The Trump administration’s refusal to shed any more daylight on the notorious Jeffrey Epstein case has, ironically, only served to make everybody pay a lot more attention to it. As the crisis continues to snowball, officials in the government are quietly considering at least three different ways to disclose more information about the dead pedophile and thereby dispel accusations of a coverup, Axios reports.
Those strategies include appointing a special counsel who would be tasked with investigating the case and producing a comprehensive report on the matter. Officials have also suggested petitioning courts to unseal any remaining Epstein case files (the dead pedophile’s crimes took place in several different states, leaving a trail of criminal cases). Another approach includes un-redacting already released Epstein files to share more information with the public. Many of those files have been heavily censored.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Trump is super interested in any of those strategies. Axios spoke with multiple Trump officials and outside advisors in recent days, many of whom seemed to feel that the government has been stalled by the president. “The president said to put this behind us, so we’re putting this behind us,” a top adviser said. “If he changes, then the policy changes. Period.”
“I love POTUS, but I think he’s delusional about how awful this looks,” another advisor, who does not work in the government, told the outlet. Gizmodo reached out to the Trump administration for more information.
Over the past week, Trump has made it clear that he isn’t interested in talking about Epstein anymore. During a press event last Tuesday, the exasperated President said: “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?… Are people still talking about this guy, this creep?” A Fox News clip also recently resurfaced showing Trump claiming he might not be interested in releasing further Epstein documents because they might contain “phony stuff.”
You can kind of see why Trump wants the whole thing to go away. The scandal has threatened to destabilize the president’s Justice Department, which is reportedly at war with itself over how best to handle the controversy. A supposed feud between the Deputy Director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has resulted in significant internal strain and the appearance of an agency that doesn’t know what it’s doing or who is in charge.
To make matters more interesting, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend (who was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021 and sentenced to twenty years in prison), has said that she would be willing to testify before Congress about the dead financier’s activities. However, many voices on the right have voiced skepticism over whether Maxwell would be a reliable source of information. Trump has admitted that he personally associated with Maxwell and Epstein. When Maxwell was sentenced to prison, Trump merely said: “I wish her well.”
Other odd details about the case continue to bubble to the surface. According to a blog post from Judd Legum, a lawyer who briefly represented Epstein prior to his death later went on to become part of President Trump’s legal defense team during his impeachment trials. That lawyer, David Schoen, has claimed that he can say “authoritatively, unequivocally, and definitely that [that Epstein] had no information to hurt President Trump.” How could he be sure? Well, according to Schoen, Epstein told him as much before he kicked the bucket. Such details have only served to pique public interest, as web users seek answers that are not forthcoming from the government.
Meanwhile, even the slow-to-do-anything Democrats have seized upon the Epstein issue and begun to politicize it to their advantage. A group of House Democrats is currently attempting to force Bondi to release all of the Epstein documents. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) told Axios that he wants to file an amendment to an upcoming cryptocurrency bill that would force Bondi to “retain, preserve and compile any records or evidence related to any investigation, prosecution or incarceration” of Epstein, before publishing it to a public website.
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