The Sudden Epstein Fixation Is About One Thing Only: Getting Trump
Two impeachments didn’t do it. A phony Russian hoax didn’t do it. A dubious election loss didn’t do it. Relentlessly negative coverage didn’t do it. Civil and criminal judgments and massive fines didn’t do it. Two assassination attempts didn’t do it.
Maybe Jeffrey Epstein’s ghost will finally bring Donald Trump down. That seems to be the hope, anyway.
Epstein, who hobnobbed with the rich and famous, had been under investigation since 2005 for sex trafficking and pedophilia, and died in prison six years ago, has been responsible for conspiracy theories for years.
As NPR wrote in 2022:
One clear reason for the staying power of conspiracy theories involving Epstein is his frequent socializing with the world’s rich and famous. He hobnobbed with Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Donald Trump. Britain’s Prince Andrew lost his royal privileges over sexual assault allegations involving Epstein. Those relationships are potent examples for conspiracists to cast nearly all political events as driven by hidden, sex-fueled abuses and coverups.
In 2023, ABC News reported that “Hundreds of sealed court filings pertaining to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are set to be made public this week, and several prominent names – including Britain’s Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton – are expected to appear in the documents.”
These stories all came and went. Until now.
Today’s Epstein coverage gives new meaning to “flooding the zone.” Take a look at a recent front page of left-leaning news aggregator site Memeorandum. In all our years covering politics, we’ve rarely seen anything like it.
True, there is news. Attorney General Pam Bondi badly fumbled the issue of the Epstein client list. Trump has bashed supporters for fixating on Epstein. He’s suing the Wall Street Journal for reporting on a supposed birthday card sent to Epstein way back in 2003 (which was two years before the Palm Beach police started investigating a parent’s claim that Epstein had sex with her 14-year-old daughter).
But Trump’s enemies think they’ve finally, after a decade of searching, found a way to take him down. You can practically hear the glee in the headlines and the desire to turn this into a Watergate-level scandal:
- FBI personnel were told to flag Epstein files mentioning Trump, Senate Democrat says
- Trump DOJ order on Jeffrey Epstein could create legal and ethical challenges
- Ex-Casino Boss Claims Trump and ‘Best Friend’ Jeffrey Epstein Were Once Caught Bringing Underage Girls to Casino Floor
- Trump once hosted party for ‘young women’ where Epstein was the only guest, says report
- Trump’s approval hits new low as Epstein pressure mounts
- Consumed by Epstein, Trump has lost ground on the economy and immigration
From the mainstream media’s perspective, not only does this story have the virtue of hobbling the Trump administration, it gives them an excuse to ignore the many recent successes Trump has been racking up (see the headline immediately above).
But let’s be honest, if there were any actual evidence that Trump had been involved with Epstein’s sex trafficking – other than a tweet from Elon Musk claiming he’d see Trump’s name on “the list” – it would have been leaked to the press years ago.
And it looks like this story will go the way of all the other Trump-ending bombshells. Last week, the Washington Post’s fact checker, Glenn Kessler, who is no fan of Trump’s, reported that “No credible allegation has emerged to connect Trump to any of Epstein’s crimes. If the full file is ever released, we are confident that no connection would be found.” He, too, admits that “if Trump were prominently mentioned, it would have been leaked by now.”
No. The real mystery isn’t why Democrats and the press are suddenly fixated on Epstein. It’s why some Trump supporters are fanning the flames.
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