It’s the crime, and the cover-up
By 
The Party of Epstein protects it own:
In a late night vote at the Capitol on Monday, House Republicans blocked a Democratic effort to unseal documents related to the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Republicans have long stoked conspiracies about the disgraced financier’s death, voted against the resolution in the heat of a MAGA civil war over the Trump administration’s backtracking on the release of the files.
The House Rules Committee voted down a bid by Democrats to attach an amendment to the GENIUS Act — a controversial piece of cryptocurrency legislation currently making its way through Congress — that would have allowed Congress to vote on whether to compel the Justice Department to make public documents and information related to the case. The vote failed 6-5, with only one Republican joining Democrats to vote in favor of the amendment.
Last week, the Justice Department shocked the MAGA media universe by releasing a memo announcing that they are closing the investigation into Epstein, that Epstein died by suicide, and there is no “incriminating” client list of people who potentially participated in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring that merits further inquiry. The memo contradicted preaching from prominent figures within the administration — including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel — about the need to expose the real circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, and bring justice to victims.
It’s kind of amazing that Trump II doesn’t seem to have any Barrs or Durhams who have mastered the simple art of “just lie about what will be in the forthcoming report/case because the follow-up will get 1% of the coverage.” Instead they’re going with “the Epstein Files don’t exist. Also, they exist but they’re a Deep State coverup by Barack HUSSEIN Obama and Crooked Hillary and Uncle Joe Brandon that definitely do not have highly incriminating information about me, Donald. J Trump, Russia Russia Russia, Hunter Biden’s LAPTOP FROM HELL” and don’t understand why it’s not working.
Irrespective what else the DOJ has, this is already a well-established Trump scandal and elite impunity scandal:
Democrats, who have mostly ignored Epstein for the past several years, are finally starting to raise the litany of Epstein-Trump connections in speeches. But it feels like their now-standard second-term tactic of using whatever’s available to get under Trump’s skin, without really grappling with the underlying policy issue.
es, I said policy issue.
There’s an incorrect belief that the Epstein case is somehow separate from the real concerns facing America, a conspiracist concoction untethered to reality. But it’s actually about the policy issue I’ve probably spent more time writing on than any other in my career in journalism: the two-tiered system of justice and accountability in America, and the impunity we afford the nation’s elites.
For a scandal that’s supposed to be shrouded in mystery, the details of the Epstein case are pretty well known. With the help of associate Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein procured young girls as high-class prostitutes for a fairly broad cross section of U.S. and global elites. We have Epstein’s black book, which includes nearly 2,000 names of associates and clients. We have the flight logs of his private jet and its passengers. We have searing documentary testimony from the girls who were pushed into servitude at his pleasure. We know that Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Larry Summers, Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, former Disney CEO Mike Ovitz, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, and many, many more had either meetings with Epstein, visits to Epstein’s private island, or have been subpoenaed for information about either or both.
And we know that among Epstein’s associates was his neighbor Donald Trump. There are pictures and videos from parties, seven trips on Epstein’s private jet, numerous comments by Trump on how fun it was to hang out with Epstein and his coterie of young girls, connections between girls allegedly put into service by Epstein and their employment at Mar-a-Lago, and even direct testimony from Epstein himself. Audiotape released last year reveals Epstein saying that he was Donald’s “closest friend for 10 years.”
Even things we supposedly don’t know, like the source of Epstein’s wealth, are also pretty clear: He obtained power of attorney over the estate of The Limited and Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner in the late 1980s, from which he appropriated bunches of money for himself. He was paid hundreds of millions more by Apollo’s Leon Black.
In other words, a set of crimes perpetrated by a wealthy guy reached into the heights of the political and economic stratosphere, and went largely unpunished for decades. Yet another Trump connection, his original labor secretary in the first term, Alex Acosta, issued a secret non-prosecution agreement to Epstein in 2008 when he was a U.S. attorney, which allowed Epstein to enter guilty pleas for state charges and avoid federal charges or jail time.
Not nearly enough has been made of Trump rewarding the prosecutor who gave a ridiculously lenient plea/immunity deal to Epstein and his cronies with a cabinet position.