Jul.18

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The Epstein Files: Story of The Week Just Keeps Chugging Along

And here we are, once again writing about that godawful man Jeffrey Epstein. It makes us feel dirty to do so, but it's a story that just won't fade away, no matter how much Donald Trump wishes it would do so. Here's a rundown of the bad news for him from just the last 24 hours or so:

• The Wall Street Journal: Rupert Murdoch owns Fox, and the entertainers there have been almost entirely silent about Epstein Mobilier. He also owns The Wall Street Journal, and the journalists there have not. Yesterday, the paper ran a story (paywalled, but if you'd like a summary, click here) in which it asserted that Ghislaine Maxwell collected letters and cards from friends in honor of Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003, and Trump responded with a letter and a hand-drawn picture of a naked woman. And you know how Al Hirschfeld used to incorporate the name of his daughter, Nina, into his drawings? Well, in our "you can't make this stuff up" department, Trump apparently used his signature to provide a... key design element of the drawing. Let's just say that if he is not careful, "Trump" and "merkin" are going to end up as synonyms.
  
  Trump predictably melted down over the Journal's reporting, and so he got onto his increasingly pornographic social media site to respond:

  The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn't print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I'm going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper. Thank you for your attention to this matter! DJT

  This was actually his second response; his first merely hinted that he would sue, while this one confirmed it. That said, one wonders if, once he cools down, he will think better of taking actions that will keep his name next to Jeffrey Epstein's in headlines for, oh, the next 2 years. Oh, and social media has already been flooded with other pictures drawn by Trump, so that part of his claim ("I don't draw pictures") has already proven to be a lie.
  
  
• The Right-Wing Commentariat: On Wednesday, we suggested that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are all canaries in a coal mine, for if they take sides against Trump in this, then he's lost control of the narrative. We noted on Wednesday that Johnson had flipped. He has since shown no signs of changing course.
  
  Another canary in a coal mine is the right-wing mediasphere. As we also noted in that item, Trump has worked hard to get them to move on. However, red meat is pretty much literally their bread and butter. It's their job to figure out what the audience wants, and then to deliver. And so, even the folks who had announced "nothing to see here, let's move on" have now gone back to talking wall-to-wall Epstein. Most obvious among those is Charlie Kirk, whose Epstein moratorium lasted one day. Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist who once dined with Trump and Kanye West, went further, addressing himself to Trump, and declaring: "Fu** you! Fu** you! You suck. You are fat. You are a joke. You are stupid. You are not funny. You are not as smart as you think you are." Even Lara Trump, who is Trump's daughter-in-law, and who was hired to basically go on Fox and provide a daily serving of Trumpy propaganda, said that it's time for "a president for truth and transparency" to have more transparency about the Epstein situation.
  
  
• The House of Representatives: This is a little tricky, so bear with us. There have already been two efforts, both led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), to get the House to vote in favor of releasing the information the government has about Epstein. Both efforts failed, but just barely. Now, the heat has apparently grown intense enough that the House Rules Committee is going to vote on its own resolution on the matter.
  
  Here is where it gets tricky. On one hand, House Republicans don't want the resolution coming from a Democrat, nor do they want it coming from prominent Trump antagonist Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). On the other hand, they are still scared of Donald Trump. So, the exact contents of this alleged resolution are currently a mystery. There was talk yesterday that it would be non-binding, although later one Republican member said, off the record, that it would have "some teeth." Hard to know exactly what that means.
  
  Assuming that the Rules Committee does vote on, and approve, some sort of meaningful resolution, it still has to go to the whole House for a vote. And, if you examine your calendar, you will note that: (1) it is summer, and (2) today is Friday. So, there is some substantial amount of pressure from House Republicans to adjourn ASAP, before a whole-House vote can be held. Some members think that would be the best of all worlds; they could go back home and tell constituents "we're doing something!" while not actually doing much of anything for a while, in hopes this all dies down.
  
  
• Vacuums Suck: Nature, of course, abhors a vacuum. And in the absence of information, people will start filling in the gaps for themselves, sometimes in a manner that's even worse than the truth. For example, right-wing journalist Mark Halperin said yesterday that a "blockbuster" exposé is about to drop. Was he talking about the WSJ report? Something else? If something else, what, and when? Similarly, federal prosecutor Maurene Comey was fired this week. She is the daughter of former FBI Director and current Trump enemy James Comey. She also worked on the Epstein case. So, was she fired because of the Comey connection? The Epstein connection? Both? Neither? Already, the conspiracy theories are flourishing.
  
  As we noted yesterday, many Democrats have concluded that there's an opportunity here, and some of them are adding conspiratorial fuel to the fire. For example, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) was on CNN yesterday, and hinted that Trump is withholding the Epstein files so he can use them for blackmail purposes. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced that his investigations have turned up a paper trail of 4,725 wire transfers and almost $1.1 billion involving Epstein, and at just one bank. The Senator says the people deserve to know where that money came from, and what it was for.
  
  
• The Polls: You know that a scandal has reached full maturity when people start polling about it. And The Economist/YouGov have now done so; their latest says that 79% of respondents think the government should release all the materials it has on Epstein, versus just 5% who say the files should stay secret. And the people who most want to see the files are... Trump voters, 83% of them.

Presumably in view of all (or some) of this, Trump made this announcement yesterday:

Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!

The careful reader will notice that while Trump is ostensibly ordering the release of material, he's given himself a triple out: (1) it's only grand jury testimony; (2) and even then, it's only "pertinent" testimony; (3) and even then, it's only if there is court approval. Presumably, he thinks this will keep the wolves at bay. And once again, we will point out that if he were still alive, Richard Nixon might have a few useful things to say about how well it works to try to kill a burgeoning scandal with half-measures. (Z)