Dem
47
GOP
53
Ghislaine Maxwell is many things, but she is not stupid. And the lawyers working for her are not stupid, either. She and her lawyers know that everyone wants to talk to her. She and her lawyers also know that she can take a cue from her former friend/client/enabler Jeffrey Epstein, and plead the Fifth if she does not see the value in spilling her guts.
To that end, Maxwell sent a letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee yesterday advising that if they would like to have a non-Fifth-Amendment chat, there are going to be some conditions: (1) immunity from further criminal proceedings, (2) questions in advance, (3) no deposition until her appeals are over, and (4) holding the deposition somewhere other than the prison where she is incarcerated.
We can think of many possible games of 3-D chess that Maxwell might be playing here. The most obvious is that she is buying time, so that some sort of pardon arrangement can be worked out with the White House. After all, once she's told her tale, she's got no more leverage. She cannot seriously be worried about additional prosecutions; she's already got a de facto life sentence. She's currently set to be released at age 83, and not too many people make it to that age when the last 20 years are hard years.
Meanwhile, the attempts to distract or otherwise defuse the issue are getting more inventive... or more desperate. Donald Trump, for his part, claimed that The Wall Street Journal has been begging with him to settle the defamation lawsuit he filed. Uh, huh, we will believe that when we hear it from, well, anyone besides Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, the hottest right-wing meme yesterday was... photos from Brooke Shields' Calvin Klein ad campaign in 1980. The claim is that "the liberals" were OK with that campaign, and Shields as "basically the same age" as the teenagers that Epstein and Maxwell trafficked. We will note that: (1) There is no reason to think the campaign was by, or for, liberals; (2) Whether it was or was not, the liberals of today are not the same people as the liberals of 45 years ago; (3) Shields, born in 1965, had been acting professionally for more than 10 years at that point and her mother was an actress. She certainly had an agent and took the role voluntarily and (4) there is a rather large difference between "tight jeans" and "rape."
And finally, we will share this whackadoodle tweet from Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino:
During my tenure here as the Deputy Director of the FBI, I have repeatedly relayed to you that things are happening that might not be immediately visible, but they are happening.
The Director and I are committed to stamping out public corruption and the political weaponization of both law enforcement and intelligence operations. It is a priority for us. But what I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters, has shocked me down to my core. We cannot run a Republic like this. I'll never be the same after learning what I've learned.
We are going to conduct these righteous and proper investigations by the book and in accordance with the law. We are going to get the answers WE ALL DESERVE. As with any investigation, I cannot predict where it will land, but I can promise you an honest and dignified effort at truth. Not "my truth," or "your truth," but THE TRUTH.
God bless America, and all those who defend Her.
Respectfully,
Dan
Bongino is himself a conspiracist, and he thinks he can redirect the other conspiracists by implying the existence of bigger and scarier conspiracies than the piddling Epstein matter. The problem—and (Z) actually used to have this as a class assignment—is that it's pretty hard to cook up a compelling conspiracy theory out of thin air. And Bongino does a terrible job of it here; a proper conspiracy theory has to have at least SOME details, and this one has none. So, back to the drawing board. Presumably with a Sharpie. (Z)