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Epstein to the Rescue (Not)
The Epstein Files are the Left’s white knight, the Golem they hope will finally destroy Donald Trump. It is believed Epstein, a pig of a man now anointed the saviour of the Democratic party, will succeed in bringing down Trump where multiple impeachments, Russiagate, fixer Michael Cohen flipping, endless prosecutions over increasing arcane financial acts, three elections, Late Night, and the gaffe or rudeness of the week have failed. This is unlikely.
One reason the soon-to-be-released Epstein files are unlikely to fatally damage Trump is that very little in the new documents will be truly new. Trump’s past social interactions with Epstein have been public knowledge for decades. Photos of the two men at parties were published long before Epstein’s 2019 arrest. Trump acknowledges knowing Epstein, once calling him “a terrific guy” in a 2002 magazine interview, and later said they had a falling-out. None of this is will be newly discovered in any document dump, and none of it has previously produced legal or immoral exposure. To bring down a political figure like Trump, there must be a revelation, a mediagenic single piece of information that dramatically shifts the known narrative. Without a revelatory moment, the story cannot cross the threshold from speculation to actionable misconduct.
The files released to date contain no evidence of Trump’s participation in Epstein’s trafficking. But it’s not as if the Justice Department’s (DOJ) information about Epstein has been sitting around unexamined. Five years ago, the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility released the results of its extensive investigation into how Epstein secured a lenient plea deal in Florida in 2008. The 348 page document only said the deal reflected “poor judgment.” It also noted the prosecutor in charge of child exploitation cases at the time said that none of the victims he spoke with “ever talked about any other men being involved in abusing them.”
What remains is only speculation. Epstein was arrested in 2019, during the first Trump presidency. Nothing came out. Very significantly, the Biden Administration held the same files for four years and nothing came out. Kamala ran against Trump in a heated campaign and nothing came out. Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and nothing came out. Of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of celebrities, house servants, airplane mechanics, et al, who would have interacted with Epstein, none have come out, not even perhaps to turn state’s witness and save themselves from a conspiracy charge.
The one man who knew everything, Epstein himself, is dead by suicide. The most convincing victim willing to speak out, Virginia Giuffre, is dead by suicide (though she made no allegations against Trump while alive or in her book.) Maxwell’s strategy is to remain tight-lipped; she will plead the Fifth in the House Epstein probe. This is not to say some or all of that left unsaid may contain important material, just to say despite everything, the hard reality is nothing has come out tying Trump to the crimes. Nothing but wanting it to be so says the new document dump will be any different. It is not a surprise. The files coming out were prepared by the Department of Justice to prosecute Epstein, the sole defendant. Why would they contain critical information about others who could also become defendants but somehow just didn’t? The FBI wrote the documents “did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Epstein was also one of the most investigated criminals in modern American history. After his 2006 Florida charges, state prosecutors, civil attorneys, newspapers, investigative journalists, and advocacy groups examined his case extensively. After his 2019 arrest, scrutiny intensified further. Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial produced thousands of pages of documents. Throughout, Trump has been scrutinized by political opponents, media outlets, litigation adversaries, and multiple prosecutors. If any credible Epstein-related allegation involving Trump existed, the likelihood that it would have remained hidden through such sustained examination is extremely small.
Here’s one thing the new documents will certainly contain: the names of well-known people who associated with Epstein. These associations are not evidence of criminal or immoral conduct. The already-known Epstein’s contact lists, party guest books, flight manifests, and social calendars include a vast array of individuals. The mere presence of a name in a contact file, a Christmas card list, or a flight log does not demonstrate involvement in illegal or immoral activity. Nobody but Epstein and Maxwell has faced any judicial scrutiny, as opposed to media-wise.
This distinction matters because the evidentiary bar is extremely high. To bring down a public figure, especially one as lawyered-up as Trump, prosecutors would need corroborated evidence of a specific criminal act, a credible witness, something more than snippets of email, and a clear link tying Trump to the conduct. The Epstein files are messy, sprawling, and most often ambiguous. They reveal Epstein had connections with many people, but they do not, by themselves, yet create a case. Of course in certain circles, such as at Harvard, this might be enough to bring down someone; see Larry Summers. But Trump is different.
