Jeez, I wonder why Trump won't release the Epstein files
SFGATE columnist Drew Magary unpacks what could be the biggest scandal of our time
When Donald Trump doesn’t want to talk about something, that usually means that we need to talk about it. That’s especially true of the president’s most recently adopted third rail, the late Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump would really like everyone to shut the f—k up about his old friend and has communicated those feelings with that classic Trump subtlety that we all know and adore:
“STOP TALKING ABOUT EPSTEIN!!!!!”
But why does Trump suddenly have a bug up his ass about Jeffrey Epstein? More important, why should you pay attention to THIS Trump scandal when every other Trump scandal comes and goes like a summer afternoon rainfall? Why shouldn’t you just go eat a Pop-Tart instead, given that you’ll likely accomplish just as much in doing so?
Well dear reader, I’ve taken it upon myself to gather up what credible intel I can find on the Epstein matter, and now deem it worth your time. I’ve even gone to the trouble to present my findings to you in that classically digestible format: the FAQ. So sit down, grab that Pop-Tart (brown sugar would be my rec) and get ready to throw it back up.
Who was Jeffrey Epstein?
A former teacher who switched to a career in finance at Bear Stearns. From there, Epstein became a boutique financial consultant (and likely inside trader) who only accepted billionaires as clients. But Epstein’s rise among society’s elite can likely be owed to far darker forces than market manipulation. In 2019, he was charged by the feds with trafficking underage girls with the intent of sexually assaulting them. Epstein also pimped victims out to some of his most powerful friends and clients. Perhaps in tribute to Diddy, Epstein hosted these group assault “parties” in lavish settings, including in Manhattan, in Palm Beach, aboard a private jet that went by the nickname the Lolita Express and on his own private island. While Epstein’s closest associate and lover Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein run this illicit sex ring and luring in victims, the man himself was never convicted in that matter. This is because he died in his jail cell while awaiting trial. Authorities ruled the death a suicide.
Was it a suicide?
Well the government says so, and it recently posted raw surveillance footage from the day of Epstein’s death to confirm the ruling. Oh, but Wired just reported that the released footage has a gap in it of nearly three minutes, which allows for all sorts of funny business to still be in play.
That’s curious.
It gets curioser. In death, Epstein left behind perhaps the most infamous paper trail in modern criminal history, including a little black book that included the names of his victims, his accomplices and, most tellingly, the aforementioned powerful friends he’d collected. The names in that book, many of which also show up in Epstein’s flight records, include the likes of Courtney Love, Alec Baldwin, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, Bill Clinton and —you guessed — Donald Trump.
However, many other names and details regarding Epstein’s case have either been redacted or left classified by the Department of Justice. We know Epstein was a sexual predator, and we know that he enabled other sexual predators. But the specifics beyond that have either not surfaced or not been corroborated. The public release of all these files would have, in theory, laid those specifics bare. It also would have potentially implicated a lot of still living people who’d rather those files never see the light of day.
Like Trump!
Yes, like Trump. But prior to this month, Trump and his little MAGA army were vocally convinced that the files would implicate Trump’s enemies much more than they would the man himself. This is in line with the modern GOP playbook under Trump. Democratic leaders convened at Comet Ping Pong in Washington, D.C., to abuse children. LGBTQ+ Americans were “grooming” children in order to take advantage of them and/or turn them LGBTQ+. All of the immigrants living here, either legally or off the books, are a threat to our precious children, which is why we need ICE to round them up and then throw them in the cargo hold of a plane bound for Western Sahara. Oh, and abortion MURDERS children outright. The old man protesting outside your general practitioner’s office has the enlarged photos to prove it!
Oh wow, is all of that true?
Of course it isn’t, you f—king idiot. But you can see how Trumpists have been able to capture the visceral reaction that child abuse inevitably fosters in people, and then turn that outrage against anyone they hate. So when the possibility arose that the Epstein files would be released, many MAGA heads saw it a fantastic opportunity to finish off the Democratic Party once and for all. This is why Justice Department head Pam Bondi made a promise in February that she would give up the goods. In fact, she even told Fox News “it’s sitting on my desk right now to review” when asked about the list of Epstein’s clients.
Did she make good on that promise?
You’re not gonna believe this, but no. Last week the DOJ released a statement that included this wildly blatant piece of obfuscation (emphasis mine below):
“Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography. This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. …. One of our highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to victims. Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends.”
So she’s NOT releasing the files?
Apparently they’re hella boring if you ask Bondi, and why wouldn’t I believe this woman? She’s only quid pro quo’ed with our dear leader a few times. Oh, and a curious plea deal that Epstein struck with Florida prosecutors in 2007 was worded to shield his co-conspirators from further scrutiny. It also barred the terms of Epstein’s plea deal from ever being made public, which a judge later found to be in violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act; it was an illegal cover-up between Epstein’s lawyers and the prosecution. So here’s a notorious sexual predator with a recorded history of gaming the system to hide his evildoing. But Donald Trump is angry that you’re even still bringing it up. Move on already, jeez! We’ve got legal immigrants to kidnap and torture!
