4 big questions about Trump and Epstein

Cnn
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In 2021 JD Vance accused the government of hiding a Jeffrey Epstein customer list that the Trump Vance administration does not exist now.

“If you are a journalist and don't ask any questions about this case,” said Vance, “you should be ashamed of yourself.”

Today there are more questions than ever – for the most part thanks to the bizarre handling of the same administration that Vance now serves. Despite the hypens of the “Epstein files”, the Trump Ministry of Justice now says that Epstein actually died through suicide and there was no “list of customers”.

This does not mean that a broad conspiracy was involved. But the administration did a great job to the suspicion-especially under its own basic-that it is now part of the alleged cover-up.

So let us ask some of the types of questions that Vance were so important four years ago.

Trump's strategy of dealing with the counter reaction basically means: if they deal with each other.

“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?” Trump said last week.

The President added in a social media post on Sunday: “Let's … no time and energy waste to Jeffrey Epstein, someone who nobody cares.”

The FBI director Kash Patel repeated this line at the weekend and published it on X: “The conspiracy theories are just not true.”

But it certainly seems to be news for many people near Trump that nobody will take care of it and that the conspiracy theories are unfounded. Trump's team is filled with people, including Patel, who previously occupied the Epstein saga as a massive scandal in the queue, who only needed a few leaders who were ready to tear down the lid.

As early as February, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the soon published documents acted and suggested that she had the so -called customer list on her desk on her desk when asked in an interview. (Since then she has suggested referring to other documents.)

“What is the interest of keeping Epstein's customers secret?

“Put on your great boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are,” said Patel in 2023.

“Listen that Jeffrey Epstein Story is a big deal,” said Dan Bongino, Dan Bongino, the now Deputive FBI director, in the same year. “Please don't let go of this story. Keep this eye on this.”

“Who is on these ligaments?” Bongino added shortly before the administration in February. “Who is in these black books? Why did you hide it?”

To trace again: The people who are responsible for this matter – and now insist that there is no there – are also the people who insured that there was a lot to discover and suggested that things were covered up.

So the question is: do you add that you were only wrong?

(You don't seem to say that. But maybe Bongino described Fox News last month: “I am no longer paid for my opinions. I am now working for the taxpayer. I am paid for evidence.”)

And why was something that they argued that it was of the greatest importance not worth our time? After all, this is a supposed scandal in which mighty people who are involved in the sexual understanding of minors involved. How can you now have Trump's comments with your own previous comments? And shouldn't you at least do more to bring it to bed?

To be clear, this is not the same as to ask whether the files show a misconduct from Trump.

But it is worth asking whether he is in there – especially given the failure of his government, to make the promise of disclosure.

Trump associated with Epstein before the two had a line. Epstein claimed that they were close. Trump once called Epstein a “great guy” and joked over Epstein's affinity to younger women. Trump also wanted to make up for more than one opportunity to make Ghislaine Maxwell well, while she was against Epstein-related sex functions against sexual trade.

“I'm not looking for anything bad for you,” said Trump back then. “I don't look bad for anyone.”

As part of his dramatic outbreaks, Elon Musk claimed with the president last month that Trump was actually in the files.

“Time to drop the really big bomb: (Donald Trump) is in the Epstein files,” wrote Musk about X. “That is the real reason why they were not published.”

Musk has never detailed how he would have been given to unpublished files, later deleted the contribution and regretted how far he had gone in some of his anti-trump contributions. Many dismissed it when musk refused, but this was a former Top Trump consultant who had a lot of access as he led the Efficiency of the Ministry of Government. Did he just invented it? Musk didn't say that specifically.

It is also a question that seems to be real enough that Trump's own lawyer assured that he has checked.

Last week David Schoen, who represented both Trump and Epstein, said he asked Epstein shortly before his death whether he had information to hurt Trump, and Epstein said he didn't.

“I expressly asked that!” Schoen on X.

Trump was also less sharp than others around him to release the documents. During a Fox News interview last year, he quickly agreed that he would distribute documents on September 11th and John F. Kennedy's attack, but he stuck before saying that he would do the same with the Epstein documents.

He explained: “You don't want to influence people's lives if it is wrong there.”

After the podcast moderator Lex Fridman, who later hesitated, Trump repeatedly said that he did not personally go to Epstein's island.

“I don't think – I'm not involved,” said Trump. “Fortunately, I never went to his island, but a lot of people did it.”

The great news last week was that the government said that Epstein killed itself and that there was no customer list. But it was not the only reason why the true believers were disappointed.

The administration also effectively closed the matter and said that it would not let go of anything else, even though it had promised much more disclosures.

The administration published a first amount of documents in February. But the photo bombed with conservative influencers when it turned out that the documents were largely old news.

So the government promised more on the way.

“We'll get everything,” Bondi told Fox News in early March. “We will have it in our possession. We will of course reduce it to protect information about the Grand jury and confidential witnesses, but the American people have the right to know.”

The Press spokeswoman of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, added in May: “I know that the Attorney General has undertaken to publish these files. … When she made a promise in the past, she has kept it and I am sure that in this case she will be going to be in this case.”

But since then the administration has not published anything of real meaning.

The Memo of the Ministry of Justice said last week that a large part of this information was “subject to judicial sealing and that” only a fraction of this material would have been publicly broadcast if Epstein had been put on trial. “It expressed the wish” no additional third parties before accusations for illegal misconduct “.

“This review did not find a basis to visit the disclosure of these materials again,” said the memo.

It is very different from what was promised. But why the change in the melody? Why didn't you say beforehand that your promise of disclosure were so many restrictions?

When Bondi wanted to explain itself last week, this was a question that she let her linger for some reason: whether Epstein had connections to intelligence.

“For him who is an agent, I have no knowledge of it,” the Attorney General told reporters before I added: “We can contact you.”

Why do you have to circle this again? Wouldn't that be something in the documents or not?

This theory does not come out of nowhere. Such questions have been asked for a long time. The then Trump working secretary Alexander Acosta, who had concluded a controversial non-contract with Epstein during his work as a US lawyer, spoke when she was asked in 2019.

Bongino already said in 2023 that he was reliably told that Epstein was a secret service for a country from the Middle East.

And on Monday, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett considered fit to deny that Epstein was an Israeli capital.

“The allegations that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad with a blackmail ring is categorical and completely wrong,” said Bennett.

Republican Senator Mike Lee from Utah has urged the case that Epstein may have benefited from being an asset.

Apparently a question is that Bondi should have an answer more. But the lack of satisfactory answers seems to be a trend at the moment.