The Epstein coverup leaves an even bigger mark

The victims of Jeffrey Epstein, and their bi-partisan political allies, had high hopes that the Epstein Files Transparency Act would prompt President Donald Trump to finally and fully release all of the file information being held by the U.S. department of justice on the disgraced sex trafficker.

It did not take long for those hopes to be dashed.

The first tranche of documents, released nearly a month after Congress forced the release of file materials, did little to satisfy the victims and their supporters. Although voluminous, some of the documents were heavily redacted and, perhaps not surprisingly, contained very little reference to the sitting president. Not surprisingly, because it appears the Trump administration had been preparing for the release of the files.

Bloomberg news was able to confirm that starting in January of this year, shortly after Trump took office for his second term, the FBI was undertaking a Special Redaction Project to scan the files and redact certain details. What details nobody will say but assessments of the files released to date certainly suggest the FBI was looking for any reference to Trump.

When the files starting flowing Dec. 19, they were beset by extensive redactions that appeared to be part of an effort to conceal the identity of rich and famous people. Not all of the rich and powerful were spared; some friends and acquaintances, like Bill and Hillary Clinton, who would be considered Trump’s political enemies, were prominently exposed.

After it became clear that Trump’s name was conspicuously absent, the justice department released another tranche of files, this time with the highly suspicious caveat that “untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump” were “unfounded and false.”

What were those claims? Some of them are damaging to Trump but hardly sensational.

There are confirmations that Trump was a passenger on Epstein’s private jet at least eight times, which investigators agreed was more than previously thought. Others are quite sensational, including a statement by an Epstein victim that a child she gave birth to while being trafficked was killed and that Trump was present when the killing took place.

The main takeaway is that there have been clear attempts to reveal the relationships Epstein had with Trump’s enemies, while concealing evidence of the president’s own friendship.

It’s hard to fathom what the White House hopes to accomplish with this perverted process. The more the Trump administration fudges the release of the files, the greater the suspicion that Trump was closer to Epstein than he has claimed and the greater the damage to the Trump brand.

Interest in the release of the Epstein files started as a niche issue for a constituency within Trump’s MAGA coalition. As the voices of the victims and Republican lawmakers became louder, the American public flocked to their cause. Now, recent polls show that nine in 10 Americans want a full release of the Epstein files with the only redactions used to protect victims. Given these hyper-partisan times, that is a remarkable bi-partisan trend in public opinion.

Despite efforts to muddy the details of his relationship with Epstein, it’s clear now that Trump was, at times, very close to Epstein. And that these times fell well within the period that Epstein was trafficking in young women for rich and powerful men.

For most of his political career, voters who jumped on the MAGA bandwagon have forgiven Trump for some egregious moral and criminal transgressions. He has repeatedly said and done things that would have scuttled the careers of most politicians and not only survived, but thrived.

Ironically, it appears now that Trump may be undone not by the facts of his relationship with Epstein. Rather, his demise may come from his attempts to conceal those facts.