The Epstein Files Question

Why? Trump likes to get attention by playing the victim. He is much better off with Epstein headlines above the fold, because they keep anything about Christmas toy pricing below the fold (and the TV news equivalent).

I think there is something newsworthy in those 100,000 pages but it won’t hurt Trump.

Maybe you’re right, maybe not. But he certainly has acted as if he is scared of what could happen if the actual files see the light of day.

And why did Johnson send House members home so this issue could hopefully die?

Some folks think that the Epstein files crap serves as a distraction from other more serious Trump administration crap that has been taking place.

Could be:

Given that nothing to be found in the ‘Epstein files’––even Trump being found in bed with both a dead girl AND a live boy––would materially sway his devoted followers who would just deny that it was real, I tend to agree. However, I think everything in the Epstein files (save for personal information of victims without their consent) should be released to the public so that all offenders can be held to account. But you’ll observe that a lot of prominent Democrats as well as Republicans are notably silent about releasing this information. Epstein was certainly great at getting inside of the circles of power regardless of political affiliation.

Stranger

While true to an extent the degree Trump has gone to signal the MAGAts that this should be dropped indicates there may be more to this. And toady Johnson sending Congress home to keep them from voting to release the files is at the least weird if there is no there there.

I just read that speaker Johnson is refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva (D, Ariz) because she will sign the discharge petition to pass a bill opening the Epstein files. I don’t see why it matters, since no such bill would ever get past the Senate.

It seems to me that refusing to swear in a duly elected representative is crossing a bright red line.

We’ve passed over so many bright red lines in the past eight months that they are now forming a zebra crossing painted in blood over the Avenue of Autocracy.

Stranger

Probably not, but I am unsure.

If you say that a presidential veto would not be overridden, that I will buy.

Assuming Trump wants to keep the presidency in the family, it might be best for the President if JD Vance was forced to break a tie. Such an unpopular vote would make it harder for Vance to get the nomination in 2028, and thus easier for, say, Lara Trump.

As I understand it, he isn’t refusing to swear her in so much as waiting until every i is dotted, every t crossed, and every possible avenue of appeal for her opponent for the seat is exhausted before he will swear her in.

Theoretically legal. Of course, he swore in another representative a couple weeks ago after the ink was dry on the initial vote count form, but what’s a little hypocrisy to a Republican speaker? He’s got plenty more where that came from.

So this is more of a norm eroded than a red line crossed. Anyone know the exchange rate between eroded norms and crossed red lines, anyway? Is it a fixed rate, like the free coinage of silver proposal, or does it fluctuate?

I don’t generally go in for CTs, but I think the simplest answer is that too many very rich and powerful people of all political persuasions were implicated.

I seem to recall that they recovered hours and hours of recordings, and Epstein had put “evidence” tape on the recordings, presumably as a joke.

Wired also mapped out the comings and goings of 200 cell phones to the island. They did not reveal who owned the numbers, but presumably it would be possible with a subpoena to identify them.

Even the birthday book, until recently unknown, comes damn close to implicating some wealthy people. Hell, if you haven’t seen the whole thing, you should. One is a drawing of Epstein offering candy to little girls in one frame, and then receiving a massage from (presumably the same) girls in bikinis. Whomever drew that certainly seemed to be getting at something.

And let’s not forget that the non-prosecution agreement from 2009 included all unindicted co-conspirators, which I am led to believe is simply not done. Ever.

Count me among those who think there’s probably something there, and when enough billionaires are implicated, well, they got some power.

We’ve seen enough to know that there is certainly something there, and whether Epstein was an agent of some intelligence service getting kompromat on powerful people or just exceptionally talented at getting the wealthy and powerful to place undue trust in his confidence for access to influence and exercising their secret desires, there are certainly a lot of highly connected people who do not want the information collected in the various investigations of Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to see the light of day. Like the Paradise, Panama, and Pandora Papers, it demonstrates an informal global network of wealth and influence shielded from public view by facilitators within and without governments in a plot almost both too absurd and too complex for a conspiracy thriller novel.

Stranger

I vote that when it comes to investigating pedophiles, we don’t ask the pedophiles for their opinion on the subject.

Very nice!

And, yes, of course it’s not just Donald’s personal embarrassment that fuels Republican efforts to suppress the Epstein Files. It’s the likely embarrassment—or worse—of wealthy Republican donors.

This is my thought. It’s not that Trump is a disgusting pervert who enjoys sexually abusing women and girls. We knew that. He has ADMITTED that. Sure he’s in there. But that will shock no one.

It’s who else is in there. Somebody (or somebodies) with money and influence who might face criminal charges if the truth came out. Someone Republicans care about keeping happy. There might be Dems in there too, but that’s incidental. Trump is protecting someone and it’s not Bill Clinton.

Hey, maybe it’s Putin.

Is it too dangerous for these wormen (formerly girls), to just come forward and name names?

I mean I don’t really trust the justice system anymore, but I think they could do something.

https://www.axios.com/2025/09/03/epstein-survivors-may-unofficial-client-list-house-congress

The danger of releasing their own list of names is that without supporting evidence they could be subject to multiple libel lawsuits by extremely wealthy people with essentially infinite resources to hire lawyers and investigators, influence media sources, engage in harassment campaigns, et cetera.

Stranger

I don’t think it’s the identity of the people who availed themselves of young girls that is keeping the files under wrap, but rather the identity of the entity that was running the honey trap.

Not any more.

Hmm… I assumed it was Epstein and Maxwell. But maybe someone else was involved. Hmmm.