The assertion by Elon Musk last month that Donald J. Trump was named in the F.B.I. files concerning the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein signaled a loud, public crack in the president’s support system.

埃隆·马斯克上个月声称，声名狼藉的金融家杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的联邦调查局档案中，有唐纳德·特朗普的名字，标志着特朗普的支持体系中出现了巨大且公开的裂痕。

That crack has become a chasm in recent days, after the administration suddenly reversed course on its longstanding promises to reveal previously unknown details of the investigation into Mr. Epstein, who was in a Manhattan jail cell awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges when he died by suicide in 2019.

最近几天，这一裂痕已扩大为鸿沟，此前政府突然改变了其长期以来的承诺，即公开爱泼斯坦（他在2019年因性贩卖指控在曼哈顿监狱候审期间自杀身亡）的调查档案中此前不为人知的细节。

The files, administration officials had long suggested, included a “client list” that many involved in the case insist never existed. After the administration’s reversal on revealing the files, some of Mr. Trump’s most ardent and outspoken supporters declared that they smelled a cover-up, even if they did not agree on who was involved or why.

政府官员长期以来一直暗示，这些档案中包含一份“客户名单”，尽管许多相关人士坚称这份名单根本不存在。当政府最终决定不公开档案时，特朗普最狂热、最聒噪的一些支持者纷纷表示，他们感觉这是一场掩盖真相的行动，尽管他们在谁参与了掩盖或为何掩盖的问题上意见不一。

Mr. Trump has urged his followers to move on, referring to the case as “boring.” But in the face of intense backlash, the Trump administration has partially relented. On Friday, the Justice Department asked a federal judge in New York to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution of Mr. Epstein, after Mr. Trump authorized Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent” testimony.

特朗普敦促他的支持者向前看，称此案“无聊”。但在面对强烈反对的情况下，特朗普政府作出了部分让步。上周五，在特朗普授权司法部长帕姆·邦迪“提供所有相关”证词后，司法部要求纽约的一名联邦法官解封爱泼斯坦起诉案中的大陪审团证词。

The still unfolding fallout from the Trump administration’s decision to keep the files secret highlights the ways in which Mr. Epstein is a more politically potent figure now than when he killed himself six years ago.

特朗普政府决定不公开档案的决定所引发的余波仍在持续，凸显出爱泼斯坦现在比六年前自杀时在政治上更具影响力。

What is the origin of the case?

案件的起源是什么？

Mr. Epstein paid teenage girls money to perform sex acts and used his onetime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell to recruit and manage his stable of victims.

爱泼斯坦付钱给未成年少女让她们提供性服务，并利用他当时的女友吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦尔来招募和管理这些受害者。

An F.B.I. and Florida police investigation led to his indictment in 2006. Two years later he pleaded guilty in state court to two felony charges, including soliciting a minor, in a deal that avoided federal charges that could have meant far more serious prison time.

联邦调查局和佛罗里达警方的调查导致爱泼斯坦在2006年被起诉。两年后，他在州法院对两项重罪指控认罪，其中包括利用一名未成年人拉客卖淫，认罪交易使他避免了可能意味着更严重刑期的联邦指控。

A series of articles years later by The Miami Herald revealed how the criminal justice system had bent over backward for Mr. Epstein, despite the reams of evidence against him.

多年后，《迈阿密先驱报》的一系列报道揭露了刑事司法系统在铁证如山的情况下是如何竭力为爱泼斯坦开脱的。

In 2019, he was arrested by federal agents in the New York area, accused of trafficking dozens of girls, some as young as 14, and engaging in sex acts with them. The authorities say he hanged himself in a jail cell while awaiting trial.

2019年，他在纽约地区被联邦探员逮捕，并被指控贩卖数十名女孩（有些年仅14岁），并对她们实施性行为。当局称他在候审期间在牢房自缢身亡。

Ms. Maxwell, for her part, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Mr. Epstein for nearly a decade to aid his abuse.

麦克斯韦尔在2021年被判与爱泼斯坦共谋近十年、协助其实施虐待，并获刑20年。

The very nature of the charges against Mr. Epstein contributed to some of the confusion about what he did. By calling him a sex trafficker, federal officials left many with the impression that Mr. Epstein was selling children to others to be abused, but that was never part of the criminal case against him.

爱泼斯坦所受指控的性质，造成了一些关于他所作所为的困惑。联邦官员称他为性贩卖者，这让许多人认为爱泼斯坦在将儿童卖给他人以供虐待，但这从未成为针对他的刑事案的一部分。

Why is the Epstein investigation the source of so many conspiracy theories?