Are we moving on?
We are not, and we strangely have Trump’s supporters to thank for that. After breaking with Trump on his Big Butthole Bill, Elon Musk straight up tweeted that Trump’s name was on Epstein’s client list. After Bondi buried the files, Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, was so pissed that he ghosted work the next day and then got into a big ol’ row with Bondi about it when he finally showed back up at the office. Bongino’s direct boss, FBI Director Kash Patel, was rumored to ponder submitting his resignation over the matter (he didn’t, eventually falling in line). GOP members of Congress are pissed at Trump, with House Speaker Mike Johnson going so far as to call for their release, although in the squirreliest, most Mike Johnson manner possible:
“But at the same time Johnson publicly called for the files to be released, he opposed a procedural motion advanced on Tuesday by Democrats that would have set up a House vote to release them,” the Washington Post reported.
Even Congress’ No. 1 MAGA loon Marjorie Taylor Greene is pissed at Trump, warning the president the MAGA faction will face significant blowback if he keeps everything on the DL. Laura Loomer is pissed at Trump and, like many other GOP members, she wants Bondi fired. And for the first time in the ratio history of his own social media network, Truth Social users are pissed at Trump. These folks were promised blood, and the president hasn’t delivered.
Why hasn’t he?
Do you really need me to connect the dots here for you?
Yes.
Okay, well we already know that Epstein himself told author Michael Wolff that Trump was his best friend for a decade and that he told Wolff the president first slept with his current wife, Melania, aboard the now infamous diddler plane. We know Trump’s name is on those flight records. We have photos of Trump chilling with Epstein at one of Epstein’s parties (whether that party got freaky later on isn’t known). And, most damning of all, we also have Trump on the record about Epstein in 2002 in the New York Magazine, calling the then-at large sex offender a “terrific” guy and that, “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
Most telling of all, a woman going by Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against Trump in 2016 for allegedly raping her when she was 13 years old. Doe, who had previously filed another suit under the pseudonym of Katie Johnson, alleged that both Trump and Epstein raped her, which would make Trump part of Epstein’s sordid ring. But just as Doe was about to make her first public comments about the case, her lawyer announced that her client was dropping the suit after receiving threats to her person.
If she dropped the case, then why does that matter?
We know that, given what people who accuse powerful folk of sexual assault have to endure once they make their stories public (Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford foremost among them), many would rather drop the charges than be traumatized all over again in both a court of law and the court of public opinion.
Specific to Trump, we know that he’s already been found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman’s in the mid-1990s, that he was accused by his former wife Ivanka of raping her (she would later recant), that he was accused by model Stacey Williams of sexual misconduct, and that he was famously caught on tape bragging to Access Hollywood co-puppet Billy Bush about grabbing women by the “pussy.” The man is a proven lech and has gotten away with being one for the entirety of his existence.
That makes his little tantrum over the Epstein affair noteworthy, especially when he now claims that the Epstein files — all of them! — were fabricated:
“Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 ‘Intelligence’ Agents, ‘THE LAPTOP FROM HELL,’ and more?”
As of this morning, Trump is still working the “hoax” angle, even though we now have six years of hard evidence that this was, indeed, a very real thing … one that even MAGA weirdos believe in.
Sounds like he’s a little shaken.
That’s because he TOTALLY did it. -
So why aren’t Democrats hammering Trump over this?
You’ve met Democrats, yeah? You also saw Bill Clinton’s name on those flight logs, too. Also, in a long-gestating bit of irony, it’s likely that Democratic leaders are frightened that bringing up the Epstein files over and over again will make them look like kooks.
Would it?
What does it matter? You know how Trump rose to power? BY BEING A F—KING KOOK. All day, every day. Being relentlessly crazy is how you win now. Democrats won’t do it. And from what I’ve seen so far, the mainstream media won’t, either. Much of Epstein files coverage I’ve seen from the New York Times and Washington Post has been below the fold and about how the files have created a rift between Trump and the MAGA movement. That’s an awfully roundabout way of covering what really could be, at long last, the scandal of the century. A scandal that really does bring down everyone involved in it.
Will it?
Only if you and I keep it circulating. So embrace your inner kook and scream RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES at everyone you see: your friends, your local representatives, your social media following, and the milkman. The longer this story sticks around, the harder it becomes to ignore. That’s why Trump wants everyone to shut up. The man’s hands are so filthy, you can’t even see visible skin.
SOURCE: Jeez, I wonder why Trump won't release the Epstein files - Drew Magary, SF Gate
[Copyright: https://www.sfgate.com/]
Here's a picture of a Pop Tart:
Oh, and by the way, it's obvious that several Democratic notables are also worried sick about being thoroughly implicated. That's not surprising, and it is good that they're worried.
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