Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
DoJ Breaks Epstein File Law
The American Department of Justice is misnamed. As of midnight last Friday, it had not released all of the Epstein Files as required by an Act of Congress. They can hem and haw all they want, but the fact is that the few documents released are not sufficient to meet the requirements of the Epstein Transparency Act. Congress now must act if it is have any credibility or power from here on. At very least, Attorney-General Pam Bondi and her team must testify under oath as to why they have failed to obey the law. That the time they had was insufficient is nonsense; a month was given them. The administration has played this stupidly, and the drip, drip, drip of the Epstein spiggot will eventually destroy the current leadership of the Republican Party.
There is no good way to play the cards dealt to the White House. By the same token, the White House made the Epstein Files an issue in the 2024 election, and some of the MAGA faithful believe their release is vital to the cause. Having run on an issue, the White House is flabbergasted that the MAGA voters actually want what they were promised.
Ideally, the files in their entirety would have come out on Friday. It would have been a bad couple of weeks for the administration while the public asked questions about presidential ties to Mr. Epstein. However, Christmas and New Year's would have intervened to keep the situation from being a true disaster. By February, it would be old news, presuming Mr. Trump did not do anything wrong with any of the young girls Mr. Epstein raped and trafficked.
Instead, the DoJ is playing games at which it has little ability. Releasing a load of documents that featured Bill Clinton was an attempt to distract, but the Clinton team means little to the Democrats compared to what M.r Trump means to the GOP. Almost all Democrats agree that if Mr. Clinton did something inappropriate, jail should follow. The GOP has gone to ridiculous lengths to prevent Mr. Trump, a convicted felon, from facing the music. The political incompetence is beyond measure.
The DoJ claims it will release everything it can in a couple weeks. That time unit is one Mr. Trump likes to use when he has no intention of doing anything. His healthcare plan has been two weeks away since 2015. There is a deadline coming in two weeks, but that is for the written explanation for every redaction in the released files. That is unlikely to happen on time and in full.
Why the president is being such a fool on this score is hard to say. Usually, his instinct for self-preservation kicks in before the ship sinks. This time, there are only two explanations. The first is that there is something in those files that would do him personal harm (legal or reputational). The second is that there is something in the files that would cause a problem for someone else, whom he wants to protect. The latter may seem out of character as he never sticks his neck out for someone else – unless there is something in it for him. People well-off enough to play on the Island of Epstein are probably in a position to make Mr. Trump richer, so one might be persuaded that this is the explanation.
"A lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein," Mr. Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago. "But they're in a picture with him because he was at a party, and you ruined a reputation of somebody.
"They give you their photos of me too. Everybody was friendly with this guy, either friendly or not friendly, but he was around. He was all over Palm Beach. But you probably have pictures of other people being exposed that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago."
He could well be right. That is irrelevant. The law requires it to come out. This is a breach of the Constitution, and it should result is impeachment of Ms. Bondi at very least. The impeachment and removal of Mr. Trump should not be off the table either.
The decline under the Trump administration continues to accelerate.
© Copyright 2025 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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