为什么对爱泼斯坦的调查成了诸多阴谋论的源头？

The case has many of the real-life elements that fuel speculation and propel conspiracy theories: a rich, politically connected person getting away with horrific crimes for years, an apparent unwillingness by government officials to punish the offenders and then a sudden death under seemingly suspicious circumstances.

这起案件具备许多引发猜测和推动阴谋论的现实元素：一个富有、拥有政治人脉的人多年来逍遥法外、犯下骇人罪行；政府官员看起来似乎不愿惩罚犯罪者；然后，此人在看似可疑的情况下突然死亡。

The Epstein case offers a unique new twist on those elements. Conservatives seized on Mr. Epstein’s acquaintance with former President Bill Clinton, while liberals pointed to his yearslong friendship with Mr. Trump and his death in custody during Mr. Trump’s first term.

除了这些元素，爱泼斯坦还具备一个独一无二的特点。保守派抓住爱泼斯坦与前总统比尔·克林顿的交情大做文章，而自由派则抓住他与特朗普多年的友谊，以及他在特朗普第一任期内死于监禁中的事实。

While Mr. Epstein’s death heightened suspicions of government among liberals and conservatives alike, Mr. Trump’s supporters have publicly embraced the notion that after his return to the White House, he would finally expose sordid crimes by elites against children.

尽管爱泼斯坦之死加剧了自由派和保守派对政府的怀疑，但特朗普的支持者公开认为，在他重返白宫后，最终会揭露权贵阶层对儿童犯下的肮脏罪行。

The Epstein obsession became just the latest and strongest iteration of other conspiratorial notions that have captivated Trump loyalists over the years, including outlandish and shadowy theories like QAnon and Pizzagate, both of which involved specious allegations of child molestation.

多年来，有各种阴谋论都在吸引着特朗普拥趸，包括像“匿名者Q”和“披萨门”这样离奇神秘的理论，都涉及对儿童性骚扰的似是而非的指控，而对爱泼斯坦的迷恋成了这些阴谋论最新、最强的迭代版本。

In a recent unsigned memo, the Justice Department and the F.B.I. said that the Epstein files did not contain the kind of evidence that would justify investigating other people. The video recordings of child sexual abuse material found by investigators were not, as some have suggested, videos that Mr. Epstein recorded of crimes by himself or his friends, but material he downloaded, Ms. Bondi said.

在最近一份未署名的备忘录中，司法部和联邦调查局称，爱泼斯坦案的文件中没有足以对其他人展开调查的证据。邦迪表示，调查人员发现的儿童性虐待材料视频录像，并非如一些人所暗示的那样，是爱泼斯坦录制的自己或朋友的犯罪视频，而是他下载的材料。

So what is in the material that Ms. Bondi and Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, have refused to release?

那么，邦迪和联邦调查局局长卡什·帕特尔拒绝公开的材料中到底有什么？

F.B.I. files about the rich and famous tend to be a mix of real intelligence, strange rumors and absurd speculation. For example, federal agents once entertained the notion that Frank Sinatra was in a secret conspiracy with his dentist as they sought to determine whether the singer and actor was a communist sympathizer.

关于富人和名人的联邦调查局文件往往混合了各种真实情报、离奇谣言和荒谬猜测。例如，联邦特工曾试图确定歌手兼演员弗兰克·辛纳屈是否是共产主义同情者，期间还一度研究过他是否与他的牙医有秘密阴谋。

What was Trump’s relationship with Epstein?

特朗普与爱泼斯坦的关系如何？

Contrary to what Mr. Musk suggested, merely being mentioned in an F.B.I. file is not by itself incriminating, since such files often contain witness statements, victim information and bad tips. And a wealth of reporting shows that Mr. Epstein and Mr. Trump were friends for years who saw each other frequently at high-society parties in Florida and New York.

与马斯克所说的相反，仅仅在联邦调查局文件中被提及本身并不构成犯罪，因为这类文件通常包含证人陈述、受害者信息和不实线索。大量报道显示，爱泼斯坦和特朗普是多年的朋友，他们在佛罗里达和纽约的上流社会派对上频繁见面。

In a 2002 interview with New York magazine, Mr. Trump called Mr. Epstein a “terrific guy” whom he had known for 15 years. Mr. Trump added, “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

2002年，特朗普在接受《纽约》杂志采访时称爱泼斯坦是个“很棒的人”，两人结识已经有15年。特朗普还说：“甚至有人说，他和我一样喜欢美女，而且很多都比较年轻。”

Two years later, though, in November 2004, the two ended up competing to buy a Florida estate out of a bankruptcy. Mr. Trump ultimately outbid Mr. Epstein for the property.

