At long last, it’s Release Day, ladies and gentlemen.
Possibly.
As everyone in the civilized world knows, Donald Trump fought the law, and the law won (temporarily). So, he had to sign the Epstein Files Transparency Act precisely 30 days ago.
Today, that bill comes due. This means all unclassified docs and investigative materials related to one Jeffrey Epstein must be put out into the world in some form.
Perhaps.
The mainstream media has been fairly breathless all week, preparing us for the looming possibilities. We can practically taste the feloniousness, the smoking-gun evidence, the pointed fingers, the coming grand jury indictments. the empty denials. The champagne is on ice. Pop the corks and grab the flutes, fellow Americans. It’s about to be party time! Merry Christmas!
Or, you know, maybe not.
First off, we know how defiantly lukewarm this administration is when it comes to following the law — any law, especially one Trump himself had a hand in creating.
We’ve come to appreciate its unshakable rejection of truth and transparency. It has this year consistently done everything in its power (and much that isn’t) to remain unencumbered by rules that govern the rest of humanity.
And whenever this lawless gang needs a helping hand, the corrupt majority on the U.S. Supreme Court reliably grants them “temporary” carte blanche to reject any check on their authority “for now.”
Besides that, Trumpistan can still concoct half a million reasons why releasing anything Epstein-ish today would compromise:
- a) an investigation
- b) national security
- c) victims’ identities
- d) KFC’s secret recipe of eleven herbs and spices
- e) child-proof packaging.
There is also the little matter of the Trump Administration having had 11 months to block out, erase, wipe clean, obscure, and otherwise make vanish all documentary evidence that ties the president and his wealthy buddies to having indulged in any illegal/immoral activity with Epstein and his imprisoned harem of girls and young women.
By the time Trump’s Department of Justice and FBI were done scrubbing this stuff, it probably barely seemed like Epstein and his one-time best pal ever so much as passed each other on the street in the same town. A sample page might read:
“Mr. Epstein (REDACTED) and Mr. (REDACTED) were seen (REDACTED) in (REDACTED) by (REDACTED) for the purpose of (REDACTED).”
Officially, the DOJ/FBI has been redacting the files “for legal reasons” (translation: to protect the guilty), because even MAGA loyalists seem to have little tolerance for underage sex trafficking and child rape — at least in theory.
But if we’re looking at this with open eyes and firing synapses, the chances that a single thing Trump doesn’t want people to see will be spotted among these approximately 300 gigabytes of data would appear agonizingly slim.
No, none of us want to believe that, just like we didn’t want to fathom that Robert Mueller and his ballyhooed investigation into 2016 Trump campaign collusion with Russia wouldn’t save us. But that didn’t, and this won’t.
It isn’t because there wasn’t/isn’t likely massive evidence of guilt in both cases. Proving it when the perpetrators appear so shamelessly good at manipulating the law to their advantage, or simply ignoring it, is unfortunately another story entirely.
What has been regularly puzzling in the case of Epstein and his merry group of high-profile, well-heeled abusers is why Trump has fought so hard to keep the pressure-washed files from public consumption. If these case files have been so dramatically altered and obscured that they’re no longer even a mild threat, what’s he so damn worried about?
One answer may be that even if Trump isn’t personally endangered by any criminal exposure, the reputational risk remains — not merely for him but for others he’s protecting. Of course, if he can get away with transferring Ghislaine Maxwell to a country club lockup and weighing a potential pardon, the only remaining risk seemingly is in pissing the guy off, not breaking the actual law.
No matter what happens to the Epstein files today or going forward, however, there has already been plenty of political damage done to the Republican cult from this undying scandal.
The President of the United States has been soiled by his clear friendship and close association with perhaps the most notorious known pedophile and child sex trafficker in American history. This is not a minor transgression, even for a man capable of brushing off felonies and immoral conduct like lint on his tie.
While Trump’s culpability may never again land him in a court of law, in the court of public opinion his stock continues to plummet.
It isn’t the revelations learned in the files that are potentially damaging so much as the ongoing month-after-month speculation over them, which is why all the continued ministrations from Trump and Company to keep the crisis alive have been so curiously, breathtakingly stupid.
Too many of his MAGA brethren still like to pretend that a man who has never told the truth in his life, even by accident, is somehow practicing honesty in claiming he did nothing and knew nothing surrounding Epstein. The chances of this are approximately zero, as those who have to this point in their lives avoided brain damage understand.
It also isn’t as if anyone actually believes that Trump, as a proud self-proclaimed pussy-grabber, is above the sort of behavior that’s being so determinedly covered up. Quite the contrary, the shock would be in establishing indisputable proof that he steered clear of an opportunity because it was (gasp) wrong.
The truth is that we can scarcely imagine the president would ever practice decency or travel a road that shunned criminality. This in itself makes whatever these Epstein files contain or doesn’t contain pretty much irrelevant.
And if nothing comes out, or comes of, this ballyhooed would-be release, fret not, all ye fans of the rule of law. Unlike Epstein himself, his legacy is never going away.
- Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.
