Occasionally, after writing a post, I have this wait a minute moment. I realize that I didn’t quite write what I wanted to say. This happened to me last night after I posted regarding the Epstein Files. I realized I wanted to emphasize a point more strongly than I did.
What is bothering me here is that the Biden Justice Department sat on these files for 4 years. The pressure for releasing these files came from MAGA and Donald Trump. Trump is rarely held accountable by his supporters, latched on to the issue during the 2024 campaign because it was useful then, probably thinking that once he took office he could forget any he promises he made about the files. MAGA deserves a little credit for holding him to his promise because some MAGA members continued to campaign for their release even after Trump tried to bury them again. Democrats joined the bandwagon because Trump was president now and the files could be used as a cudgel to use against him. They were counting on maximum embarrassment to Trump and the Republicans.
Unfortunately the files uncovered a much more insidious problem — a lot of political and business elites think it is ok for themselves to enjoy sexual relations with trafficked women and girls and they expect other people in the elite club to look the other way and protect them if they get caught. Sadly, it looks like they might get away with it.
Given the heavily redacted documents which prevents further investigation from people outside of the Department of Justice and Todd Blanche’s opposition to further prosecution, it looks like the most these men will endure is a little embarrassment and perhaps a job loss here and there. Not much, I would say for participating in a global sex trafficking ring. But we can’t have VIP’s being embarrassed, now can we?
What has me roiled here is that Joe Biden could have released these documents while he was president. Prior to Trump’s second inauguration, I don’t recall many Democrats all that enthused about their release. Biden’s Justice Department could have redacted the documents instead of Trump’s. But, for some reason, nothing happened. Oh, right they were protecting the poor women who were abused by Epstein and Maxwell. I thought that was the purpose of redacting the documents — protecting the victims. So, that particular excuse simply doesn’t hold water. So why did they sit on these documents and do absolutely nothing for 4 years? Protecting rich powerful men from prosecution is the only thing I can com up with.
This leads me back to the conclusion — Trump is not the problem. He is a symptom of a greater problem — a system that clearly is broken and no plausible way to fix it. Sigh.