Day 248: From Family Values to Classified Kinks

Readers of this blog—again, to all eight of you, a hearty “Thanks!”—are used to me beginning with a running tally of how many days President Trump has worked to cover up the Epstein files. Which is to say: every day of his second term. Today, I offer no such blurb. This dispatch is all about the day’s news: congressional Republicans and the Trump White House are actively conspiring to scuttle a House floor vote that would force the full release of the FBI’s Epstein files.

Headline:

Top GOP and White House allies working behind the scenes to prevent Epstein vote on House floor

Top congressional Republicans and White House allies are working behind the scenes to prevent a politically charged floor vote to release the government’s Jeffrey Epstein case files next month, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

The intensifying effort to halt that floor vote comes as Reps. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, declared on Wednesday they have the 218 votes needed to compel one when Congress returns. That final signature on their petition to force the vote will come from Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who won a special election in Arizona Tuesday night, once she is formally sworn in.

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While the exact strategy to avoid a vote is not yet clear, some of the GOP lawmakers who have signed on are privately being pressured to withdraw their name from the petition, which would prevent a vote from taking place, one of those sources said.

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Remember when Team MAGA styled themselves as the party of family values and as crusaders against sexual predators? So committed to those principles, in fact, that one of their foot soldiers shot up a basementless pizzeria over a conspiracy theory involving sex-trafficked children and a nonexistent basement dungeon?

Or how about the comments from prominent MAGA Republicans? In case you forgot, USA Today has a nice summation:

• Vice President JD Vance (or JP Mandell, as Trump once called him):    "'What possible interest would the US government have in keeping Epstein’s clients secret? Oh…' Vance said in a post on X on Dec. 30, 2021. Vance pointed in his post to a right-wing activist's claim that Biden's Justice Department made a deal to keep a 'little black book' of Epstein associate and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell's contacts secret."
• Assistant FBI Director Dan Bongino: "T'here are a lot of people who are knee-deep in the Washington swamp who are not telling you the truth about serious allegations out there that Epstein may have had video and audio of people out there doing things they shouldn't have been doing,' said Bongino, who was speaking on the "The Dan Bongino Show" on May 1, 2023. The future deputy director of the FBI said at the time, 'Jeffrey Epstein isn't with us anymore and nobody seems to want to talk about it outside of a few entrepreneurial media outlets saying, 'Hey, this is a big deal.'"
• FBI Director Kash Patel: "Kash Patel, who would become Trump's FBI director, told right-wing media personality Glenn Beck on Dec. 13, 2023, that the head of the FBI under Biden had direct control of Epstein's 'black book.' 'That's why you don't have the black book,' Patel added. 'And, to me, that's a thing I think President Trump should run on. On Day 1, roll out the 'black book.'"
• Of course, President Trump himself: "'Yeah, yeah, I would (declassify the Epstein files),' Trump said on Fox & Friends Weekend on June 3, 2024. 'I think that less so because, you know, you don't know if, you don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, cause there's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would.' He also said, 'Certainly about the way he (Epstein) died, it would be interesting to find out what happened there because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn't happen to be working, etcetera, etcetera. But yeah, I'd go a long way toward that one.'"

And who can forget Attorney General Pam Bondi handing out binders to MAGA influencers titled “The Epstein Files: Phase I”? That theatrical gesture was followed by a joint memo from Bondi and Kash Patel, declaring the matter closed. After what they called a “systematic review” of the documents, they concluded—without irony—that there was “no incriminating client list.” 

From crusaders to custodians of secrecy, the MAGA movement has gone from demanding the black book to burying it. The only thing more classified than the Epstein files is their moral compass.

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Of course, much of this sudden interest in keeping the Epstein files buried stems from Trump’s long-standing ties to Epstein, dating back to the 1990s. Case in point: a birthday card Trump allegedly sent Epstein, complete with cryptic phrasing like “enigmas never age.”

It’s worth recalling that “Donald,” as he signed the card, initially claimed it didn’t exist—that it was a fabrication. As is ever the case with Trump denials, one only had to wait a bit for the evidence to emerge. His fallback? The card existed, but the signature was forged.

We also now know, via leaks from the FBI to Senator Dick Durbin, that Trump had Attorney General Pam Bondi assign a detail of one thousand FBI agents to pore through the Epstein files, flagging every instance that his name appeared.

