It’s clear that Trump (and Republicans) agreed to this release to try to ease the pressure, but the way they’re doing this is just going to make it worse. When you delay after claiming that you’ve been redacting the files for at least 8 months, and then what comes through might be 100% redacted… It’s just worse.
It’s like trying to get someone off your back by promising you’ll pay them back, and you promise you’ll pay them back next week, but when the time’s up, you say you can only give them half of what you promised and you’re good for the rest, and some of the payment is in the form of Monopoly money and checks that bounce. That’s just going to tick them off even more than they originally were.
It’s so weird. If there’s nothing really damaging in there, just release them already. This is just going to convince people that there must be some really bad stuff, and people tend to use their imaginations to conjure the worst possible stuff.
What recourse is there for congress for mass redactions? Can a judge look at the material and decide whether or not its classified or too sensitive or whatever? This is a bad joke the keeps getting worse.
I’d like to know what reasons they gave for the massive redactions, which pretty much makes the whole exercise pointless. The only people who should be protected are the victims.
That’s the blanket reason they will give for every redaction. They will twist it into knots to justify how every redacted part could be tied to a victim through six degrees of Kevin Bacon, and accuse anyone who disagrees of not caring about the victims.
If the DOJ is investigating Democrats associated with Epstein, and they’re able to redact anything related to an ongoing investigation, then one should note that it’s not hard to find Democrats in Epstein’s circle who were also Democrats in Trump’s circle. The venn chart of the two men’s relationships is a veritable overlap.
Bill Clinton
RFK Jr.
Tim McMillen
Plausibly Kenneth Lipper (I wasn’t able to confirm but Trump was involved with the Port Authority and we know Epstein was connected to Lipper, personally)
Ghislaine Maxwell (you could always add more charges)
I’m not sure of her politics but Gwendolyn Beck, Democrat or Republican as may be, could always be investigated for crimes.
I assume that if we really dived into Epstein’s black book (I got most of the above from Maxwell’s recent testimony), we could probably find another dozen names. And whether they’re Democrats or not, Trump would probably go ahead and initiate an investigation into them, if it simply helps to allow his team to keep sections of the Epstein documents black.
I’d also note that Epstein’s victims were often model-looking ladies, and he may have helped to finance their education and used his connections to put them into high profile positions. You look around Trump and there’s no shortage of former model-looking ladies like Noem, Homendy, etc. For all we know, they’re in those photos with black bars over the head.
Overall, there’s a wide capacity to block most of anything related to Trump if most of what Trump did was in the company of others.
But his name is still all over the Epstein files. All he has done is turn this from a figurative cover-up to a literal one.
Not about this though. He’d really like people to change the subject from this. But he’s choosing to keep himself in a living hell where they will never stop asking him about it and there is nothing he can do to make the situation better. Personally, I’m glad his team is so incompetent. It is taking years off his life.
Files are already being disappeared from the DoJ’s website less than 24 hours after being dropped.
They also released a photo of Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross with three young people’s faces redacted. See it here.
I mention this photo because it has absolutely nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. It’s a Getty Image from a fundraiser in DC in 2003. The children are Michael’s and Diana’s. See it here
Why the fuck did the DoJ redact three children’s faces from a photo that’s been public for over 20 years, and then release it with the Epstein Files? (rhetorical question, no need to answer.) And why is this bullshit not being reported in the media?
3 reasons I can think of. Either it’s to protect them since they’re minors (or at least they were minors in the picture), to protect them since they’re (likely) unrelated to all of this or it was done on purpose to make it look like Michael Jackson (and Diana Ross) are being pictured with victims.
Frankly, I’d probably go with whoever was redacting pictures was simply redacting any minors in any pictures regardless of how they’re involved in the case.
Lets just be clear, if you are in a photo with anyone connected to Epstein you are a pedophile and have almost certainly eaten the flesh of a child in a Satanic ritual . . . unless your name is Trump in which case there is a probability approaching 800% that that photograph was Photoshopped by Obama.
This was always the problem with releasing everything. Now Trump sycophants can claim that the only choice is either Diana Ross is also a pedophile or Trump is also innocent.