Conservative Bots on X Post Mixed Messages As MAGA Divide Over Epstein Case Deepens

The case of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has come back into the spotlight in recent weeks as Americans demand the Justice Department to release materials on its investigation. But as President Trump seeks to bury the topic, clashing with a significant portion of his base, MAGA followers seem divided on how to move forward.

That confusion has been clearly evident in a previously unreported network of hundreds of accounts on X that use artificial intelligence to automatically reply to conservatives with positive messages about people in the Trump administration.

What once consisted of a network of 400 identified bot accounts sharing a positive chain of messages and support to the Trump administration has now turned into a mix of posts calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to be held accountable for her involvement in the case, reflecting the MAGA base's own confusion with the matter.

The network was tracked for NBC News by both the social media analytics company Alethea and researchers at Clemson University. While the study identified 400 accounts, the actual amount of bots in the network could be much larger. The accounts used to offer consistent praise for Trump and key figures in his administration, particularly support for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

While the researchers did not provide specifics on how they identified the accounts, they noted a number of distinct trends. All were created, seemingly in batches, around three specific days last year. They frequently punctuate their posts with hashtags, often ones that are irrelevant to the conversation. They post almost exclusively by replying to other users, often to people who pay X for verification and by repeating similarly worded sentiments over and over in short succession. At times, they will respond to someone's post by repeating it back to them verbatim.

Since last year, the bots have shown consistent support for Trump, including in the lead-up to the election, and then afterward as he was preparing to take office. But earlier this month, when Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she would not release additional Epstein files, the accounts' messaging has become split, with some accounts telling different users opposite opinions almost concurrently.

For instance, one account wrote on July 15, "retweet if you believe Pam Bondi should be held accountable for her actions relating to Epstein's case and the FBI rollout. Let's bring justice! #PamBondi #Epstein #FBI #MAGA."

An hour later, the same account replied to a post in support of the Trump administration, writing, "Epstein and Maxwell went to prison, proving that our justice system works. Those videos mentioned by Pam Bondi were not blackmail material but rather Epstein's private collection. #FactCheck #JusticeSystem"

Another account declared that when Bondi said she would not release additional files, she "comes out clean as the DOJ confirms no Epstein client list found, while reaffirming his death by suicide." Since then, it has told multiple people on X that they should engage in full revolt against the Trump administration.

"Retweet if you believe that Trump and his cronies are lying to the public and treating us like we're stupid. We won't be fooled by their games," it posted Friday.

It's unknown who is behind this network, or what the accounts' prompts are. However, they appear to be trained on real MAGA social media accounts, whose messages tend to be more unified, said C. Sharn Eib, Alethea's head of investigations.

"This split reaction mimics the organic reaction among supporters of Trump's second administration," Eib told NBC News. "it's possible that the behavior of these automated accounts is influenced by content posted from prominent influencers, and this shift is reflective of the general change in tenor among many of Trump's supporters."

Originally published on Latin Times