But it must also be remembered: Trump is hardly the only powerful figure whose name may appear in those files. The British royals, for example, have now been implicated twice—first with Prince Andrew, accused by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, and again just this week, when it was revealed that the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, sent a sympathetic email to Epstein while he was imprisoned. That note followed an earlier message in which she referred to him as a “steadfast, generous, and supreme friend.”

How many others among the so-called 1% are threatened by exposure if these files ever see daylight? You can bet the White House phone is ringing off the hook at all hours—threats, bribes, whispered promises from the rich and powerful, all aimed at keeping the vault sealed. And Trump, ever the transactional president, is more than happy to oblige—trading secrecy for favors, silence for leverage. Hence, his latest rhetorical sleight of hand: the Epstein files exist only as frauds and also don’t exist, simultaneously. A quantum scandal, buried in superposition.

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Like so many other promises made not just by this administration but by the larger GOP, the pledge to expose the evil lurking in the Epstein files has been quietly shelved—another casualty of political expediency. Worse, Donald Trump and his allies are now active co-conspirators in one of the largest sexual predation scandals in American history. Quite the turnaround for a movement that once styled itself as crusaders against elite depravity.

Before long, the mere mention of “Epstein files” may be labeled a thought crime, with masked ICE agents bashing down doors to haul dissenters off to some concentration camp in the Everglades or Central America. And we’re not far from that reality, given how Trump is bending the FBI and Justice Department—not to apprehend Epstein’s co-conspirators, but to persecute his political enemies, from John Bolton to Jim Comey.

But be of good cheer, my fellow members of the resistance! While Trump styles himself as a Bondian supervillain, he has more in common with a hapless Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Consider this:

Just this week, Trump tried to silence late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel by weaponizing his FTC lapdog to threaten a merger ABC/Disney desperately wanted. The spineless megacorp acquiesced. But what happened next? The same thing that happened to Musk’s beloved Tesla: the American people spoke with their wallets. Disney’s revenue tanked in under 48 hours. And just as Musk had to abandon DOGE to save Tesla, Disney was forced to put Kimmel back on the air.

Then came the escalation: Disney threatened Sinclair and Nexstar—who still refuse to air Kimmel—with losing the rights to broadcast live Southeastern Conference football. That threat alone could crater their revenue. [UPDATE: Sinclair and Nexstar have surrendered and will resume airing Kimmel's show. What a fiasco for Team Trump!]

In short, Trump took a petty squabble with a late-night comedian and turned it into a full-blown media war—one that cost him a corporate ally and sent Kimmel’s ratings into the stratosphere.

With judgment like that, does anyone truly believe the Epstein files will stay buried for long? And when they are finally exposed to the light of day, does anyone truly believe the American people—left, right, and otherwise—will look kindly on a president and a party that tried to whitewash one of the darkest scandals in modern history?

Trump may bury the files, but he can’t bury his own incompetence. And in the end, it’s the shovel that betrays the grave.

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Breaking News:

As I suggested yesterday, the GOP’s refusal to follow through on its promise to release the Epstein files isn’t just about shielding Trump from his past friendship with Epstein. It’s also about protecting other rich and powerful men whose names appear in those files—men whose exposure could jeopardize GOP fundraising efforts nationwide. (It’s always about the money.) With a pivotal midterm election looming, the stakes couldn’t be higher for this criminal administration.

Well, today we have confirmation.

From the BBC:

Billionaire Elon Musk and Prince Andrew are named in new files released by Congressional Democrats that relate to the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The files turned over to the House Oversight Committee by the Jeffrey Epstein Estate appear to show that Musk had been invited to Epstein's island in December 2014.

Separately a manifest for a flight from New Jersey to Florida in May 2000 names Prince Andrew among the passengers.

Musk and Prince Andrew have been approached for comment.

Prince Andrew has previously strenuously denied any wrongdoing. Musk has previously been quoted as saying that Epstein had invited him to the island but he had declined.

The partial records are from the third batch of documents produced by the Jeffrey Epstein Estate. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee say they include phone message logs, copies of flight logs and manifests for aircrafts, copies of financial ledgers and Epstein's daily schedule.

In addition to Musk and Prince Andrew, the files released publicly also contain the names of other prominent figures including internet entrepreneur Peter Thiel and Steve Bannon, a former advisor to Donald Trump

Notably, this release came solely from Congressional Democrats. Republicans, meanwhile, continue their White House-orchestrated cover-up—refusing to make the documents public.  

Those names sound less like a witness list and more like the guest roster for Trump’s newly christened “Rose Garden Club.” Which says a great deal, doesn’t it?

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