The Epstein Files Question

Politics & Elections
1

{Mods – wasn’t sure if this belongs here or in the Pit. Please move if you feel appropriate.)

I haven’t been following the story closely. Here’s what I think/vaguely recall is going on:

Epstein was accused of trafficking minors to prominent people. While in jail (awaiting trial?) he died. Officially it was suicide but some folks think it was murder.

There are a lot of files that were Epstein’s. Among these was a client list (or maybe client lists). AG Bondi said not that long ago that the list was on her desk. Trump said at some point (I don’t think recently) that the Epstein files contained a lot of information that would harm Democrats. He also promised the files would be released at some point.

Conspiracy theorists on the right, many of whom are MAGA, are convinced that the files will prove those nasty Democrats are pedophiles and maybe even cannibals.

But now Trump is saying there’s nothing of note in the files, and has even implied that his followers who believe the files contain dirt on the libtards are gullible (or maybe he said or least suggested they’re stupid). Bondi is saying there is no client list.

I think Trump is surprised that his word is not sufficient for these people (who are among his followers) aren’t taking his word that there’s nothing in the files. They aren’t doing what he wants, which is to forget the whole kerfuffle.

(Please correct whatever I have wrong in the above.)

So here’s my question: Why hasn’t the Trump Administration faked some “Epstein files” to placate the conspiracy theorists?

It can’t be ethical considerations holding them back, not with this crew. So it’s got to be practical considerations, right? But what?

If there are people out there who would say the files released are fake, then they must know some of what’s in the files. If they are willing to step up and call the fake files fake, why aren’t they Telling now what’s in the files?

I know Musk said (or maybe implied) on Formerly-Known-as-Twitter that Trump is himself in the files. If that’s the case, why wouldn’t they just delete references to Trump? In fact, they could offer to delete references to other people for a chunk of money. That could be pretty profitable, no? We all know Trump likes making money.

2

If the list really exists, then lots of people have probably seen it, and deleting people and adding others at this point would leak out from the people who know who is on the list and who isn’t. Nobody would be surprised if Trump’s name was on it. If some democrat’s name suddenly showed up, it would be fairly easy to prove they never knew Epstein. Trump got caught up in a lie for the millionth time. Is anybody surprised?

3

Give it time. Except they won’t need to fake them, just release some material that doesn’t implicate Trump. There’s material that has already been leaked: they could just release that. They won’t release Epstein’s black book, because that implicates Trump. But a copy of that was leaked years ago.

4

One Democrat (Eric Swalwell IIRC) said an interview that if he was ever accused of anything like this, the lawsuit would be immediate. In a lawsuit, there is discovery which would cause more of this stuff to come out. And there’s little benefit in making such an accusation anyhow because they’ve been saying this satanic pedophile line for years now. The MAGA crowd already believes this is happening. Fake evidence would be high risk and no reward.

TLDR version: pulling a pedophile hoax isn’t as easy as it seems. Unless of course you are a Democrat pulling one on Trump, in which case you have 100% chance of success.

5

Something’s happening.Gift link.

  • Epstein files: President Trump announced on social media that he was authorizing Attorney General Pam Bondi to release grand jury testimony in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, a sudden turn that may not satisfy critics within the MAGA movement who have demanded the release of all F.B.I. files on Mr. Epstein. Earlier, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Trump would not recommend a special prosecutor to look into the case, and repeated the president’s claim that the backlash was a distraction.

This won’t satisfy those out for blood.

6

Grand jury testimony isn’t what people want to see. He’s flailing for something that’ll end the attention, but that’s not it.

7

Two possible angles here:

The article mentions that this is “subject to court approval” so Trump has an opportunity here to make some “deranged, radical, leftist Obama appointee” judge into the bad guy by judge-shopping for someone he knows won’t approve of releasing this testimony.

On the other hand, doesn’t this have the effect of doxxing the people who testified if it is released? Again, switches the focus to someone else, just like OJ vowing to find the real killers. Either way, seems like a win for Trump.

8

Hee. Every time I see / hear Epstein Files , my first, nanosecond image is of a stack of manila office file folders, with so many papers in them, they have to be secured with a rubber band.*

On to my dumbass query…In what form are these files? Paper, right? That’s backed up digitally?

Why should anyone believe they’ve not been tampered with, destroyed or otherwise disappeared? I tend to think Trump’s name probably comes up, in whatever context, more than a few times. Why should anyone think he can’t / hasn’t altered them? Doesn’t Trump saying he has directed Pam Bondi to release “any credible information” really add up to bupkis?

