A document included in the US Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is photographed on January 30, 2026, that illustrates several people who handled Epstein's financial affairs or who were close to him. Photo: VCG

US Vice President JD Vance said the newly released US Justice Department files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case showed that "there's an incestuous nature to America's elites," which is "pretty gross" in an exclusive interview with the UK's Daily Mail on February 4, local time, while specifically criticizing US billionaire Bill Gates and former US president Bill Clinton by name.

Vance claimed in the interview with the outlet that US President Donald Trump is very much outside of the social circle. "He knows a lot of these people. He certainly has similar wealth and power. But he never really was friendly with Epstein in a way that a lot of these other people were," Vance told the Daily Mail. 

"I think that it just shows there's an incestuous nature to America's elites, and it's pretty gross. And, a lot of people, I think, it reflects very poorly on them. Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, a lot of others," Vance claimed, per the Daily Mail. 

In terms of Vance's interview with Daily Mail, US HuffPost said that Vance "unleashes on elites named in Epstein dump."

A Chinese expert said the Epstein case has increasingly become a partisan political tool, and has deepened public perceptions that American elites are corrupt, self-serving, and increasingly untrustworthy. 

Because many of those named are powerful political and wealthy business figures, the scandal could intensify anti-elite sentiments across the society, Liu Weidong, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

The US Department of Justice released over 3 million files from the criminal investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender on January 30, including emails from figures like Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Steve Tisch, People, a US weekly magazine, reported. 

The convicted sex offender Epstein cast a wide net in cultivating his relationships with Europe's political elite, according to documents newly released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), according to euronews.com. 

Bill and Hillary Clinton on January 13, local time, refused to testify in a Republican-led congressional investigation of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying it was a partisan exercise, Reuters reported. 

But they have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel's investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, politico.com reported. 

The continued fallout from the Epstein case is likely to deepen the divide between American voters and political elites, Liu said.