Do we think this means that Trump has had his minions launder the files so that whatever is officially released will not be damaging to him?
Has it ever been conceivable that any official release under his regime would not have been whitewashed?
What would have stopped his minions from removing of all smoking guns from the files on the first day of his first administration? It obviously wasn’t done, because he was so intensely worried about it up until a few hours ago.
What made him change his tune now?
Does he think he can can get the Senate to block it, or that there won’t be enough votes to override a veto?
Is there any possible check, other than an extremely brave whistleblower, against the possibility of a whitewashed version being released by his FBI?
I would assume that whatever Congress has is not something the FBI can go in and selectively edit.
For Trump’s response to whatever is in there, I assume he is just going to lie and continue insisting that it is all a hoax.
I think he changed his tune because this vote is happening whether he likes it or not so it is theoretically better to pretend it was his idea all along. I also think his dementia has progressed so far that he does not understand what is happening at any given moment.
I am curious about the Senate myself. 100 Republicans in Congress want answers but from what I have heard so far, zero Republican Senators.
How this has not leaked so far is one of the great mysteries of our time. Hey, Putin! If you have a copy…
He sees that the House vote is going to go against him, and his ego can’t abide his being thought of as a ‘loser’, so he says the House should vote to release the files so that he can claim it was his idea all along and they voted that way because he told them to.
That said, I expect that Bondi and Patel will fail to deliver some materials and that there will be a variety of redactions to obfuscate the underlying story.
So it will really come down to:
People looking for missing documentation, based on what we know should exist. E.g. we should have reports of Epstein attacking underaged girls at least as far back as 1996, including reports against Trump.
Current/former FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who have knowledge of what does and doesn’t exist, going to Congress and pointing out the gaps.
If there’s an Epstein Committee, conjoined, and they’re being honest in their intention then we should see people like Maureen Comey brought in as validators, working underneath the hood to get everything brought over.
I’d expect that the discharge petition not only requires the release of documents but also authorizes people to speak to Congress on matters that, otherwise, would have been confidential to the criminal justice system?
Per Gemini, the discharge petition wouldn’t quite authorize officials to discuss any arbitrary Epstein topic (e.g. who was in the Grand Jury). The petition does, in essence, limit its scope to the release of physical materials (documents, notes, recordings, etc.).
However, as the documents are released to the public, the documented materials do become open to discussion and could be commented on by current and former officials (though, I’d expect the White House to put a lawyer with a leash, limiting them on how free their commentary is).
More notably, Bondi will be required to disclose the materials that are held by the DOJ to Congress. As this manifest would be in the public domain, officials would be free to discuss it and its completeness.
I predict that his final position, at the end of this life, will be that he wanted to release all along. Whether he thinks another round of will-I won’t-I drama is worth it, I have no idea.
Can’t he just instruct whoever (DoJ? Someone else?) to release them without waiting for the House (and Senate, I guess) to force his hand? You know, now that he’s telling the House to vote for their release.
And how would there ever be a completeness check? Sure seems like they can release one sheet of paper saying “Tom Hanks” and another saying “Crooked Hillary” and tell us “there ya go, that’s all we got”.
He wants to have it both ways. Since the House will vote to release the files, he can still claim mastery over them since they’re about to do just that. But he can also suppress the files by virtue of his sham “investigation” into potential Democrats on the list. He’ll say, “Gee, I’d LOVE to release them, but I can’t right now because they’re pertinent to an ongoing investigation which should take a bit more than 3 years.”
Anybody remember when trump and I think sons showed off piles of ‘records’ that where clearly new manila folders and blank copy machine paper? He said it was his taxes? Or business records? What was that lie?
According to the economist, he’s done an about-face on the issue and is now calling for the House to vote to release the files. Wonder where the change of heart came from?
IIRC, it was Trump supposedly turning over the day-to-day running of his businesses to his sons upon getting elected the first time—to avoid obvious conflicts of interest. And the papers were supposed documentation of this. Which as you say clearly consisted of piles of blank copy paper and manila folders.
Of course Trump never actually gave control over to his sons. They might have assisted, but he kept control—despite the conflict of interest.
I’m also reminded of when he gave Lesley Stahl w/ 60 Minutes a truckful of binders that supposedly contained his big, beautiful healthcare plan. Turned out to have nothing even remotely related to that.