I guess my questions are mainly

Where are these files, physically?
Are we meant to think they’re tamperproof?

Trump doesn’t usually bow to pressure, yet now he’s telling us the files will be released. I can see him attempting to pacify his pissed off magats, but there’s no way he would risk his own ass, so him capitulating suggests that he has, in fact, tampered, destroyed or disappeared them.

I don’t mean to be a nutty, conspiracy theorist. I just don’t see how anyone - supporter or opponent- is going to buy whatever flimsy contents they release.

9

You’re not being nutty or a conspiracy theorist. Any one that thinks these people will reveal the truth should have their head examined.

10

MAGAworld has been asking for the list to be released for years (all while ignoring how close Epstein was with Trump). I’d say it’s surprising that they didn’t expect this backlash, but many of them are also grifters who never expected to get caught.

11

Well, firing this lawyer who convicted Epstein will certainly help quiet the waters and keep the story out of the media! Nothing like firing someone who was involved in the original mess to make a story go away!

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/17/maurene-comey-letter-firing-00459560

12

She’s James Comey’s daughter. I’m surprised she lasted nearly six months after the Orange Tyrant came to power. Probably an oversight.

13

My guess (and it is only that) is that there’s not much of interest in there. But Trump World has been making hay from the conspiracy theories for years. Now that there’s no longer anything to be gained from this, they want to move on. But they’ve brought the golem into the house and surprise, he won’t go away.

14

She knows a lot of stuff. She’s probably gonna write a book.

15

They couldn’t get away with it, obviously Maga wouldn’t care but trump admin officials have no desire to go to go to prison as soon Trump is out of office.

Firstly the document itself: to avoid to having it trivially identifiable as fake (like the bush national guard letters) would require more skill than your average Trump numpty has. So you’re bringing someone else into the conspiracy right there and expecting them to keep schtum when the grand jury subeonas start flying in 2029.

Then there is all associated paperwork that goes with federal evidence that is even harder to fake than the documents themslves and a very very serious crime to fake. Even the dumbest most koolaid drinking Trump official would understand how serious this would be and how unlikely they would be to get away with it

Finally most damning is the fact that any documents must have been in Federal possession since the first Trump administration at the latest. All the people who have worked the case in the intervening years will be willing to swear that these docs did not exist before 2025.

It would inevitably end up in court very quickly (they wouldn’t need to wait for Trump to leave office for that) and do you really think Trump officials could maintain a complicated conspiracy (with countless interrelated lies) in the face of concerted cross examination by a skilled lawyer?

16

Well, not right away. But eventually.

17

That is why all the paper work around “chain of custody” (including photos of the evidence showing what it looked like when state first took possession of it) exists. Its there so when the defense lawyer asks this question the prosecutor can show them the paperwork that shows it was not destroyed or tempered with. Of course all that could in theory be faked, but that would require a level of corruption and disregard for the rule of law we are not at as a society (not yet at least)

There is nothing to say it wasn’t tampered with before it came into state custody but that is why the prosecution will get testimony about any important documentary evidence explaining under oath how it came into existence. A mystery document anonymously mailed to the investigators isn’t going be very compelling evidence.

18

For digital evidence I’m assuming the rules have been updated so the state is required to record the size and hash of any digital file when it first comes into their possession. That would rule out any tampering, if a single byte changed the hash would be different and it would be obvious

That said IANAL and its not impossible all the rules were crafted in the 1930s and haven’t changed since, and still require physical copies of any digital files with all the same paperwork you’d have for chain of evidence of a paper documents.

19

77 million Magas would disagree.

Hate to tell you, but we are already there. Trump tried to overthrow the government of the USA. That’s kinda a problem for me. His supporters are fine with that though.

Fake documents and lies are what this administration is. Though I doubt very much they have documented anything. That’s a good way to go to prison, and why Trump has be tearing up the meeting notes, and people have to collect them and tape them back together.

^ I give you the President of the United States of America.

20

If we’re talking about the court case, I believe that he was only accused of procuring them for himself. But, yes, within the wider mythos of the web, he’s believed to have been working as a pimp who could supply girls of all ages.

Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s lawyer, discussed a “list”, but specifically a list of clients that the DOJ put together, based on their findings during the investigation.

Not to say that you should trust that Dershowitz was being honest but, if he was, then we wouldn’t expect to find a document among Epstein’s things, as that’s not what the list is. It’s the DOJ’s client list not Epstein’s client list.

But, yes, it’s possible that the average MAGA believes that Epstein had his own list.