Or a cliff on the highway?
The Epstein Files, alleged to contain information concerning the late financier’s client list for his illegal and sordid operations, whether or not the list exists, appear to be giving President Trump and his MAGA movement an issue to worry over – on opposite sides. Here’s CNN/Politics, summarizing:
In the days since the Trump administration released a memo about Jeffrey Epstein directly at odds with conspiracy theories pushed by the president and some of his top lieutenants, Trump’s movement and most ardent supporters are in revolt.
The Justice Department and the FBI released a memo last week concluding there was no evidence that Epstein had a list of powerful men who participated in his alleged underworld of sex trafficking and pedophilia. It also said the disgraced former financier died by suicide and was not murdered in his New York jail cell.
Yet after years of big promises to the president’s base, the memo failed to produce a smoking gun, undercutting Trump and his team’s own words. And MAGA world isn’t happy, pitting the president’s closest allies against one another.
I think one of the biggest motivations of MAGA is a history of lies from the government power elite since the beginning of the Vietnam War, as documented in the Pentagon Papers, and moving on from there: the invasion of Iraq on the false excuse that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the lies of Big Tobacco in pursuit of profits, the Catholic Church cover-ups of sexual abuse, and insert your most detested instance of lying here.
So, faced with another power elite that claims it’s unable to deliver the promised goods, MAGA is understandably upset. Here’s the Mendacity Machine[1] himself, via Maddowblog:
Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration. … They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called ‘friends’ are playing right into their hands.
The problem with being a chronic liar, as Heinlein pointed out in one of his novels, is keeping everything consistent. It’s a bit like trying to analyze a system without having all the information – you try to fire up the engine and parts leaning against your coveralls suddenly become blazing hot.
Trump, having lied his way into office again, in order to avoid prosecutions over cases such as unauthorized possession of classified docs, now has to deal with a promise he can’t fulfill.
Or he could, but it’d get him in more trouble. Maybe Trump is in the alleged list of clients of Epstein’s underage sex ring – although the Biden Administration’s failure to reveal that juicy bit is a valid question.
In case my reader has forgotten relevant dates, Benen provides a few:
To the extent that reality still has any relevance in the public discussion, it was the Trump administration that investigated, arrested and charged Epstein. It was during Trump’s first term when Epstein, facing sex trafficking and conspiracy charges, died in 2019 while in custody, and a medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.
But according to Trump, the so-called Epstein files were written by Barack Obama (who left office in early 2017), Hillary Clinton (who left office in early 2013), former FBI Director James Comey (who left office in 2017) and former CIA Director John Brennan (who left office in early 2017).
How could they have “created the Epstein Files” given that they were nowhere near public office when Trump’s own team tried to prosecute him? I haven’t the foggiest idea, and Trump’s weird tantrum never explained how this could even be possible.
I’ve been waiting for a missive from Erick Erickson on the matter out of curiosity as to the Trumpist defense, but nothing so far and I’ve other matters needing attention. Ta.
Update a minute later: Erickson’s missive arrives in the mailbox – begging everyone to take a break from politics. Well.
