The theory at the heart of the QAnon conspiracy theory was simple, even if the details were not: A global cabal of elites was running a child sex-trafficking ring.
The latest release of files about Jeffrey Epstein has the QAnon faithful crowing that they were right. The documents revealed that a global group of prominent business and political figures had close personal relationships with a convicted sex offender, and raised questions about how much those people knew about, or participated in, Mr. Epstein’s crimes.
Never mind that those relationships did not seem to prove a widespread deep-state scheme centered on pedophilia. Never mind that the files do not seem to back up other outlandish claims — such as beliefs about cannibalism, cloning or devil worship — in the QAnon canon.
For adherents, there is enough to make them feel vindicated. The drop, experts said, is legitimizing the vein of paranoid thinking that is increasingly prevalent in American politics and, in some cases, further cementing support among QAnon sympathizers for President Trump.
In an emailed statement, a spokeswoman for the White House wrote that Mr. Trump was “totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein.” Ms. Greene did not respond to a request for comment.
The documents also show Mr. Epstein’s ties to powerful people including a former prince, billionaire businessmen, top officials from multiple White House administrations and academic leaders.
The files do not address many common QAnon assertions. Many prominent figures facing backlash for their proximity to Mr. Epstein were not documented as having supported sex trafficking, but rather as having socialized or dealt financially with him, or shared lewd remarks about women.
So the movement is adjusting its expectations and blind spots to fit the current reality, moving goal posts whenever certain wild predictions fail to happen, as it has frequently done in the past, according to longtime experts.
“It fits the pattern of conspiratorial thinking, where if you have a conclusion that you already hold on to, anything else can be confirmatory evidence,” said Yini Zhang, an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo who studies social media and emerging communication technologies.