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EpsteinGate is the gift that keeps on giving. In today's installment. Donald Trump sued The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, and several others for $10 billion for libel on account of the blockbuster news story that for his 50th birthday, Trump sent Jeffrey Epstein a letter with the line: "Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret." It included a sketch of a naked woman with Trump's iconic signature decorating the figure's nether regions. Here is the original link (paywall).
When the story came out, Trump exploded. He said: "I never wrote a picture in my life." That is literally true. No one writes pictures. People draw pictures. And yes, Trump does draw pictures... well, more like sketches. Several of them have been published in the past few days. Here are two of them:
Rembrandt he is not, but it is not hard to imagine that he could sketch a naked woman.
Many people in MAGAworld—even those who opposed him recently—have come to Trump's defense saying the letter is fake. How could they possibly know? They didn't even know the letter existed until last week. Discount all of these statements as attempts to curry Trump's favor.
Since the letter connects Trump, Epstein, and naked women, it clearly is very explosive, so Trump decided to do what he always does when he gets upset: sue someone, in this case the WSJ, Murdoch, and others. Our first question is: Why? Is this a shakedown? Will Trump try to get Murdoch to apologize, promise to ban all stories about Epstein from all his media properties forever, and pay him $50 million for hurting his fee-fees? It could work.
But maybe not. Trump needs Murdoch's media properties as much as Murdoch needs Trump. What happens if Murdoch does not go gentle into that good night? What if he fights back? One of the defenses against libel is that what the publication reported is true. Murdoch's lawyers might tell the judge they want to prove the story is true, so they want to subpoena people who knew Epstein when he was 50 and get their sworn testimony about whether he ever showed them the drawing. They might want to get handwriting experts to testify whether the signature on the drawing matches Trump's known signature from 2003. They might even want to ask Ghislaine Maxwell what she knows about Trump and Epstein. That could be extremely explosive. The discovery process preceding the trial could bring up all kinds of stuff Trump would rather not have in the news. At the very least, it will keep the story on the front pages for months—the Streisand effect on steroids. Trump does not want this. Oh, and Trump doesn't have much leverage over Murdoch, since there are no pending mergers to derail. In short, Murdoch has cards to play, and Trump really doesn't.
Could the lawsuit deflect attention from the underlying problem: Trump refusing to release the "Epstein files," if they exist? Will the base forget Epstein and suddenly realize the WSJ is the real enemy? Possible, but it seems unlikely to us.
Another danger for Trump is that Murdoch gets really angry about this and instructs Fox News hosts to start taking potshots at Trump—for example, demanding that he release all the Epstein files right now. Some viewers would probably eat that up. Others might take offense at the attacks on their hero, and jump ship to OAN or Newsmax, costing Fox some viewers (and advertisers and money). It is definitely a game of chicken. It is a symbiotic relationship, like a fungus and its host.
But there is more Epstein news now. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has reported that he has been informed that AG Pam Bondi ordered 1,000 FBI personnel to comb through thousands of pages of documents relating to Epstein and flag any references to Trump. They were put on 24-hour shifts to go through 100,000 Epstein-related documents. This could be in preparation of her releasing tens of thousands of documents with nary a mention of Trump because those documents have all been surgically removed. Durbin did not explain his source, but it could easily have been one of the agents assigned to flag the mentions of Trump. Needless to say, there is also some potential here of some agent who doesn't like this way of massaging the facts leaking more information to Durbin.
It is interesting that the leaker went to Durbin rather than a reporter. It is possible that the leaker was afraid Trump would put so much pressure on a reporter than the reporter would cave and reveal the source. The source may have felt that even Trump couldn't force the ranking member of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee to sing like a canary.
Durbin also wants to know why the surveillance video of Epstein's prison cell had a 1-minute gap in it. He also wants to know why the metadata in the video showed that it had been edited using Adobe Premiere Pro, a powerful professional video editing program. It appears that the so-called raw surveillance video is actually a composite of multiple clips joined together in Premiere Pro, with pieces missing, and not the raw video at all.
There is another little problem, as well. Chris Truax, a Republican attorney who was the Southern California chair for John McCain's 2008 primary campaign, has written a column noting that when the FBI raided Epstein's New York mansion, they seized a vast amount of material. This included stacks of CDs [probably actually DVDs], each labeled with the name of a man and a young woman. In other words, Epstein may have secretly recorded wealthy men having sex with underage women Ghislaine Maxwell may have procured for him. Epstein may not have actively blackmailed them, but at least these were insurance policies that the men wouldn't turn on him.
