Giving "Transparency" a New Political Meaning, Trump Ghosts Epstein Victims with Magical Diversions
Tulsi Gabbard is releasing all the old MLK files that no one wanted anymore, while Pam Bondi will be asking Ghislaine Maxwell to privately provide the DoJ a list of lost names.
In the video that follows this editorial, you get to watch Tulsi Gabbard play prestidigitation like a magician’s assistant with her new fake narrative, designed to deflect attention from that old media magician, Donald Trump. It’s almost a caricature as Trump’s longtime sycophant, Maria Bartiromo, joins her and gushes over Gabbard’s claims about the high-treason dangers buried in her new Obama Files as if they are the biggest news in town. In the background of all of their noise, the young female victims of the Epstein empire fade away like phantoms. It’s quite a show.
What I find even more humorous is how both of these hustlers emphasize how Trump the Magnificent is going after the powerful people in the Obama administration. Of course, he desperately needs to prove to his MAGA supporter that he is not afraid to go after the rich and powerful now that they are enraged that he didn’t. Sure, he and his team won’t go after the big fish in the Epstein Files with whom Trump chummed around for a good part of his life, but he will boldly go after anyone he believes went after him.
Of course, if you believe Gabbard’s claim that her document release yesterday proves Obama weaponized the Justice Department to create intel against Trump, who was president-elect at the time, then you didn’t read my exposé that revealed what transparent lies her own claims about her own files were: “THE DEEPER DIVE: Going Deep into the Epstein Files v. the Gabbard Files.”
In that article, I don’t claim Obama didn’t weaponize the DoJ; what I prove is that her files do not in any way say what she claims they say as she intentionally drops out parts of sentences that seriously change their meaning from what she claims. One doesn’t even need outside proof of her lies. Just read what she says the files say when she quotes them; then read what those same sentences actually say when the ends aren’t chopped off! It’s all nothing more than a distraction to keep your eyes off the master magician because those files would never prove anything in a court of law, which is where she is asking the DoJ to take them on charges of high treason.
It’s smoke and mirrors to present Trump supporters something they really want to see proof of in order to get their attention off the Epstein Files. Because it is perfectly designed to be exactly the Obama bait they hunger for, it may work masterfully to distract attention; but the files do not say what she claims they say; and, if you read them thoughtfully, you’ll see there is no red meat there—only the scent of it.
THEN, just in case Gabbard’s news release of all her Obama intel was not enough sleight-of-hand to divert the news media to a new cycle that would finally get everyone’s attention off the Epstein Files, she released today all 230,000+ pages of the government’s moldering MLK Files. However, some biographers of MLK who have written about those documents in the past say her sudden barrage out of nowhere reveals nothing that was not already fully disclosed years go, which just shows how desperate Gabbard is to help her boss out in order to make up for her screw-up in claiming that Iran didn’t have any highly enriched uranium, or whatever her previous according-to-Trump false claim was.
There is a LOT of distraction here, and how interesting that it all rises like a cloud of smoke right when Trump desperately needs to make his supporters demands for release of the Epstein Files disappear. It all comes just as Trump got so desperate he started ridiculing his own supporters as “weak,” “conned,” and no longer needed by him. The volume of material Gabbard has made public in the last two days seems to follow the theory of burying them in paperwork: Give the press so much to plow through that they won’t have time for Epstein. What could be better to provide cover for a big governmental assassination conspiracy than a past big governmental assassination conspiracy … if that is the most attention-grabbing lure you have to offer?
For the most part, the media isn’t buying it. At least, some headlines to the MLK story call it “a distraction.” The timing makes that so obvious. It is not as if Gabbard was suddenly interested in Martin Luther King and had so much time on her hands that she decided she had to collect up 230,000+ document pages and get them out ASAP to solve the MLK mystery of the ages.
