The Department of Justice’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein — one of the most prolific sex offenders in U.S. history — appears to serve just one purpose: protecting President Donald Trump.
That’s the read from Politico Playbook, Washington’s insider political cheat sheet, which slammed the DOJ’s ongoing “bizarro investigations” into Epstein as little more than political theater.
Playbook offered a breakdown of the government’s investigation efforts that aim to silence the more than two-thirds of the country that believes the Trump administration is hiding information about Epstein — and why they’re meaningless.
There are two central questions in the Epstein matter that the public seems to want answered, wrote Playbook contributor Ankush Khardori: Is Trump named in the sealed documents? And what did the DOJ and FBI actually do in recent months to meaningfully review the Epstein case?
“Thus far,” Khardori added, “the Trump DOJ has failed to answer these in any meaningful way.”
The DOJ’s release of transcripts from July’s interview with Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell only raised more eyebrows, according to Khardori. In the interview, Maxwell denies witnessing the president in “any inappropriate setting in any way.”
“The President was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects,” she said.
Since Maxwell’s deposition, she has been transferred to a more cushy, minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas, leading some to speculate she may be receiving special treatment from the Trump administration.
There are two possibilities, Khardori writes: “The first possibility is that Maxwell was indeed innocent all along — that the first Trump DOJ falsely accused Maxwell when they charged her, that she was wrongfully convicted at trial by a unanimous jury, that most if not all of the overwhelming evidence against Maxwell at the trial was false or fabricated and, in addition, that for some reason she did not testify in her own defense despite watching all of this false evidence come in.”
He continued: “The second possibility is that she is a serial liar who committed terrible crimes and whose self-serving interview with Blanche should be dismissed out of hand — whether it helps or hurts Trump or anyone else.”
Khardori also skewered House Oversight Chair James Comer’s new wave of subpoenas and depositions related to Epstein. Former attorneys general Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, Alberto Gonzales, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, and Merrick Garland have all been tapped to testify — but, Khardori argued, few of them are likely to offer anything meaningful.
“None of these people would seem to have much useful information to offer,” he wrote. Instead, Khardori emphasized that Trump and allies should be included in questioning.
A string of high-profile individuals — including Bill and Hillary Clinton — were recently subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee as part of its ongoing investigation into Epstein’s network, with depositions scheduled for October.
Notably, the demands stopped short of Trump, despite his close friendship with Epstein. “If you put it all together, an unfortunate verdict emerges: The public has learned pretty much nothing new from the government about the Epstein investigation since this controversy kicked off,” wrote Khardori.
“What they have learned, perhaps, is that the Trump White House, the Trump DOJ and House Republicans have provided the appearance of investigative activity and of forward momentum — but that that appearance is, in fact, an illusion.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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