Also, Epstein was a billionaire. Where did the money come from? Most billionaires either founded a successful company or were at least CEO of one. Epstein was neither. Inquiring minds want to know why Epstein maintained such a carefully curated CD library labeled with specific names. If he just wanted porn, he could have downloaded gigabytes from the Internet for free. Odd.
Is Truax making this up? We think not. When Epstein was arrested in 2019, the SDNY didn't want Judge Henry Pitman to grant Epstein bail because he was a flight risk. In the SDNY court filing of July 8, 2019, the prosecutors wrote this on page 9:
Finally, despite having been previously convicted of a sex offense involving an underage victim, the defendant has continued to maintain a vast trove of lewd photographs of young-looking women or girls in his Manhattan mansion. In a search of the New York Residence on the night of his arrest, on July 6-7, 2019, pursuant to judicially-authorized warrants, law enforcement officers discovered not only specific evidence consistent with victim recollections of the inside of the mansion, further strengthening the evidence of the conduct charged in the Indictment, but also at least hundreds--and perhaps thousands--of sexually suggestive photographs of fully- or partially nude females. While these items were only seized this weekend and are still being reviewed, some of the nude or partially-nude photographs appear to be of underage girls, including at least one girl who, according to her counsel, was underage at the time the relevant photographs were taken. Additionally, some of the photographs referenced herein were discovered in a locked safe, in which law enforcement officers also found compact discs with hand-written labels including the following: "Young [Name]+ [Name]," "Misc nudes 1," and "Girl pics nude." The defendant, a registered sex offender, is not reformed, he is not chastened, he is not repentant; rather, he is a continuing danger to the community and an individual who faces devastating evidence supporting deeply serious charges. (Our emphasis.)
If the libel lawsuit against Murdoch goes forward, we imagine that Murdoch's attorneys will subpoena the "compact discs." Will the judge allow them to be played in open court? We doubt it, but the judge might be willing to hire a special master to view some of them privately and then summarize them for the jury. Of course, AG Pam Bondi might reply to the subpoena with "I am so sorry, your honor, but we are unable to locate the CDs you have subpoenaed." That might lead to subpoenas for FBI agents who took part in the raid. Trump will obviously do everything humanly possible to make sure those CDs are destroyed before the case gets to court."
Oh. Coincidences do happen. Weird. One of the three assistant U.S. attorneys who filed the letter to Judge Pitman requesting that bail be denied was Maurene Comey. You might have read about her recently. Also, if you look at the court filing linked to above and scroll down below Comey's name, you will find links to many PDFs. For example, one is entitled: "UNSEALED Epstein Docs - 2000 pages." Another is called "Jeffrey Epstein's Little Black Book." There are many more.
Yesterday, The New York Times had a long article detailing the 15-year friendship between Trump and Epstein. Even if you aren't a subscriber, everyone gets 10 free articles a month. Here are some of the high points. Around 1990, Epstein bought a property about 2 miles north of Mar-a-Lago and joined the moneyed jetsetters in Palm Beach, where he met Trump. They were both outer-borough New Yorkers who were determined to show the world how impressive they were. Both of them very much enjoyed the company of women, especially young women. Here is a newly surfaced NBC News video of Trump and Epstein at a party, dancing with young women.
Trump and Epstein met many times either in Palm Beach or Manhattan, often in the company of young women. One time it was the Buffalo Bills cheerleaders. Another time it was a so-called calendar-girl competition where Trump and Epstein were the only men present. One woman present there filed a lawsuit against Trump claiming he kissed her, fondled her, and crawled into her bed that night uninvited. The case was settled out of court.
In 1993, a former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, Stacey Williams, was taking a walk on Fifth Avenue with her then-boyfriend Epstein when he suggested they pop in and see Trump. She agreed. Trump greeted her and pulled her toward him and began groping her. She said he was like an octopus.
Trump and Epsten jetted back and forth between Manhattan and Palm Beach for years. Court records show at least seven trips together on Epstein's private Boeing 727. One time in 1997, they were photographed together at a Victoria's Secret "Angels" party in Manhattan.
In 2002, Trump was quoted in New York magazine saying: "I've known Jeffrey for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."
From all the reporting, it is clear that Epstein and Trump were good "friends" for years until they broke up in 2004 over a real estate deal (both wanted the same property and they bid against each other). Epstein had access to an unlimited supply of young women and being a good friend, often shared them with Trump. One of them said that she had been "passed around like a platter of fruit." There are so many people involved and so many potential witnesses, that Trump will have to use all his powers of intimidation to keep the lid on the pot. (V)