Of course, the Trump administration now desperately needs to prove to its MAGA supporters that it is still the White House of true transparency Trump promised it would be when campaigning. Martin Luther King’s family, on the other hand, is asking today why it was suddenly necessary to drag their family details through the press again with material that has been endlessly rehashed, and even they ask if we shouldn’t be keeping our attention on Epstein & Co.
The Trump administration heralded the move as a victory for transparency….
Of course, they did.
… But to many civil rights historians and King’s surviving family, the release was something else entirely: a distraction….
King’s daughter, Bernice King, echoed that sentiment. Hours after the documents went live, she posted a photo of her father on X with a sharp caption: “Now, do the Epstein files.”
Squirrel!
Gabbard made a big thing about it in her own announcement that the MLK documents were now being sent to the National Archives, just as she did about yesterday’s big bunch of nothing. I had to wonder how she had time enough to do this yet could not help Pam Bondi pull together even a short list of names worthy of prosecution from the Epstein Files.
If the release was meant to be a political manoeuvre, its substance didn’t match its fanfare. Despite the volume, there is little in the newly released trove that offers fresh insight into the 1968 assassination of America’s most prominent civil rights leader. Most of the material, aging reports, FBI memos, clippings, and tips, has either been released before or adds little to what is already publicly known.
“I saw nothing that struck me as new,” David Garrow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Dr. King and chronicler of the FBI’s campaign against him told The New York Times.
Another giant nothing burger to distract from Trump’s years of close, personal involvement with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at their parties.
Anything but the Epstain
Trump, himself, has been busy yesterday and today trying to gin up distractions on Truth Social:
Squirrel #1: President Donald Trump asked his Truth Social followers “How did [former USAID administrator] Samantha Power make all of that money?”
Squirrel #2: He said he might scuttle a stadium deal if the Washington Commanders football team doesn’t change its name back to the Washington Redskins.
Squirrel #3: He even posted a very dramatic AI-generated video of Barack Obama being shoved to the floor, cuffed and arrested in the Oval Office for his “treasonous conspiracy in 2016.” In the fake video, Trump smiles smugly as he watches the undignified arrest.
Squirrel #4: Getting even more desperate, Trump posted a montage of video clips that wasn’t something anyone would expect from a president, not even what anyone has likely seen from Trump: a woman grabbing a snake from the grass as it was coming toward her, a car sliding under a truck, people doing stunts on jet skis and motorbikes. Look: fun!
Maybe he just has a lot of time on his hands right now, what with his former entertainment venue being shut down for good. Oh, and, of course, he highlighted Tulsi Gabbard’s memo from yesterday.
Since there is nothing in the Epstein files that would incriminate anyone for having sex with underage girls, they could, of course, just release the files and blot out the faces and names of the girls. Everyone else apparently was just drinking and eating and having normal good times. So, full disclosure shouldn’t be any problem.
As for those 10,000 videos that Bondi once claimed she had, the party line now is that those were all commercial pedophile entertainment, not anything recorded at any of Epstein’s properties or events, so they are not suitable for release, plus they show nothing about crimes being done at Epstein’s places or events. They were just evidence of what his video library for guests contained to show what kind of place it was. If that is the case, one has to wonder why Bondi brought them up in the first place, saying she had 10,000 videos of evidence she would soon be releasing. Was she originally planning to release 10,000 commercially-made porno flicks that provided no evidence of wrongdoing?
Republican strategist Alex Conant said the Epstein episode has called into question Trump’s ability to evade electoral consequences of actions that would kneecap other politicians.
“Nobody turns the page better than Donald Trump,” Conant said. “His entire first term was constantly changing narratives. We lost track of all the dramas because he’s always adding a new one to distract from the previous ones.
“This is different because he’s in a real fight with his base. Normally his base helps change the topic by latching on to a new outrage. But now he’s in a fight with his base, and the Democrats and the mainstream media are more than happy to fan those flames,” Conant said.
