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The Epstein-Trump Scandal Builds

Republicans can try, but they aren’t going to be able to run and hide from this one.

The House of Representatives is empty today and tomorrow and for the next six weeks. Democrats literally chased Speaker Mike Johnson and his caucus out of Washington by asking for a simple bit of transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. House Republicans didn’t want to continue to be human shields for their president by voting to block Epstein case file releases over and over again. Good on the Dems for forcing Republicans to jet.

The House GOP didn’t run away in time to avoid a vote in an Oversight subcommittee to subpoena the Justice Department for the Epstein files. That passed 8-2, with three Republicans joining all the Democrats on the panel. The subcommittee chair, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), is “beginning to draft the subpoena” with no timeline for its issuance. So that will presumably be another attempted roadblock.

Rep. Tom Massie (R-KY) still has a separate bipartisan bill to release the Epstein files subject to a discharge petition, with enough Republican support to force it to the floor. That discharge petition, which requires a House vote on any bill when a majority of members call for one, ripens after the long recess.

This all ensures that the Epstein-Trump scandal stays in the news for the next six weeks, an extended Shark Week during a slow August recess. That gives journalists time to gather more information. And The Wall Street Journal, in the odd position of leading the charge, turned on the fire hose yesterday by confirming that Trump is in the Epstein files, that FBI Director Kash Patel told others Trump was in the Epstein files, and that Trump was informed of this in May, just a month or so before the Justice Department decided not to release the files. DOJ had already agreed to keep the files locked up by the time of this meeting, according to the report.

The Journal is quick to point out that “[b]eing mentioned in the records isn’t a sign of wrongdoing.” You wouldn’t know that from Trump’s reaction over the past several weeks. Indeed, Trump lied about knowing his name was in there in response to a journalist’s question last week. “No, no … [DOJ has] given us just a very quick briefing,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, those (relatively minuscule) grand jury records that DOJ asked a judge to release aren’t getting released, an obvious outcome given that those kinds of files are protected under secrecy rules and court precedent. That’s probably why Trump directed DOJ to make the request: It provided an easy way to deflect blame for their lack of release to the judiciary.

Yet another drip: The infamous Epstein birthday book, which the Journal reported included a knowing message from Trump, is in the hands of the Epstein estate, according to a lawyer for Epstein’s victims, and could be subpoenaed at any time.

Those who could shed light on these recent events have suddenly become incapacitated or unavailable. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that a torn cornea prevented her from attending, in something so on the nose it would get thrown out of a movie about this situation, a human trafficking summit. By the way, Bondi was attorney general of Florida for all eight years in between Epstein’s time served in a Florida jail for soliciting prostitution and his 2019 sex trafficking arrest, while doing nothing legally about the Florida resident.

Behind the scenes, Bondi’s DOJ is working to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell, currently in prison for aiding and abetting Epstein’s sex trafficking. Somehow this is supposed to be consistent with DOJ’s initial claim that there was nothing in the Epstein case left to investigate, as Marcy Wheeler notes. Maxwell is clearly looking for a way to get out of prison, and if she tells prosecutors that Trump is fully exonerated, she might get leniency. This is so obvious even House Republicans are admitting it to reporters.

We’ve reached the stage where the cover-up is as prominent as the thing being covered up. A media so quick to pronounce that Trump had gotten over the Epstein hump should recalibrate. He’s in for a long, hot summer.

~ David Dayen

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