Trump thanks you for inattention
Daily Beast this morning features articles on Donald Trump’s reaction to the release of another tranche of Epstein documents on Monday. Asked about them by a reporter at Mar-a-Lago where Trump is spending the holidays, Trump called the releases “terrible.” But he doesn’t mean what happened to Epstein’s victims.
Wouldn’t you know, “a lot of people” are angry about the document releases:
[Trump] claimed that there is “tremendous backlash” over the release of documents.
“A lot of people are very angry that the pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein, but they’re in a picture with him because he was at a party, and you ruin a reputation of somebody,” Trump said.
While Trump bashed photos being released, his own White House communications team has been promoting photos of Clinton on social media that were included in the files dump.
And what about the photos of Bill Clinton?
“I hate to see photos come out of him,” Trump said on Monday. And photos of others, Trump went on.
“You probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago, and they’re, you know, highly respected bankers and lawyers and others,” Trump said.
The accounts record no expression of concern for Epstein’s victims. But those poor bankers and lawyers!
A Clinton spokesperson released a statement calling for release of everything related to the former president. From the manner in which files are being release, it is clear that “someone or something is being protected.”
“We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this: We need no such protection.“
Refusal to release them all will confirm public suspicion that the Justice Department’s actions “are not about transparency, but insinuation.”
Another Daily Beast post cites recent New York Times reporting that may have triggered a late-night tirade against the Times:
Last week, the paper also published a detailed report examining Trump’s friendship with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, describing how the two “pursued women in a game of ego and dominance” in which “female bodies were currency.”
In one particularly damaging section, a mother who accompanied her 14-year-old daughter to a party at Mar-a-Lago with other young models claimed she was warned by Trump’s then-wife, Marla Maples: “Whatever you do, do not let her around any of these men, and especially my husband.” Maples denied making the remark to the Times.
The Guardian reports another damning bit of hearsay:
Another file released on Tuesday is a letter that appears to have been sent by Jeffrey Epstein to Larry Nassar, the US gymnastics team doctor convicted of sexually abusing scores of young gymnasts, while he was in jail.
In the letter, postmarked 13 August 2019 and sent from jail, the letter reads:
Dear L.N. as you know by now, I have taken the “short route” home. Good Luck! We share one thing … our love & caring for young ladies at the hope they’d reach their full potential. Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to “grab snatch,” whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system. Life is unfair. Yours, J. Esptein.
Epstein was found dead in his cell on 10 August 2019. The death was ruled a suicide. Donald Trump, who was president at the time of the letter being written, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
(The Guardian misspelled Epstein’s signature in the transcription.)
Meantime, 19 of Epstein’s victims issued a statement on Monday condemning AG Pam Bondi for mishandling the releases:
“We are told that there are hundreds and thousands of pages of documents still unreleased. These are clear-cut violations of an unambiguous law,” their statement says.
“There has been no communication with survivors or our representatives as to what was withheld from release or why hundreds of thousands of documents have not been disclosed by the legal deadline, or how the DOJ will ensure that no more victims are wrongly disclosed.
“While clearer communication would not change the fact that a law was broken, its absence suggests an ongoing intent to keep survivors and the public in the dark as much as possible and as long as possible.”
One supposes that as Epstein files dribble out, President “Grab Snatch” is concerned neither for survivors, nor for the public, nor for full transparency. He is concerned for himself and for those poor bankers and lawyers. None of them may be having a happy holiday.
Happy Hollandaise!