Here is the text of a lawsuit filed by Katie Johnson documenting her rape at the hands of Trump and Epstein when she was 13 years old. Imagine how many other examples of this situation there are.
Plaintiff was enticed by promises of money and a modeling career to attend a series of parties, with other similarly situated minor females, held at a New York City residence that was being used by Defendant Jeffrey Epstein. At least four of the parties were attended by Defendant Trump. Exhs. A and B. On information and belief, by this time in 1994, Defendant Trump had known Defendant Epstein for seven years (New York, 10/28/02, “’I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,’’ Trump booms from a speakerphone. ‘He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.’”), and knew that Plaintiff was then just 13 years old. Exhs. A and B.
10. Defendant Trump initiated sexual contact with Plaintiff at four different parties. On the fourth and final sexual encounter with Defendant Trump, Defendant Trump tied Plaintiff to a bed, exposed himself to Plaintiff, and then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff. During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but with no effect. Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted. Exhs. A and B.
11. Immediately following this rape, Defendant Trump threatened Plaintiff that, were she ever to reveal any of the details of the sexual and physical abuse of her by Defendant Trump, Plaintiff and her family would be physically harmed if not killed. Exhs. A and B.
12. Defendant Epstein had sexual contact with Plaintiff at two of the parties. The second sexual encounter with Defendant Epstein took place after Plaintiff had been raped by Case 1:16-cv-07673 Document 1 Filed 09/30/16 Page 4 of 10 5 Defendant Trump. Defendant Epstein forced himself upon Plaintiff and proceeded to rape her anally and vaginally despite her loud pleas to stop. Defendant Epstein then attempted to strike Plaintiff about the head with his closed fists while he angrily screamed at Plaintiff that he, Defendant Epstein, rather than Defendant Trump, should have been the one who took Plaintiff’s virginity, before Plaintiff finally managed to break away from Defendant Epstein. Exhs. A and B.
Loads I’m sure. What i have trouble believing is that evidence that Trump did something like that has been sitting in a DoJ file for at the very least three presidential administrations (and two Trump presidential campaigns, plus of loads of civil cases like that one). Countless DoJ officials would have seen or handled it in that time, but even its existence has not leaked out. It really seems unlikely that someone wouldn’t have leaked the fact that there is a document in DoJ possession with evidence that Trump and Esptein did X to victim Y at location A on date B .
I not doubting Trump could have abused children with Epstein. I’m not even doubting that at some point Esptein might have kept evidence for that abuse. I’m doubting that evidence could have survived to end up in DoJ custody AND then sit in DoJ custody for all that time without even its existence being revealed
In fact IMO that could be what’s driving this, Trump knows what he did but his addled brain can’t comprehend the fact that while he might be mentioned in the DoJ files there probably isn’t direct incriminating evidence of what he did in there
Perhaps the evidence Trump most wants supressed comes in the form of payments to Epstein. It would be damn near impossible to explain multiple transfers for sums of a certain amount. Would anyone believe Trump paid Epstein consulting fees?
Does anyone have any evidence that any of this is sticking? Not that the media is talking about it, but that is doing Trump any harm in his standing with his voters?
I don’t see a way to make a gift of that, but it’s a flash poll about Epstein.
Predictably, MAGA Republicans think very differently from Democrats or Independents. The breakdowns, however, show that the MAGA respondents are not dismissing the scandal out of hand or giving Trump straight backing as they usually do. 82% want the Epstein files released (Democrats are at 90%). A full 20% think the Epstein files contain embarrassing information about Trump. About half say they’re not sure, a high enough number to believe many were just uncomfortable about saying yes. More MAGAs believe Epstein was murdered than Democrats!
Mike Johnson made a mistake in sending Congress home. That just keeps it alive for another month, with hearings yet to come. A scandal that spreads over months is a sticky scandal. By then the book of the Epstein birthday letters will have leaked and that will be 24/7 for a week by itself.
None of that says Trump will be taken down by Epstein. He’s creating diversions by the dozens and some of them will be sticky. Only half of the MAGAs in the flash poll are paying attention to Epstein; the question becomes whether the loudmouth 1% can be bought or fended off. Maybe not. You can’t spend all year long promising your kid a bike for Christmas then announce there’s nothing under the tree; and that, in fact, we’re throwing out the tree as well. Tantrums will result.
