Office fracas to unfold as it did, Trump ran interference for Bondi and Patel.  The heavy lifting will be the levying of consequences.  Those consequences must be dictated and enforced by the A.G. and the FBI director.

This very first real battle between Bondi and Patel and the FBI bureaucracy is over the Epstein files.  If the two people in charge don’t win, they will be lame ducks before even getting their feet wet.

Todd Baumann is the director of operations for Special Guests Publicity.

www.specialguests.com

Image: Kash Patel.  Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.