From Epstein files to Iran war: How the global conversation suddenly shifted

The second batch of Epstein-related documents, released in early March, could have been one of the year’s biggest political stories. 

Containing purported FBI interview materials that some interpreted as alleging sexual misconduct involving a sitting US president, they seemed poised to dominate headlines for weeks. 

Instead, the story faded after roughly 48 hours, just as the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, which seized global attention.

The drop in public attention is measurable. 

Google Trends data tracking worldwide searches for “Epstein files” over the past three months shows a sustained rise through the end of January and February, peaking around the major disclosure moments. 

In the final days of February, however, the trend drops sharply, with searches falling in a near-vertical decline.

The March files were, by nearly every measure, more politically damaging than previous ones. 

However, the new batch of files released on 5 March, which included documents the Department of Justice had previously and improperly withheld, received only a fraction of the coverage that welcomed the January 30 mass release.

The main driver of the attacks across the Middle East is primarily the need to prevent the full exposure of the Epstein files, according to Ulvi Keser, Professor of International Relations at Final International University. 

“American history has long been a history of conspiracies. If you look at two hundred years of it, you simply cannot find another country where there have been so many assassination attempts against sitting presidents,” Keser tells TRT World.

“The US had spent months, even years, hesitating over any strike on Iran, unable to accurately assess Iran's military capabilities, using Ukraine as a testing ground to gauge Russia's military strength, and similarly pushing Israel forward in the Middle East to probe Iran's defences, without getting the results it wanted.”

“The US still had serious question marks over Iran. And then, suddenly, it launches these extraordinarily bold strikes on the region. That alone tells you there is something else going on beneath the surface,” Keser adds.

Coincidence, or calculation?

The idea that military escalation can function as a tool of domestic news management is not a fringe theory. In political science, it has a name, diversionary war, and it has a well-documented history.

For decades, political scientists have described how leaders facing domestic pressure, scandal, economic anxiety, or cratering approval ratings may turn to foreign military action to reset the public conversation.

Some analysts now argue that the war with Iran fits this pattern with uncomfortable precision.

Professor Keser believes part of the explanation may lie in the Epstein files.

“But I think it goes further than that. Consider this: the daily cost of these military operations is estimated at somewhere between 900 million and one billion dollars. 

“And that staggering sum is being underwritten by seven international companies, every single one of them operating in oil production, oil storage, and oil sales.”

“Why? Because there is a commitment that these companies will be the ones marketing the energy extracted from the region once Iran is dealt with,” Keser adds.

Trump's approval ratings were also at a low point. The Epstein files had already forced resignations across the US and Europe. 

A second, more damaging release was recognised as imminent. Then, within days of those documents being released, a war that had been quietly escalating for weeks suddenly became the sole focus worldwide.

Nobody needed to remind editors to shift focus from Epstein. War coverage did that naturally as it occupied every column, broadcast and trending search. 

“Things are not going according to the US' plan in Iran as it’s taking serious losses. And this is the same Trump who promised to be a peace envoy, who practically dictated that he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize,” Keser says.

A timing too perfect to ignore

A January 2026 CNN poll found that only 6 percent of Americans are satisfied with the currently released files related to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, while most believe the government is deliberately withholding information. 

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, one of the architects of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, said last week that war will not distract him from his push to force the Department of Justice to release all documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

“PSA: Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein files go away, any more than the DOW going above 50,000 will,” Massie wrote on X.

Professor Keser argues that what we are seeing today in the war on Iran serves multiple purposes at once.

“First, it feeds the internal machinery, delivering what is demanded from within. Second, it serves the lobbies and companies operating behind the curtain. And third, and this is what I genuinely believe, those files contain far dirtier laundry than what has emerged so far,” Keser tells TRT World.

“Material that does not just implicate the US, but figures at the highest levels of government, bureaucracy, and technocracy across Europe and beyond. Preventing that from coming out may well be one of the goals of what is happening right now.”