Though as i understand it thats not how Epstein’s scheme worked. If he’d have flat out blackmailed people he’d have been caught (seeing as the people he was blackmailing were the most powerful people on the planet). He just somehow and nobody knows how got loads of very rich people to invest in his investment fund, which was an actual investment fund. But funnily enough it wasn’t a very good investment fund it never made significantly more money than any investment account you or i could put our money. Oh and part of the process of convincing the rich people to invest with him was taking them to his island in the Caribbean where all the child rape happened. So yeah totally inexplicable how he got all these rich people to invest
So it wouldn’t be payments, it would be completely legitimate investments in an investment fund
I think we can all admit that this is pretty weak consequences for child rape. Democrats would have abandoned him long ago. Remember how quickly Dems dropped Franken for far, far less.
I don’t see his voters abandoning him. He behaves the way they would if they could get away with it.
He behaves the way they think everybody would behave if they could get away with it. I claim this assumtion is wrong: most people would not behave that way even if they could get away with it. Not democrats, not republicans, not even televangelists. I don’t believe sex with minors is common, much less frequent, within any significant social group.
Now let me be clear: Epstein is not a social group, neither is trump. Some people are sick. But not enough to make it politically or demographically significant. What some media make of that is, of course, a completely different kettle of stinking fish.
That is why I asked for a cite a couple of posts ago. Still waiting.
I am specifically talking bout his base. Trump behaves the way they would if they could, it’s why they admire him. Because of the evil, not in spite of it.
I think it’s a mistake to assume that all of his base think alike. There is the large number of them who don’t care what he does as long as the Project 2025 agenda goes through. But there is also the not insignificant number of loony Qanon CTers who care more about the basement of pizzerias than tariffs. They don’t forget the promises and are very mad at Trump and the AG right now.
The funny thing is I doubt there was anything significant left behind. A lot of this was already released. Doubtful he had an excel spreadsheet called “client list.” There is most likely some more evidence in the various investigations but not enough to satisfy people. The right oversold it to the Quidiots to get their vote now they are paying for it.
I think that because he has again and again committed grotesque acts and his base has not abandoned him. He is a rapist, a bigot and a career criminal and yet he is admired by his base. He is seen as strong and decisive. I think it is reasonable to assume that someone who voted for him three times likes rape and racism.
Really? Because there is documented evidence of and admissions by a massive, sprawling, globe spanning organization that knowingly facilitated pedophiles and ephebophiles in its ranks for many, many decades and actively protected the predators, relocating them to new parishes when they got into legal trouble, suppressing lawsuits and publicity, and paying off victims and their families to maintain silence.
The girls trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell were not your children but sexually mature (but below legal age of consent and emotionally manipulated) young women. You can easily find men listing after and quite willing to engage in sex with much younger women without questioning age of consent or the inherent power imbalance, and Trump himself is on record as saying (in the middle of completing Epstein) how he likes beautiful women “many of them…on the younger side.“ It is prudent to be skeptical of claims of vast conspiracies involving powerful people because that is often a kind of counterculture fantasy but in this case there is actually a lot of evidence to back it up.
They certainly aren’t put off by it. There has been plenty of time for them to have evaluated Trump’s character as a rapist, abuser, serial philanderer, creeper, and even expressing his wish that he could have sex with his daughter open in multiple interviews, and despite their moralizing about everyone else and conspiranoia about Democratic vampire pedophile cults in the non-existent basements of pizzerias, this hasn’t put them off of Trump one whit. The will doubtless rationalize away or dismiss as fabrication any evidence that is found of Trump’s involvement with Epstein’s sexcapades.
Not sure if this is paywalled, but Nate Silver’s Trump Approval Ratings Tracker shows his popularity declining pretty sharply for most of July, reaching its lowest point in his second term, though it’s rebounded slightly in the last week or so. Of course, there’s no way of knowing for sure that this is related to the biggest Trump-related story in the news during that time, but it seems like a reasonable assumption. OTOH, we’re still talking about a shift of only 1-2% of voters, which could certainly change the outcome of an election. But it doesn’t seem his support is exactly collapsing.
Yes, that is right, the Catholic Church. Should have thought of them. But even among their ranks it was never the mayority of the priests, not even a significant minority, was it? The cover up and the denying was horrible, but among those celibate damaged loons the majority did not lust after small boys. But please don’t make me defend the catholic church!
Concerning the age of consent and young women who are not children but not legaly adults either: yes, that I can see and believe. Many men would like to have sex with some of them. But that is not the crime trump’s base is after, particularly not when they think of democrats, is it? Yes, sex with 17-years old women is forbidden (in some jurisdictions), but revelations concerning that would not have caused the uproar we have seen the last years. That is not what they have in mind. And what they have in mind is, I hope, not a frequent behaviour, not even among catholic priests.
Well, OK, define frequent… whatever it is it is too often. I’ll stop the hijack.