The most plausible fallout from the files will occur far below Trump’s level. Trump’s persona is based on the perception that he is constantly under attack from elites, institutions, and the media. New allegations often serve to reinforce, not weaken, his supporters’ belief that he is being unfairly targeted. Take a look back at the Access Hollywood tape, two impeachments, multiple criminal indictments, civil judgments, 34 felonies, and a host of scandals that would have ended the careers of any other politician. Few MAGA voters (and remember, Trump himself is not running for anything ever again) remain who would meaningfully shift their position because of guilt-by-association allegations in decades-old documents. And the media will no doubt overplay any tidbits found, adding to MAGA’s view of them as enemies.
Absent new and concrete evidence, which has not surfaced in any release to date, the Epstein files will generate headlines and endless conspiracy theories but not collapse the administration. Trump has survived scandals far more direct and damaging than ambiguous associations in decades-old files. The Epstein story will continue to matter deeply for victims seeking truth and accountability of course, but in American politics, it is unlikely to deliver the downfall some predict.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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Rich Bauer said...
1If 77,000,000 had no problem voting for this disgusting rutting pig pervert who boasted grabbing women in the GSpot, then why can some dirty photos of teenagers make them change their minds? There are much bigger and much worse charges, like murder.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be brief. The issue here is not whether the Trumpster broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with female guests – he did.
[winks at Mike Johnson]
But you can’t hold a political party responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn’t we blame the whole system? And if the whole system is guilty, then isn’t this an indictment of our institutions in general? I put it to you, – isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen! KiLL them ALL.
[Leads the Seal Team 6 out of the hearing, all humming the Star-Spangled Banner]
12/2/25 2:38 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
2Leona Helmsley: “Accountability (the punishing type) is for……….little people.”
George W Bush spoofed his lethal search looking for WMDs in Iraq with a furtive and self- mocking amusement underneath White House furniture and the American public……… chuckled! Americans are too exceptional and thus “godly” to hold their leaders accountable for the needless deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi folk. Hopefully such a perverse occurrence of defective character only happens on this one teeny tiny insignificant planet in the vast cosmos.
12/2/25 4:27 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3JP,
Putin needs Donnie Dementia to distract from his inhumane acts. When Repugs start telling the truth about killing DD survivors, there is little DD can do to distract his base:
George Will: The killing of the survivors by this moral slum of an administration should nauseate Americans,” Will added. “A nation incapable of shame is dangerous, not least to itself.”
12/3/25 7:40 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
4Give Donnie Dementia some credit for putting idiots HeadUpHis Ass, Dog killer Noem, Kash Bugeyes Patel in positions he knew they would be a disaster. They distract US from the DD Epstein Files scandal.
12/3/25 9:10 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
5Late poll indicates only 25% of Amerikans support Hegseth’s bombsaway program that has murdered over 100 people off South America who presented NO THREAT to our country. This is good news as the poll shows Amerika has come a great distance when the majority of Amerikans..you know, morons, supported killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Vietnamese, Afghans who also presented no threat to our country.
12/3/25 12:03 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
6Admiral Mitch plans to tell congress that he had to murder those two survivors because they were radioing for help. If the HEGSETH KILL THEM ALL PLAN was working, wouldn’t Admiral Mitch want the two to call for help so Mitch could kill them all too?
12/3/25 9:00 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
7HeadUPTRUMPSASS is getting flushed down the toilet
Donnie Dementia is ECSTATIC that HeadUpHis Ass is drawing all the Epstein flak. DD will let the Sec of MurderINC twist in the wind as long as it takes for people like Peter to stop writing about the sex perversion subject. Didn’t Peter get the memo?
12/4/25 7:57 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
8The ChickenShits are coming home to roost on US
Poor ol’ Amerika, forced to face the farce that it has been for the past 66 years. It took Killing survivors floating on bomb debris to get your dumbass attention. You wanted this. You voted for a psychopath and you are shocked? Well, you just wait for Donnie Dementia’s next perverted act. The demented one has no moral guardrails. Terrorizing immigrant populations, that’s nothing. Kill THEM all. All DD has to do is declare them all a terrorist threat.
Meanwhile, Peter will write chickenshit articles that this is all perfectly normal for his AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE subscribers.
12/4/25 9:53 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
9Will MAGGOTS vote for GOP – protectors of rich pedophiles, money launders and drug traffickers?
Judging by the rats abandoning the stinking GOP ship, they know the answer.
12/4/25 11:13 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
10When you hit rock bottom, there is no “downfall.”
Epstein crimes are mild compared to the series of murders committed by Drumpf Murder Inc. Drumpf doesn’t think These smugglers aren’t real people. Just garbage from shithole countries. Peter hasn’t criticized Drumpf for calling Somalis garbage. That is free speech, as Hitler called Jews vermin. Speaking of Nazis, Drumpf just pardoned all the Nazis convicted at the Nuremberg Trials, as they “were all treated so unfairly.” Drumpf got his idea to shoot survivors watching old Nazi war movies.
12/5/25 8:32 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
11In November 2024, Cotton Mouth, a real snake, was selected as chair of the Senate Republican Conference and CHAIR of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
This makes perfect sense. The dumbest country on the planet has one of the dumbest people on the planet as Chair of an Intelligence Committee.
Cotton Mouth: Asked to describe what he saw in the footage of the second boat strike, Cotton chuckled. I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat ― loaded with drugs, bound for the United States ― back over, so they could stay in the fight,” he said. “And potentially, given all the context we heard, of other narcoterrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narcoterrorists.”
This idiot graduated from Harvard Law.
12/5/25 10:13 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
12The DHS Nazi Old Guard Similarity cannot be ignored
DHS has widened its age brackets to help reach its goal. It’s raised its maximum age from 40 to 65 and lowered its minimum age from 21 to 18. That $50,000 signing bonus and starting salaries as high as $80,000 per year must sound pretty attractive. How far do recruits think those signing bonuses will carry them once no other employer will hire them with CBP/ICE in their work histories?
A former instructor tells the Mail:
‘Stephen Miller and Corey Lewandowski want what they want and are going to do whatever they have to do to get people through,’ the father said, referring, respectively, to the DHS adviser and Noem’s ‘de-facto’ chief of staff.
‘But once you’ve prostituted your hiring standard, you’ve prostituted everything,’ he added.
The only thing missing are the Russians massing at the border.
12/5/25 11:01 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
13Good thing Castaway Tom Hanks’ plane didn’t crash off South America. Mad Bomber Mitch Bradley would have made sure he and his buddy Wilson didn’t threaten the ol USA.
12/5/25 11:59 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
14Bauer- you’re not really in the game if surrendering or being taken prisoner and cared for is part of your plan.
12/6/25 8:33 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
15The Nuremberg Defense
Why didn’t the Nazis just declare 6,000,000 Jews terrorists? Forget the just following orders defense. Insane you say? That is the DrumpHeadUPHISASS “legal” justification to murder over 100 South Americans. Or maybe they did, but that defense was laughed out of hand.
12/6/25 9:33 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
16HeadUpHisAss to the Rescue(NOT)
Nothing gonna stop mass murderer HEADUPHISASS from blowing suspected smugglers out of the water. As for chances of a rescue operation by HEADUPHISASS, the odds Donnie Dementia goes one day without lying out his fat ass are greater.
The world suspects the ol USA is in the hands of psychopaths. What more evidence does it need to remove all doubt?
12/6/25 11:40 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
17“One reason the soon-to-be-released Epstein files are unlikely to fatally damage Trump is that very little in the new documents will be truly new.”
Boy, you got that right. But the truth of the Donnie Demented show is more damning.
“FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino admitted to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday that he lied for a living before Trump installed him at the FBI.
“I’m like, ‘are you serious? You just said that out loud?’ They’re admitting what they were during the Biden years: they were paid shills,” said Moss. “We know a whole lot of the social media influencers we discovered on the MAGA side who are effectively being paid by the Russians, whether or not they knew it was up for debate. But they are there to be paid liars. They are not there to base anything on facts, or even objectively reasonable interpretations of facts. They’re there to get clicks. They’re there to make a massive propaganda style clip they can repeat all over twitter, Instagram, TikTok and monetize it. And now they’re in government [whining] ‘oh, now I have to actually do things based on facts.’”
Fun Fact: That has never stopped anybody just because are in the government.
12/6/25 12:38 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
18HeadUpHISAss to the Rescue(Not)
The Sec of MurderInc says he will release the video of the DoubleTap hit…just after Drumpf releases the Epstein dirty videos. The ICC would like a copy.
To recap: Admiral Mitch has admitted he knows all the names of the people he ordered murdered. Yes, he knew they were not smuggling any drugs to the US. Yes, he knew the survivors were headed for Suriname, but in honor of Guyana Jim Jones Massacre, he had to kill them all.
12/7/25 6:25 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
19Bauer- Most likely in 300 years none of today’s scuttlebutt will seem awful or even matter. We messed over this continent’s aboriginals regularly and only a few New Testament types protested while most were glad their government was targeting the vile heathens.
George Washington would have preemptively killed every injun upon sight but held in his seething hatred for the red skinned vermin.
George has a huge monument in DC and some injuns
have casinos desert areas. The gods do play loose with fairness.
12/7/25 9:10 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
20MAGA PICKING COTTON
When Drumpf resigns, MAGA is desperate for another psychopath to lead them.
WELKER: Lawmakers say the 2 men appeared to raise their arms potentially to surrender. Why did Admiral Bradley interpret these actions as anything other than them trying to survive?
TOM COTTON: They were sitting or standing on top of a capsized boat. They weren’t floating helplessly in the water
12/7/25 2:37 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
21MAGA 2028 Campaign Platform
Dog killer Kristi Noem: I just met with the President.
I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.
Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom—not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.
WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.
Vote Republican! In your heart you know it’s WHITE.
12/8/25 5:09 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
22Send in The Clowns to the Rescue(Not)
If there is one thing that will get you booted from the Drumpf Clown Circus, it is embarrassing Bozo at the top. That is why clowns Kristi Noem, Petey HeadUPHISASS, KASH bugeyes Patel, Dan Lies for a buck Bongino will meet the same fate as those 100 people who were blasted out of the water.
Marge Greene got blasted by Bozo. Marge made the mistake of getting angry because she believed Drumpf had absolutely no reason to hide dirty photos of teenage girls in the Epstein Files. Kash made the mistake of dating a young woman on the government dime. Bongino made the mistake of giving the same excuse Faux News used in its Dominion defamation lawsuit. HeadUPHISASS made the mistake of murdering 100 people without any evidence they posed any threat to ol AMERIKA. AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, KRISTY DOG KILLER NOEM, the fall guy for ignoring a judge’s order to stop deporting 100 to El Salvador jail. If there was any justice, Noem would be on the next flight to El Salvador.
12/8/25 7:06 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
23Donnie Dementia now says he Never said the DoubleTap murder video should be released. There are two explanations for this: the guy is the most infamous pathological liar in the history of the world, or AntiMidass now has the memory ability of a goldfish.
Either way, why is this guy still in office?
12/9/25 10:45 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
24Stupid Hitler Turns on His MAGGOTS
Just as Hitler called the German people traitors for fleeing from the Russian army, Donnie Dementia aka Stupid Hitler called Marge Greene a traitor for fleeing his cult. Marge woke up. Marge realizes Stupid Hitler doesn’t care about the middle class, that he is only in it for himself. It is only time the rest of the MAGGOTS will too.
12/9/25 12:34 PM | Comment Link