As we all know, the bill passed the House with only one dissenter. The Senate unanimously agreed to send the bill to Trump. Trump said he’d sign it. So what’s the problem, right? Well, you could say it’s a big one. And it has to do with releasing the files. But Congress finally did something for the Epstein survivors, and it’s about damn time (looking at Moses Mikey the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader Thune). There’s still a catch. From AlterNet:
President Donald Trump appears likely to sign the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act into law this week, which would compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all remaining evidence pertaining to deceased child predator Jeffrey Epstein that has yet to be made public. However, Epstein’s brother, Mark, recently said that a “pretty good source” told him the DOJ is “sanitizing” the Epstein files ahead of their likely release in order to downplay implications for Republicans. But one veteran journalist is arguing that even if Attorney General Pam Bondi attempts to release doctored documents, the effort could still backfire and make the administration’s Epstein problem even worse.
So there is part of the problem. How much has been redacted on them when the DoJ has had months to go through them? Did they bother to protect the names of the victims? They could have redacted Trump and not the survivors. Some have chosen to step forward, okay? But what about the others? We won’t know until the files are released. That’s a big concern.
“I get the concerns that AG Bondi and FBI Director Patel may try to scrub all Trump references and images in the Epstein files before they are released,” former CNN, Fox News and NBC journalist David Shuster wrote Tuesday on his official X account. “Well, there are nearly 1,000 FBI/DOJ staff who looked at the files in March with no compartmentalizing, limits, or controls.” As Shuster pointed out, Bondi ordered DOJ staff to comb through approximately 100,000 pages of documents pertaining to Epstein’s two federal investigations in 2006 and 2019 earlier this year. The New York Times reported that between February and April, DOJ staff pored through the evidence four times.
FOUR times, not just one. You’d better believe they’ve been trying to hide Trump in the files. And he may know that he’s not in there anymore. Maybe that’s why he finally bowed to the inevitable and agreed to sign the bill. He got seriously slapped when his whole party in Congress turned against him (except one, and he had a bogus reason, but that’s a personal viewpoint).
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (who was Trump’s former personal lawyer) explicitly told attorneys to flag any mention of Trump in the files. Shuster argued that one of the many DOJ staffers working on the case would likely report any noticeable changes to lawmakers and undermine any attempt by the administration to shield high-profile figures from accountability. “Bondi and Patel will be jammed by their own incompetence,” Shuster wrote. “Because if the AG and FBI director try to scrub Trump references now, there will be more than a few FBI/DOJ whistleblowers who will notice the removals and alert Congress. Checkmate.”
WHAM a jam JAM. The folks have been through them four times, remember? You could say that they’ll be looking at the pages when they are released. There will be hell to pay, one way or another, if they see more changes. Heaven knows one of us would be doing exactly that – looking at the files when they are released. Even if Blondi and Ka$h have no morals, we can bet that people in the DoJ and FBI do. That’s our ace in the hole. More changes, someone will notice and scream about it in some form or fashion, and could do so in any number of ways. Checkmate, indeed.
Wow. Just discovered Netflix made a movie about Epstein. Yikes. [Personal edit – I wish Virginia were alive today to see this.]
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
Well you really have to wonder when he turns around all of a sudden and tells everybody to vote for a bill he’s just spent the last six months desperately trying to block. Since he wasn’t getting anywhere with that, he’s now obviously got some brilliant(?) new idea up his sleeve.
Just an ‘of interest’ … the …
DOJ Epstein-O-Matic