I suppose there is a good chance one of Trump’s new distractions gives them some red meat to chew on and he pulls that off again; but let’s hope some are starting to see the light about his character. There have now been plenty of stories about Trump playing with the girls, too, and partying with Epstein many, many times, as well as his own words about how he treats women. That picture is a lot more transparent than anything Trump is presenting for anyone willing to see all that is right in front of them.
So, come on, Bondi, let’s get that “truckload” of information out that you assured your boss’s supporters you’d release. Let’s have the total transparency, instead of murky waters because, right now, it looks like the full Epstein swamp has been drained into the White House basement.
When he says, “There’s nothing to look at here. We’re not going to release what the Justice Department has, and forget about that list” … it looks like he’s just another elite, corrupt like all the rest, and that impression will remain, to some extent, regardless of whether this particular story is at the top of people’s attention.
Well, let’s hope all the new squirrel tales don’t distract people from the need for justice on behalf of more than a thousand abused girls that have been ghosted in all of this.
Transparent support from Trump’s party favorites
Says, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt,
“It’s transparency, and he has given them that on all accounts when it comes to everything his administration has done.”
Hmmm.
To help with that total transparency, the Republican Speaker of the House recessed the House of Representatives today, a bit early, for their summer vacations. That short-stopped a new effort to get Ghislaine Maxwell to testify to congress. Similarly, when Johnson short-stopped efforts by the House yesterday to open up the Epstein Files, he explained in one of the videos in the stories below,
Here’s what I’d say about the Epstein Files: There is no daylight between the House Republicans—the House—and the president on maximum transparency. He has said he wants total transparency. He has said that he wants all the credible files related to Epstein to be released…. All of that is in process right now. My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing, and, if further congressional action is necessary or appropriate, we’ll look at that. But I don’t think we’re at that point right now because we agree with the president….
The majority party has stated its position, and it is mine and it is the president’s, that they want maximum disclosure…. There's no daylight between us and the White House.
How about Maxwell disclosure? Of course, there is no daylight between congressional Republicans and the White House because there is no daylight in any of this! Instead, they seem to believe that, if they say the word, “transparent” enough, they can magically make it become true … at least, in their supporters’ minds. Perhaps, by the time members of congress are back and ready to hear Maxwell’s testimony in September, it will be just in time to take the media’s attention away from all the tariff damage that will be arriving in the form of rising prices and off of the next debt-ceiling debate coming out of the Big Beautiful Bull battle. Then Epstein can be the squirrel because those rising prices are not going to be welcome.
“It’s not a coincidence this is happening in the dog days of summer. There’s no big legislative fight. There’s no national crisis. Fast-forward two months and we’re going to be facing a government shutdown. Time is on the president’s side here.”
Maxwell madness
I just have one question, as Bondi is now begging Ghislaine Maxwell to bail her out from her “there-is-no-list” failure by testifying to congress to reveal everything Maxwell knows and possibly dislodge some names to help build a list: Why would Maxwell do that? Trump has left her to rot in prison, so as not to get any of the Epstain on himself if he could help it; so did the Biden government that tried her and put her there (deservedly); so why would she help any of them at all?
Thinking…
Hmm… What could it be?
“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” deputy attorney general Todd Blanche said in a statement on Tuesday.
Yes, of course! That would be far better for them—just the FBI and DoJ, which they totally control—the same people accused of covering all the evidence so far! Forget uncontrollable testimony to an uncontrollable congress. Might there also be an undisclosed legal promise of a pardon coming to help control the testimony to the DoJ? Maybe a pardon that won’t be declared until Trump’s term ends but that will, by that point, still cut Maxwell’s time down from twenty years to six with two already served? As I noted yesterday, Trump wished his former friend and partymate all the very best when she went to trial.
It would be prudent for Team Trump to hear anything she has to say in private and not in open congressional testimony because then, if she doesn’t stay within their lines, they can release only the parts they want people to hear. It will, at least, look like they’re trying to get info, while they can remain selective about what info gets shared.
“Therefore, at the direction of Attorney General Bondi, I have communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department. I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days.”
