Dan Bongino, Kash Patel Flipped Epstein Views Once in Power, Marc Caputo Says

Dan Bongino and Kash Patel completely flipped their public views on the Jeffrey Epstein files once they got into power ... and now it's got them embroiled in some White House turmoil.

Marc Caputo, a White House reporter for Axios, joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday and took us inside the divide in D.C.

He says Dan and Kash were on board with the DOJ memo that came out saying Epstein didn't keep a client list of potential blackmail targets and wasn't murdered in jail while awaiting trial ... despite the two stating opposing views on podcasts before Trump's election. Bongino and Patel were both prolific podcasters before their appointments.

Patel is FBI director and Bongino is the bureau's deputy director ... and Marc says Bongino got into it with Attorney General Pam Bondi over some surveillance footage of the jail cell where Epstein died.

Marc says Bongino found the 10-hour video and pushed it as proof Epstein wasn't murdered, saying he vouched for it and reviewed it thoroughly. The video shows nothing nefarious happening ... but a problem arose when internet sleuths discovered there's a full minute missing from the footage.

Conspiracy theorists are latching on to the missing minute and ripping Bongino, and Marc says Bongino had a meeting with Bondi at the White House that didn't go so well ... and Bongino didn't show up to work Friday, still stewing over the Bondi meeting.

Marc says it will be interesting to see if Bongino returns to work going forward ... and he says the Epstein debacle shows governing is a lot harder than spewing hot takes on podcasts.