Facing backlash from MAGA supporters about the handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump and his administration have released a flood of information on old grievances and issues popular with the base.
Overnight, Trump used his Truth Social social media platform to attack Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., post a fake AI-generated video showing former President Barack Obama being arrested by the FBI and share AI-generated mugshots of a variety of Democratic officials who have served as Republican bogeymen over the years.
Trump also weighed in on another MAGA favorite — the names of sports teams — and threatened to try to block a deal to build a new football stadium in Washington, D.C., unless the Commanders changed their name back to the Redskins. The team dropped that name in 2019, after years of criticism that it was racist.
The intensity of the Epstein conversation has dampened since last week, after the Trump administration had to contend with many of its MAGA supporters who were furious that officials weren’t releasing more information about the Epstein case. On Friday, Trump sued The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch after the paper published an article saying Trump sent a letter to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 that included a drawing of a naked woman.
By Monday, many prominent MAGA social media accounts appeared to have moved on from the Epstein issue, focusing instead on some of the other topics that the Trump administration has been pushing.
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On Friday, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard revisited the 2016 election, calling for several Obama aides to face prosecution related to Russian interference in that campaign.
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The Justice Department and other agencies released files Monday that have long been the subject of conspiracies. But they weren’t Epstein documents; they were documents on Hillary Clinton and more than 230,000 pages related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Attorney General Pam Bondi has been a particular target of the MAGA base’s ire.
“The American people have waited nearly sixty years to see the full scope of the federal government’s investigation into Dr. King’s assassination,” Gabbard, whose agency was also involved in the release, said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are ensuring that no stone is left unturned in our mission to deliver complete transparency on this pivotal and tragic event in our nation’s history.”
Never mind. Nothing to see here. We’ve moved on. Look over here!
It’s hard to believe that MAGA will turn on Trump over a sex scandal. I mean, they could have done that a thousand times over and they believed him over women every single time. But who knows?
Update — oh my. Looks like they aren’t letting it go:
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee agreed July 22 to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein, to testify about the conspiracy that landed her in prison.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tennessee, pressed for the subpoena on the same day Justice Department officials announced they’ve asked to meet with Maxwell. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019, to sexually abuse minors.
“This deposition will help the American people understand how Jeffrey Epstein was able to carry out his evil actions for so long without being brought to justice,” Burchett said.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Monday that Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche will meet with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sometime in the “coming days.”
“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche said in the statement posted by Bondi on X.
Blanche also said that the joint statement from the Justice Department and FBI on July 6 — which stated they would not release any additional files on Epstein and that they determined there was no Epstein “client list” — “remains as accurate today as it was when it was written.”
“Namely, that in the recent thorough review of the files maintained by the FBI in the Epstein case, no evidence was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” Blanche said.
Welp:
