JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Authorities have not yet shared a motive behind a fatal incident that took place at Mar-a-Lago early Sunday morning. Federal and local law enforcement shot dead a 21-year-old man from North Carolina. Authorities say he was armed and entered the property unlawfully, but media reports have asked whether the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files may play a role. NPR's domestic extremism correspondent Odette Yousef joins us now. Hi there.
ODETTE YOUSEF, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: Odette, let's start with what we know about the man who was killed there - Austin Tucker Martin.
YOUSEF: Well, there isn't much that we've found about him online, Juana. His social media presence appears to be limited. There is an Instagram account that appears to belong to him, but mostly it showcases his drawings. He was an illustrator. It also shows that he was devoutly Christian, but no political content. We know that he was registered to vote in North Carolina, but again, no political affiliation.
So the most that we have learned so far really has been through media reports. Martin's cousin told reporters that the family overall is very supportive of President Trump. And the outlet TMZ published a text message allegedly sent by Martin to a co-worker earlier this month. And it suggested that he was very troubled by information revealed within the Epstein files. I will note that NPR has not independently confirmed this text message, but this possibility that the Epstein files may have played a role is something that is not terribly surprising to people who've been monitoring how discourse around that is evolving in far-right spaces.
SUMMERS: Can you say more about that? How do the Epstein files play into this far-right discourse online?
YOUSEF: So the Epstein affair has been unique, Juana, in just how resonant it is with a number of long-standing conspiracies in the extremist world. You know, the idea of child trafficking and a deep state of elites, of course, are elements that fueled the QAnon conspiracy. But even decades earlier, neo-Nazi lore included narratives around powerful Jews trafficking young white women within circles of elites. And so the release of the files has really turbocharged those conspiracy theories.
One organization that's been tracking this is Moonshot, a company that monitors online extremism across social platforms. Their last batch of data was for January, so it captured only two days at the end of the month when the files were released, but even in just those two days, Juana, they saw huge increases in some conspiracy topics. Here's Moonshot's Emily Klein.
EMILY KLEIN: Like, a 107% increase in mentions of ZOG conspiracy theories - Zionist-occupied government ones - increases in discussions of child sacrifice conspiracy theories, all that have historically been related to Epstein in some way.
YOUSEF: And Klein says, you know, some neo-Nazi and white national groups - nationalist groups were ready for this, you know, using this opportunity to recruit.
SUMMERS: So it seems like the way the administration has released the files may actually be radicalizing some people.
YOUSEF: Yes. I mean, you know, among Trump diehard fans, it hasn't necessarily had much impact, but among those who were counting on him to bring full transparency around this issue, this may have very fundamentally broken their world view. And in fact, on Martin's Instagram page, many of the comments are supportive of him, saying rest in peace and linking his actions to the Epstein files.
SUMMERS: NPR's Odette Yousef, thank you.
YOUSEF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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