Jul.25

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The Epstein Files: Every Day, this Story Just Gets More Wild and Woolly

It's like a broken record, but there were a whole bunch more Epstein-related stories yesterday. Here are the biggest ones:

• Apalachin Meeting: Perhaps some readers will know about the infamous Apalachin meeting, which is almost certainly the best-known mafia summit (and was the clear inspiration for the "meeting of the five families" scene in The Godfather). Anyhow, a whole bunch of crooks got together on November 14, 1957, so they could plot their crooked deeds. The problem is that law enforcement was onto them, and so raided the meeting and nabbed 60 mafiosi.
  
  On a completely unrelated note, Deputy AG Todd Blanche met with Ghislaine Maxwell yesterday, in the prison in Florida where she was incarcerated. Again, this comes just 2 weeks after Blanche said there was no good reason to meet with her. They spoke for 5 hours, and Blanche described the conversation as "very productive." They are going to talk again today.
  
  We don't know exactly how the administration is going to try to use this, but we do know it doesn't pass the smell test. To start, (L) checked in and reminded us that if this was a legitimate interview, it would be conducted by an investigator, like an FBI agent, because of the possibility they might have to testify about what they were told. Further, after they talk for 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 hours, how is Blanche going to present their conversation? "Yeah, there's nothing there. Took 9 hours to figure that out!" Or maybe "Ms. Maxwell told me many interesting things, but Donald Trump didn't come up once!" Is anyone going to believe these things?
  
  Our best guess, such as it is, is that Blanche will say nothing, claiming confidentiality, or national security concerns, or attorney-client privilege, or presidential immunity, or some other such excuse. Meanwhile, (L) notes that 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 hours is just about the right amount of time to agree on a plea bargain and a cover story, and to hammer out all the details.
  
  
• Drip, Drip, Drip: As we have noted this week, anyone and everyone is looking under rocks for hard evidence that connects Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein. Yesterday's sweepstakes winner was The New York Times, which published a photo of a copy of Trump: The Art of the Comeback inscribed to Epstein by his good friend:
  
  
  
  The paper also published a photo of Trump and Epstein with singer James Brown (another sex offender, allegedly). And it reported that its staffers have seen a list of contributors to the Epstein 50th birthday book, and that Trump was on the list, thus substantially validating the story in The Wall Street Journal.
  
  Once again, the Times' reporting does not tell us anything we did not already know. But the more of this stuff there is, the more the story remains in the headlines, and the harder it is to sell the "Epstein? Never heard of him." bit.
  
  
• The Conspiracy Deepens: On Wednesday, attorney Roy Black, who represented Epstein in the plea-deal negotiations that resulted in a sweetheart deal, died. Immediately, the QAnon types were all over the Internet, talking about how Black's death was "so sudden" and "so unexpected" and wondering what he knew, and why he had to be silenced, etc.
  
  We actually have a pretty good theory as to why he died, and here it is: He was 80, and had been in poor health. We know, we're going out on a limb there, but we feel pretty good about it. Anyhow, as is the case with conspiracy theories, every event gets incorporated into the conspiracy, no matter how little sense it actually makes. Which raises the obvious question: What did Hulk Hogan know, and when did he know it? (Also see below.)
  
  
• Creating Distractions: While the conspiracists assume that every new development related to Epstein is part of the conspiracy, we assume that every attempt to create some non-Epstein headlines is part of the effort to distract people from the scandal. We might be wrong about that, in some cases, but we suspect we're largely correct.
  
  Here is a list of distractions (or possible distractions) from the last 24 hours or so:
  
  
  • Donald Trump took a tour of the new Federal Reserve building that is under construction, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell in tow. During this tour, Trump ambushed Powell, pulled a document out of his pocket, declared that Powell had lied about $500 million in cost overruns, and said the document proved it. Powell was understandably stunned, and the two men argued in front of reporters, until the Chair determined that the $500 million was actually for a building completed several years ago, and so had nothing to do with the current construction.
    
    
  • House Republicans announced that they have formed yet another select committee that will look into the 1/6 insurrection. It will be led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), and will undoubtedly discover all sorts of valuable clues that show that 1/6 was the work of Antifa, or Black Lives Matter, or Acorn, or Planned Parenthood, or the Soros family.
    
    
  • While House Republicans were working on one distraction, Senate Republicans were working on another, with Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) calling on the White House to appoint a special counsel to look into DNI Tulsi Gabbard's (ludicrous) claims about Barack Obama and the 2016 election. Cornyn, obviously, is trying to make nice with MAGA-world, as he worries about losing his primary next year to fire-breathing Trumper Ken Paxton. Graham, meanwhile, reminds us daily that members of the world's second-oldest profession (politics) are often simultaneously members of the world's oldest profession.
    
    
  • Trump signed an executive order demanding that his Cabinet find a way to stop private entities from paying student athletes. This is a ship that has already sailed, several years ago.
  
  Again, we do not know if these things are actually meant to be distractors from Epstein, but we are comfortable assuming, under the circumstances, that most of them are.
  
  
• Passing the Buck: Recall that when Richard Nixon was trying to disappear the Watergate scandal, he appointed a special prosecutor to conduct an investigation, despite knowing full well that his (Nixon's) hands were dirty. It was a risky, and ultimately unwise, gamble, based on Nixon's belief that the American people would think: "Well, if Nixon was actually guilty, he certainly would not appoint a special prosecutor."
  
  Donald Trump has made almost exactly the same error with "Attorney General" Pam Bondi, ordering her and a team of dozens of FBI agents under her leadership to examine hundreds of thousands of pages of files, knowing full well that his name appears within (probably hundreds of times). He presumably plans to announce the "results" of the "investigation" at some point, which will undoubtedly "exonerate" him. That he thinks this will somehow quiet the scandal is arguably even more delusional than what was going on in Nixon's head half a century ago.
  
  We mention this, in particular, because the adjunct to protecting Trump by creating a distraction is protecting Trump by passing the buck. And so, some House Republicans are trying to pin the blame on Bondi for this whole mess. This is nonsensical; first, it was Trump's idea to go through the files, and second, the files are actually just a symptom of the problem, and not actually the problem themselves.
  
  And we think the most interesting thing here is actually this: Trump, through his clumsy maneuvering, has created the same problem for himself that Nixon did—the people he might try to throw under the bus are the ones who now know his secrets (whatever they may be). If Trump tries to hang this on Bondi, or FBI Director Kash Patel, or FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino by lopping their heads off, they could run to Congress, the press, the U.S. Attorney's office, or all of the above and blab whatever it is they know. And that's before we consider that there's apparently a mole in the FBI who is feeding information to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). Shades of Deep Throat, anyone?
  
  We actually would guess that Trump is getting pretty close to firing someone prominent, in hopes of somehow changing the narrative. Our guess is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. First, because he's a giant screw-up who keeps embarrassing the administration. Second, because a lot of the base hates him. Third, because he is less likely to have dirt he can spill, as compared to, say, Bondi. Fourth, because even if he does have some dirt, he's the type who might take the hit to save Trump, kind of like G. Gordon Liddy volunteered to be assassinated so Nixon could pin all of Watergate on him.

It's 72 hours until we do another news-driven posting. One can only imagine what those 72 hours will bring on the Epstein front. (Z)