Trump Relents to Political Pressure and Agrees to Release the Epstein Files, But Democrats Won’t Gain Anything from the Release.
Facing increasing pressure from Democrats, the media, and two irrelevant back bench Republican House members; Thomas Massie and Majorie Taylor Greene, President Trump on Wednesday signed a law mandating that within 30 days the Justice Department release all the information it has on the late sex offender and power broker, Jeffrey Epstein.
The measure passed the House 427–1. The one vote against the release was cast by Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana. He argued that prosecutors have already looked through the files for any evidence of criminal activity, and what is left is simply embarrassing information which might tarnish and malign innocent people if released. That is people who may have had a relationship with Epstein but were not involved with any of his criminal activities. Higgins said in opposition to the release, “It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America.”
The Senate passed the bill on a voice vote. No roll call vote for them!
Trump has clearly been reluctant to release the files on Epstein. His reluctance has been obvious over the last several months and out of this resistance the left and Trump haters (Massie and Greene) have come to suspect that Trump is trying to cover up some information. This is an example of Trump derangement syndrome. Believe the worst about the big bad orange man.
Sorry, I can’t join the conspiracy theorists. I think the reason for the Trump administration’s reluctance to release the Epstein file, is based not on a desire to protect guilty people, but rather as Rep. Higgins suggests, it is based on a desire to protect innocent people. This is probably the same reason that the Biden administration didn’t release the files.
This is now a political football, and the Trump haters are pushing the issue not because they care about “transparency” or, about justice, or about Epstein’s victims, rather they want to hurt Trump, and the innocent people named in the files are just collateral damage to them.
Well, I suspect that they are going to be disappointed. The files will be about as disappointing to them as the opening of Al Capone’s vault was to Geraldo Rivera. If there was any evidence that Trump was involved with Epstein in criminal activity, why didn’t the Biden Justice department use it to prosecute him. I think they would have. Epstein’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, has said there is no client list and Epstein told him he had no dirt on Trump.
The release of the files is not going to satisfy the conspiracy theorists; nothing can do that. They will complain that there are too many redactions or speculate that there is more that hasn’t been released. For the conspiracy theorist there is always more information out there.
Trump signed the Bill and Democrats will get the files, but they won’t find what they really want, that is, a smoking gun on Trump. And Democrats, such as Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Hakim Jeffries, Rep. Stacey Plaskett and many others in the Party may regret the release of the files.
On the bright side, hopefully, this release will allow us to move on to real issues, and we can close the book on Jeffrey Epstein forever.
David Shephard is the author of two books: Elections Have Consequences, A Cautionary Tale.
Norton’s Choice: An Inside Politics Exposé: Shephard, David: 9781892538802: Amazon.com: Books
1 comment
Trump has not agreed to any such thing. In fact, he has conspired with AG Bondi to keep anything related to Epstein hidden.
Bondi has started phony “investigations” into Clinton, etc., and their contacts with Epstein so now she can claim the files are part of an “ongoing investigation” and therefore exempt from release. That was the plan all along.