但两年后，即2004年11月，两人在一场佛罗里达庄园的破产拍卖中展开竞争。最终特朗普出价高于爱泼斯坦，买下了那处房产。

There is little public record of the two men interacting after that real estate battle. Mr. Trump sold the property four years later to a Russian businessman, getting more than double what he paid for it.

那场房地产交易后，两人公开互动的记录很少。四年后，特朗普将房产卖给了一位俄罗斯商人，售价是他买入时的两倍多。

Not long after the November auction, the police in Palm Beach fielded a tip that young women had been observed going in and out of Mr. Epstein’s home, the police chief said in a deposition.

棕榈滩警方负责人在证词中称，11月的拍卖后不久，警方接到线报，称有人看到年轻女性频繁进出爱泼斯坦的住所。

Four months later, the police received a more substantive complaint, from a woman who said her teenage stepdaughter had been paid by Mr. Epstein to give him a massage while she was undressed, according to a police report. That led to an investigation that later identified at least a dozen potential victims.

四个月后，警方收到了一份更具体的投诉。一份警方报告显示，一名女子称，爱泼斯坦付钱给她十几岁的继女，要其裸体为他按摩。这引发了一项调查，后来确定了至少12名潜在受害者。

Mr. Epstein survived that investigation with his fortune and freedom largely unscathed. His 2019 arrest, followed by his death in custody, gave new meaning to a case that had posed disturbing questions about the role that money and influence play in criminal cases.

爱泼斯坦在那次调查中全身而退，财富和自由基本未受影响。他在2019年被捕后死于监禁中，让这起案件有了新的意义，并提出了令人不安的问题——金钱和势力在刑事案件中究竟能起到什么样的作用。

What is Trump saying about the Epstein files now?

特朗普现在对爱泼斯坦文件有什么样的表态？

Mr. Trump and administration officials had previously suggested that they would release additional documents related to Mr. Epstein’s death. Then Mr. Trump began asking his supporters to move on, expressing exasperation at further questions about Mr. Epstein.

特朗普和政府官员此前曾表示，他们会公开更多与爱泼斯坦之死相关的文件。后来，特朗普开始要求支持者不要再纠结此事，对于有关爱泼斯坦案的进一步提问表现得颇为恼怒。

On Wednesday, he said in a social media post that his own “PAST supporters” had bought into the conspiracy theories surrounding Mr. Epstein “hook, line, and sinker.”

上周三，他在社交媒体上发帖称，自己的“昔日支持者”对围绕爱泼斯坦的阴谋论“完全深信不疑”。

In the blistering post, Mr. Trump attacked those supporters who had been upset by the administration’s handling of the files and claimed that outrage over the Justice Department’s decision not to release additional information and close the investigation was a “scam” cooked up by Democrats.

在这篇言辞激烈的帖子中，特朗普攻击了那些对政府处理文件方式感到不满的支持者，并声称对司法部决定不公开更多信息并结束调查的愤怒，是民主党精心策划的“骗局”。

But in a motion seeking to unseal the grand jury testimony from the prosecution of Mr. Epstein, Ms. Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, acknowledged on Friday that “public officials, lawmakers, pundits and ordinary citizens remain deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter.”

但在上周五请求解封爱泼斯坦案大陪审团证词的动议中，邦迪和她的副手托德·布兰奇承认，“公职人员、议员、专家和普通公民仍然对爱泼斯坦事件深感兴趣和关切。”

“The time for the public to guess what they contain should end,” they added.

他们还说：“不应该继续让公众去猜测这些文件的内容。”

That grand jury material, however, may not contain the revelations many have been clamoring for, since grand jury evidence tends to be more focused and limited than the broader collection of information gathered by investigators.

然而，这些大陪审团材料可能并不包含许多人迫切期待的爆料，因为调查人员收集的信息涉及广泛，而大陪审团证据往往更具针对性和局限性。

Securing approval for unsealing the testimony could also be difficult. Records are shielded by grand jury secrecy, to protect crime victims and witnesses. And judges rarely grant public access to such materials.

获得解封证词的批准可能也很困难。这些记录受大陪审团保密规则保护，以保护犯罪受害者和证人。法官很少允许公众接触这类材料。