Speculation on what will or will not happen regarding the mandated release of the ‘Epstein Files’ has been simmering. It’s going to erupt into a full boil this week. The question is whether Trump has ordered AG Bondi to stall somehow, or hide files from release. Well DUH! Of course that will happen and in turn it will make things worse for Trump. I’m thinking about a line from Simon & Garfunkle’s Mrs. Robinson: ‘Laugh about it shout about it when you’ve got to choose; Either way you look at it you lose. Rewritten for this, it’s more like: Angry tweet about it or hide on the golf course when you’ve got to choose; Either way you look at it you lose.
It really is a no-win situation. Congress voted damn near unanimously to put everything out there. Even Republicans decided it was best to just rip the band-aid off and get it over with. Already facing likely loss of the House next November and possibly even loss of the Senate it’s in their interests to get the bad news out. Now. Then maybe enough time will have passed when the voting starts that the issue won’t hurt them so much. Trump of course doesn’t see it that way, nor does he care about any individual Republican up for re-election. He DOES care about having to face one or both chambers of Congress controlled by Democrats. However he also cares not just about his own image, but all the rich and powerful people (and their relatives and/or estates) that are going to be furious with him.
Trump himself has no real personal legal worries. He can’t hide the longstanding bromance he had with Epstein (and Maxwell) but has been spinning the “Wow. They were sexually abusing and even trafficking all those underage teens I saw everywhere? I had NO idea he was doing THAT!” line of bullshit. He’s not going to wind up in criminal court and will be long dead before any civil action could make it to trial – years from now. However as I said there are well-known people with plenty to hide. There are even more not well known (most of the time) outside the circles of the rich and powerful besides Prince Andrew. Or Larry Summers, or Alan “I kept my underpants on” Dershowitz. Or perhaps NFL owner Robert Kraft who had his own massage parlor scandal in the news some years back.
Way back a couple of decades ago when then U.S. Attorney first swept all of the Epstein case under the rug he tack it down with a nail gun and left the equivalent of a scrap of paper sticking out. It led to that sweetheart deal that allowed Epstein (and Maxwell) to go right on ‘Epsteining.’ I know some might accuse me of CT but Accosta didn’t go to all that trouble ‘just because’ or out of the goodness of his heart. Nope. He had powerful lawyers representing powerful people quietly coming to them (Dershowitz as the go between?) letting him know he’d better make it all just go away.
They thought they were safe and had gotten away with their child sex crimes. It was all safely hidden away and would be forgotten. As we know it was NOT forgotten by victims and enough got their stories to the right reporter who dug into the story and we are where we are now. All those secrets of all those powerful people are sitting there in some giant tank of toxic brew with a thin glass wall holding it back and the glass is cracking.
Trump as I said has almost certainly ordered Bondo to somehow patch the cracks, because people he knows and/or people with connections to him know those people that he’d goddam well better keep their names out of the news. He’s facing increasing resistance on many fronts but if THIS group turns on him he’s toast.
Congress, or rather the ‘Release all the files’ legislation gave Trump/the DOJ until this Friday to do just that. Naturally they, as they should have allowed redaction of names/identifying information of victims, and also redactions regarding people who didn’t engage in any wrongdoing and had little reason to suspect something awful was going on. However as Forbes reported this morning there is also an “out” for Team Trump to try and exploit. Forbes’ article is mostly a set of bullet points that lay out the situation and terms of releasing the files. More than one jumped out at me starting with this:
There are only a few carveouts for information the government doesn’t have to release, such as information that would identify victims, depicts death or child abuse, is classified, or, most notably, information that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution.”
Ah, that last part about ‘an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution’ is something I’ve already heard legal pundits raise. That’s why I’ve said that Trump, wanting an “out” as much as he once wanted to bank wannabe Princess Ivanka (some of those pics or her as a child, sitting on his lap aren’t just weird/suspect but revolting) has been talking to Bondi about turning this into a loophole big enough to sail an aircraft carrier though. Forbes thinks so too:
Critics have speculated the Trump administration could use the ongoing investigation exemption to withhold files, after the DOJ opened a new investigation into Epstein’s association with high-profile Democrats including former President Bill Clinton, Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman and economist Larry Summers, as well as JP Morgan Chase.
Since the investigation focuses on Epstein’s ties to various “people and institutions,” the government could use the probe as a pretext to keep information about the financier’s high-profile friends hidden—though the federal law says any exceptions under the investigations carveout must be “narrowly tailored and temporary.”
Two things in all that need emphasis. Team Trump is of course citing well-known Democrats (so much for not talking about/naming the subject of an investigation unless charges are brought!) as if no REPUBLICANS or Trump backers are included in the ‘investigation. The other is that part at the end of the second paragraph above noting the legislation says ‘any exceptions under the investigations carveout must be ‘narrowly tailored and temporary.”
I don’t know about you but I’m quite sure Trump/Bondi’s interpretation of that will be very different from everyone else’s. That of course means hearings, legal fights and such and if there’s one thing Trump has proven VERY skilled at it’s running out the clock. It’s why his fat orange ass dodged trials that would have led to convictions of serious crimes in Florida and DC. And he’s STILL dragging out paying judgements on lawsuits he lost to E. Jean Carrol, and the state of New York!
GOPers on Capitol Hill and even in a lot of statehouses might want Trump to just dump it all out there and get it over with. I already said why. And I understand their reasoning. It IS in their best interests (unless they or a major backer is involved) to have it out there. Especially during the holidays when people are distracted by other things. Hell, even after the holidays there will still be the attacks being carried out off the coast of Venezuela and Trump’s clear intent to initiate a ground war without Congressional authority dominating news. AND, they can count on additional scandals!
However Trump is stubborn and hates losing and giving in and telling Bondi ‘just dump it all out there and move on’ is effectively losing and he can’t handle that. So he’ll play games. Yes, he’d lose by doing what the legislation he signed says has to be done by Friday, but he’ll lose even bigger in the long-run by trying to delay. Even MAGAs are openly thinking and in some cases saying ‘What is he HIDING?’
There are already signs his MAGA support is eroding to an alarming (for Trump) degre. I don’t recall if it was on a news show or in an article but in recent days I saw polling that indicated support for Trump (at least on one issue) had fallen to 50 percent from the usual way up in the 70s from MAGAs. MAGAs! Add in they have been like a pack of hungry wolves (even now) waiting to see the Epstein files and Trumpty Dumpty has a problem.
So back to where I started: Trump can either lose (and lose big) on Friday or he can commit the cardinal sin of DC politics and put his testicles into the ‘The cover up is worse than the crime’ political mess and try to hide a lot of the files. Ten bucks says that’s the choice that’s already been made in which case instead of losing big in the PR/image wars, he winds up LOSING and doing so ‘Bigly YUGE – you’ve never seen such a bigly lose.’
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
This made me smile: he winds up LOSING and doing so ‘Bigly YUGE – you’ve never seen such a bigly lose.’
i had thought they would use the ongoing investigation to avoid releasing material but, correct me if i’m wrong, but wouldn’t the statute of limitations have run out on pretty much everything?