The post came as conservative influencers were given heavily redacted copies of the files as “Phase 1” of the release.
“#BREAKING: EPSTEIN FILES RELEASED,” the now-deleted post read, with a link to Rick Astley’s music video for “Never Gonna Give You Up” on YouTube.
The post received a Community Note warning readers that the post was a prank and led to the music video.
Both Democrats and Republicans slammed the post for making light of a sex trafficking case involving minors.
Independent journalist Laura Loomer, a unrelenting supporter of President Donald Trump, wrote, “Fire the person who tweeted this.”
Conservative activist and filmmaker Robby Starbuck wrote, “This has to be one of the dumbest mistakes by our side in recent memory. Sex trafficking is not an opportunity to rick roll someone with a music video. I have friends in Congress who are pissed this was sent out. I’m glad they deleted it but this can never happen again.”
An archive of the post is available here.
The “Epstein Files” binder handed out to influencers was a heavily redacted release of information that had primarily already been publicly available online.
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