President Donald Trump only knows one response when he comes under political threat: Escalation. Hence his demand Friday for federal law enforcement to investigate the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to “Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions.” He added that “all arrows” are “pointing to the Democrats.” This is the same political strategy that got Trump into this mess, and his Democratic tormentors must be delighted.
President Donald Trump only knows one response when he comes under political threat: Escalation. Hence his demand Friday for federal law enforcement to investigate the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to “Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions.” He added that “all arrows” are “pointing to the Democrats.” This is the same political strategy that got Trump into this mess, and his Democratic tormentors must be delighted.
Congressional Democrats created a media frenzy this week by releasing emails from Epstein’s estate mentioning Trump. The latest emails contain little concrete information but enough ambiguities to keep conspiracy theorists busy. For instance, what did Epstein mean in 2011 when he wrote that Trump is “that dog that hasn’t barked”?
The president has acknowledged knowing Epstein socially in Palm Beach, Florida, but he says they had a falling out years before the financier was charged with any crime. Trump says he never had any idea Epstein was abusing underage girls.
Congressional Republicans responded to the Democrats’ release by releasing more messages. Epstein wrote in a 2019 email that “Trump knew of it” but “never got a massage.” A vote commanding the Justice Department to put out still more Epstein documents is set for next week, thanks to four House Republicans signing a discharge petition with Democrats.
Now Trump wants to redirect the Epstein furies away from himself and toward his political opponents. Attorney General Pam Bondi asked Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to carry out the president’s Truth Social directive.
Trump said during the 2024 campaign that he would be inclined to release the Epstein files. His current FBI leaders, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, suggested before the election that the government was covering up for co-conspirators (presumably their political opponents) in Epstein’s sex crimes. Vice President JD Vance said last year that “we need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing.” In February, Bondi said the Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk.”
When the idea of an Epstein client list turned out to be flim-flam, the administration was embarrassed and its supporters disappointed. The debacle gave Trump’s opponents a hook to revisit the president’s prior relationship with the playboy financier, making it a political thorn in his side.
Trump therefore pivoted to calling the matter a “hoax” and a “witch hunt” and said that “nobody cares about” Epstein. Now the president is ordering the feds to reopen the years-old case. That suggests Americans should care about Epstein after all. Trump is keeping the story alive, apparently betting that flooding the zone with Epstein news is the best political defense if he can’t stop the feeding frenzy.
Epstein committed serious crimes. He got off far too easily in 2008, when less evidence was available to prosecutors than is public today. The extent of Epstein’s social relations with the rich and powerful is catnip for the press, but no one else besides his associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been charged with any crime despite years of investigations by the feds and private law firms.
Bondi has botched the Epstein matter from the start. She brought influencers to the White House in February to receive binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1.” When those turned out to be duds, she pointed a finger at the FBI. Now she can toss the hot potato to Clayton, the prosecutor in Manhattan.
How does this end? Well, when a prosecutor in northern Virginia didn’t do Trump’s political bidding by indicting rivals, Trump forced him out of office in September. Don’t expect his new Justice Department gambit to lead to political closure.
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