A career criminal heads this administration
The first Donald Trump presidency brought us the Trump University settlement, then a massive New York Times expose on the Trump Organization’s years of tax evasion, then the forced shutdown of the Trump Foundation, then his first impeachment over Ukraine, then the botched response to the COVID pandemic (aside from Operation Warp Speed). After Trump lost reelection in 2020 to Joe Biden came his well-documented, criminal efforts to overturn the election and a second impeachment: this one over inciting a violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Then came multiple federal felony indictments for the insurrection and for his removing and concealing classified documents. Then came his May 2024 conviction in New York on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records and a Supreme Court decision a month later granting the president absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions “within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority.”
Americans reelected Trump president in November 2024. The indictments were dropped.
Just so we are up to speed.
Simmering below the surface was financier and former Trump pal Jeffrey Epstein’s 2008 non-prosecution agreement in Florida for solicitation of prostitution and one count of solicitation of prostitution from a minor, and then his arrest in 2019 for child-sex trafficking. Epstein died in prison awaiting trial. His partner in perversion, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted and sentenced four years ago to 20 years in federal prison. Trump ran in 2024, in part, on promising his pedophile-conspiracy-obsessed MAGA base that he would release immediately all the Epstein investigation files. Epstein survivors mounted a vigorous public lobbying effort to demand he follow through. In the end, that took an act of Congress.
After twelve months of delay, after twelve months of Trump 2.0 cabinet sycophants like AG Pam Bondi prostrating themselves before such a man and snarling through non-responsive answers to oversight committee questions, Trump and his Department of Justice were forced by law and an overwhelming vote in Congress to release the Epstein files in full by Dec. 19. They released only about ten percent of them on Friday. Surprise.
What did you expect? Former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori cautioned Politico readers on Friday to temper their expectations:
Needless to say, we should not expect the Trump administration to prominently produce this information given their handling of all this to date — as well as Bondi’s own, over-the-top personal and political dedication to Trump. For all we know, they may never produce it — or at least not all of it. (Yes, the law mandates this disclosure, but there are plenty of laws that the Trump administration has simply decided to ignore.)
If material pertaining to Trump is not produced early, there is reason to believe that the Trump administration is engaged in a (continuing) cover-up of information that would be harmful to the president. That is reason alone to be cautious about jumping to conclusions about other political and media figures.
The Associated Press reported last night on the heavily redacted document release:
But it was clear soon after the release that it would fall far short of those expectations. The partial release angered Democrats who accused the Trump administration of trying to hide information. The Justice Department said it would continue releasing documents in the weeks ahead.
The file dump — dominated by photographs, but also including call logs, court records and other documents, many with redactions — comes after politicians and the public waged a massive campaign for transparency about the government’s investigations into the wealthy financier.
President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years before the two had a falling-out, tried for months to keep the records sealed. Though he hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, he has argued there is nothing to see in the files and the public should focus on other issues.
Bondi was AWOL on Friday with a medical appointment. She sent former Trump attorney and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (he who cut the non-prosecution deal with Epstein) to announce on Fox News that the Friday release would be only several hundred thousand files, with more to be rolled out later, perhaps by year’s end. Just in time to be obscured from view by holiday vacations and festivities.
And Epstein’s victims?
“America is getting a look tonight into how we have all felt for years,” a disappointed Sharlene Rochard told Sarah Fitzpatrick of The Atlantic:
Sharlene Rochard first met Epstein in New York in the mid-1990s, when she was still a teenager. She told me that she has taken additional security precautions in and around her home in recent days, not knowing what would be released or whether she would be mentioned. She and other victims had asked the DOJ for advance notice and preparation for what was coming, she said, so that they didn’t find out what was in the files on television or social media. But she didn’t get that.
Nor did the country get full compliance from the criminal-in-chief and his accomplices.
“We’re exploring all options—including impeachment,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said. “They’re delusional if they think this is going to go away.”
Fitzpatrick offers more survivor response here.
Happy Hollandaise, everyone.