Her favorite people, whom she’d love to help, even without a deal, I’m sure. I find this last bit potentially informative:
The 63-year-old had been urging the Supreme Court to review her case, but the Department of Justice had asked the court to turn away her appeal just over a week ago.
Yes, ask the court not to even hear her appeal, so she’ll be desperate for a presidential pardon in exchange for only providing the testimony you want to hear—maybe something that incriminates a few people you would like to see incriminated in a deal that promises not to disclose anything else. That would make effective use of Mike Johnson’s congressional recess:
Speaker Mike Johnson said he would shut the House down early for the summer on Wednesday to head off Democrats’ calls for votes for greater transparency into the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender and former friend of President Trump. The early break was announced as several Republicans on the House Oversight Committee joined Democrats in a motion to subpoena Mr. Epstein’s longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell.
How conveniently timed! By the time congress gets back to DC, Johnson will be able to say, as he already prepared the way for with his quick comments about Epstein-Files disclosure yesterday, “The president and his team have already gotten all of the testimony we need from Maxwell in order to create a list of names for investigation, so there is no further need for congress to ask her to testify. You can watch the DoJ recordings of their conversation with her.”
Those recordings, of course, will be as outstanding and perfectly edited as the DoJ jail recording that proved no one assassinated Epstein on the night when he hung to death because the video showed no part of the prison remotely close to where that happened and even avoided showing Jeffrey Epstein’s face. However, someone’s gray hair was shown bobbing along above a hand rail to “prove” that someone with the same color hair did, at least, walk through that part of the jail that night, while Epstein was still living.
All of which is to say, they are really hoping for stupid people.
Wouldn’t you think Bondi or her crew would have already thought to talk to Maxwell to see if she could generate a list of names before they came out and said they could come up with no names, especially if they think Maxwell would be amenable to providing that info? Of course, prior to saying there was no list, there was also no reason for Trump’s team to do anything as crazy as offer her a pardon in exchange for the list because they didn’t know yet how badly Bondi’s “no list” comment would fly. Now they have their own reason for wanting a list of names that doesn’t come from releasing everything in the Epstein Files. You know, like, “Tell us the names of some high-level Democrats, and provide ways we can pin crimes to them. That will help us shut them up. There will be a pardon in it for you.”
What kind of thorough DoJ investigation of the Epstein Files never interviewed Maxwell long before now? It was the DoJ who took her to trial. Did the Biden admin skip that interview, too, because they knew of plenty of people in power they didn’t want to incriminate—such as maybe Hunter while he was partying on coke, rather than Trump while he was drinking Coke on the couch with Ghislaine—or does the new government just need a shorter or different list than the one the Biden team got that had all Republican names?
According to the Deputy AG,
This Department of Justice does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead…. Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now.
Odd, isn’t it? Until now no one in any administration has wanted to interview the star witness for Jeffrey Epstein’s trial and sole defendant in her own trial as well as the chief procurator of young women for the Epstein operation? It almost sounds as if both Dems and Repubs have reason to not want to hear too much.
While they protest that the DoJ “does not shy away from uncomfortable truths,” they did shy away from releasing so much as a single page of that whole “truckload” of information, which forces them to try hard right now to promulgate the message of total transparency at all costs while avoiding transparency. “Just don’t ask us to see anything that we already have because we need to protect the victims, and we simply don’t have the technology for blurring out the faces of the actual victims and blacking out their names.”
Who is dumb enough to buy all this chaos of garbage? “In the interest of being totally transparent, we won’t share a single document from the Epstein Files—not even redacted like we did with the Gabbard Files on Obama—and we will recess congress to make certain Maxwell cannot testify until the DoJ and FBI, who have always ignored her, have their chance at her.”
Good grief!
Ah, but Pam’s Deputy AG assures us,
“The joint statement by the DOJ and FBI of July 6 remains as accurate today as it was when it was written,” he said.
Well, that’s a pretty low bar!
