George Samuelson
How much will the Republicans suffer at the ballot box if they continue to ignore the Epstein case?
Following a batch of newly released emails from Jeffrey Epstein, the late child offender, it appears thus far that U.S. President Donald Trump is innocent of any wrongdoing. So why is he acting so suspicious?
On November 12th, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released some 20,000 emails from the files that suggested Donald Trump may have known more about Epstein's underage sex-trafficking activities than he previously admitted.
In an email exchange between Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial, and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein notes that an alleged victim had "spent hours at my house" with Trump.
"I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is trump," Epstein wrote in an April 2011 message to Maxwell, who is awaiting trial from federal prison in the United States.
"[Victim] spent hours at my house with him,, he has never once been mentioned," he continues.
"I have been thinking about that..." Maxwell replied.
In another email between Epstein and journalist Michael Wolff from 2019, Epstein writes that [Victim] mara lago... [redacted]... trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.. of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.'
While the email exchange looks tantalizingly close to some form of guilt on the part of the U.S. leader, it is not a smoking gun. That's largely because the redacted 'victim' mentioned in the above email messages is none other than Virginia Giuffre, who was 17 years old when she was lured away from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club to work for Jeffrey Epstein.
Giuffre, who committed suicide in April, was deposed in November 2016 as part of her lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell. In the course of the deposition she maintained that Trump never attempted to have sex with her. She also responded under oath that she never saw Trump at any of Jeffrey Epstein's residences.
Over the years, Trump and Epstein had rubbed shoulders in elite social circles in New York and Florida. In a 2002 interview with New York magazine, Trump said he had known Epstein for 15 years, calling him a "terrific guy" who was "a lot of fun to be with."
In that same interview, Trump added, "it is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
So, if there is nothing more to the story between the disgraced billionaire pedophile and the American president, why is Trump and other top officials so reluctant to release the remainder of the files to public scrutiny? (The White House said the emails "prove absolutely nothing").
Is the U.S. leader covering for himself or for others in the knowledge that there may be far more incriminating revelations in other messages? The answer appears to be obvious and self-evident, but whatever the case may be, Trump is putting intense pressure on Republicans to block release of the remainder of the files now in possession of the Justice Department.
CNN reported that the White House summoned representative Lauren Boebert - one of four Republicans in the House who have signed a special discharge petition to release the files - to a meeting in the Situation Room with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, to discuss her position. Trump failed to get a reversal from Boebert, as well as other lawmakers contacted by the White House, including South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace. But the administration had other cards to play, it seems.
Perhaps Republicans and Democrats alike were of the opinion that a conveniently time government shutdown - the longest in history, in fact - would make the public forget about Mr. Epstein. If that was the goal it also failed. After the government reopened for business, the late swearing-in of the Democratic representative Adelita Grijalva brought the number of signatures on the discharge petition to the magic number of 218 required to force a vote on legislation demanding the release of all files on Epstein within 30 days.
Meanwhile, the U.S. president's efforts to portray the files as part of an elaborate 'Democrat Hoax' is not working among his MAGA constituents, many of whom cast a vote for Trump specifically on the grounds that the files would be made public. In July, much to the anger and frustration of the Republican base, the Justice Department released a memo that pointed to a "lack of evidence" to continue with the investigation.
"This systematic review revealed no incriminating 'client list,'" the memo said. "There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties."
"No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted," the memo continued.
If the Trump White House was of the opinion that the American people would forget the Epstein case, they were sadly disappointed. They smelled a rat and they would not rest until the matter was brought to its final conclusion.
"The best-case explanation for the Trump administration on their mishandling of the Epstein case is rank incompetence," said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, in a statement. "But the much likelier explanation is that Trump and wealthy people around him have things to hide."
Will those hidden things be brought to the light of day? Unfortunately, it seems very unlikely. Even if the discharge petition passes the House, it still needs to get through the Senate and be signed by Trump, who certainly does not want to be seen as the person left holding the hot potato. The question remains: how much will the Republicans suffer at the ballot box if they continue to ignore the Epstein case?