What would be wonderful is if SCOTUS wasn’t in on this mess and would do their, I donno JOB.
I don’t want a pony that would be EASY.
IMO that fear (and the fear he will be too senile to sign any pardons when the time comes) is doing more to slow our government’s descent into complete and absolute corruption and lawlessness than any of the supposed checks and balances in ou constitution.
Unfortunately that’s not saying very much 
A delicious column from Maureen Dowd this morning. 
…
It’s mythic, being devoured by the forces you unleashed. Trump has trafficked in conspiracy theories since the despicable “birther” one about Barack Obama. Now that whirlpool of dark innuendo has sucked him down. He can no longer control the Epstein conspiracy madness inflamed by his top officials.…
One “gal,” a Texan named Rosie, said she was brokenhearted. She replied on Truth Social that she has four daughters and “can’t even begin to comprehend the flipped narrative that ‘it was so long ago’ ‘why are we still talking about this’ and ‘nobody should care.’ These victims were some ones daughters, sisters, nieces, granddaughter. Someone’s child. Please reconsider, sir.”
…
It’s the plaintive “sir” that gets me every time. She no doubt petitioned him on her knees with tears in her eyes.
…
Twisting conspiracy theories into a Gordian knot of hate, Trump is claiming some Epstein files were “made up” by Barack Obama, James Comey, “Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration” and “Crooked Hillary.”
…
Boo-fucking-hoo.
That reminds me of a Charlie Kirk clip I saw recently where he was speaking to trump (who wasn’t there), and it wasn’t like the olden days where you print an “open letter” in the paper. Speaking it online it sounds exactly like a prayer. “Our Daddy, who art in Mara Lardo…”
It’s not necessarily stupid if he can delay or avoid such a deposition. The mere act of filing the lawsuit scored him points with his base, and this might have been all he was after. He can now slow-walk the suit until public interest in the issue has died down, or until he’s out of office or even dead. If at any point the proceedings threaten to become embarrassing to him, he could probably negotiate a quick settlement that’s favourable to the defendants, or drop the suit altogether, and then tout this to his followers as yet another amazing legal victory of his.
I don’t see any “if” about it. Not gonna happen. So he refuses–so what?
I see we have a bunch of 'trouble makers" here. 
(or at least trump thinks so)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-calls-epstein-files-released-troublemakers/story?id=123890604
Incidentally it isnt easy to get grand Jury transcripts released-
Why not? As the plaintiff, can’t he withdraw the suit at any time?
The case can’t proceed until Trump is deposed, and Trump will never allow that to happen, so in reality, the case doesn’t exist. It’s nothing but theater for the rubes.
Can’t include text with the link, but the above video is a great summary of Epstein case.
None of that means Newscorp won’t come groveling with a deal to avoid the repercussions of being on the wrong side of the Trump admin, just like CBS did
The mere act of filing intimidates media with lesser resources from doing anything similar.
Lawsuits are in indirect way to push the media in Trump’s direction. Trump not at a point in the consolidation of power where he can just order journalists he dislikes to be locked up.
Early on, Erdogan also sued the media:
That didn’t always work, so, later, when more powerful, he locked them up:
Cumhuriyet’s journalists on trial, including cartoonist Musa Kart
If Trump is an idiot, so is every other dictator.
I saw Monica Lewinsky comment on social media (threads, I think) that it can be done
#starreport
I hear ya.
Trump is challenging the rule of law. This is a stress test: we shall see if the Constitution holds.
The parent company of Fox News? Now that would be a hoot.
Many things that can be done are not easy to do.
I think this is valid. Would-be lawbreakers-for-Donald look at those cankles and IV-bruised hands and think ‘the odds are NOT good of me getting a pardon…’
I don’t think there’s any doubt–Kirshner is right. It’s theater. The grand jury info that could be released IF all went smoothly must be less than 1% of all the Epstein material. And that other, non-grand-jury 99% is stuff Trump COULD release (with some redactions) tomorrow.
The ‘petition a court to release grand jury material’ request fools MAGA into thinking Trump is acting in good faith to make the Epstein files available.
Of course he’s acting in the opposite of good faith. A court is likely to say ‘no’ and that gives Donald a target (Bad Judges–impeach!) as well as an excuse for the fact that nothing Epstein-related is coming out. Not a valid excuse for anyone with a brain—but an excuse that might pass with much of MAGA.
- Trump is listed in government files. In 1996 Maria Farmer went to the NY Police Dept, then the FBI to complain about Epstein, and suggested that law enforcement investigate Epstein’s associates, very much including Donald Trump. She repeated that during a 2006 FBI interview. Gifted:
- Regarding the possible splintering of the MAGA base conservative columnist David French has some insight. Trump has lied to MAGA a lot, but in the past he was telling them what they wanted to hear. Now he isn’t:
[MAGA] are now faced with two terrible options. One, all the whole conspiracy is correct and Trump’s in on it, or they were lying to us all along. So what’s going on here?
However, while I think the story has legs, I don’t see Trump’s favorability ratings collapsing because of this. David French:
How are people reconciling themselves to it? I think the answer is really, really simple. At the end of the day, MAGA is going to turn to all of its people and say: “Whatever you do, you can’t help the left. Whatever you do, you can’t undermine Trump because if you undermine Trump, that’s what the media wants. That’s what the left wants.” So you’re going to begin to see a lot of this, “Well, whatever else Trump is, the left hates him. So you have to stand by him.”
And a lot of this is going to drill down to ultimately, why did people support Trump? Why have they been with him? And if the ultimate answer is because he hates Democrats and fights Democrats, then they’ll probably keep on clinging to Trump.
If their ultimate answer is, “I genuinely really thought he was gonna be God’s angel of vengeance against the global pedophiles,” then you might see some cracking in that support.
Yeah, no. Democrats piss off Christian conservatives, because their very existence is a constant reminder of the fundamentalist camp’s utter absence of Christian charity. That’s not how Democrats perceive themselves – most (not all) Dems would balk at an extension of the welfare state to Scandinavian levels, at least once they grasp the tax hikes involved – but it does explain conservative Christian sputtering rage. Not gifted:
Because it’s really: “please tell me something that explains it away so I can go on believing; I need to hear it from you and only from you; don’t let me have to stop believing.”
As Measure_for_Measure quotes David French,
The QAnon pedophile conspiracy storyline is an incidental component to their mythical grand existential struggle against “the Left”. Oh they will continue to believe it exists, sure. But if Trump is not going to be the one who stops it, well, it could still be worse, the other guys could also take our guns or our coal power or open the borders or celebrate gays or charge us taxes or… etc.
The first thing Republicans will say if this situation arises is “why do we have to bring up all of this old stuff? Let’s work together to improve the future of America! Witch hunt!”