Can the Epstein files seriously injure Trump?

I’ve been skeptical about that possibility, but the world is changing:

Some of the Epstein files that the Justice Department invited members of Congress to view at a reading room at its headquarters have remained redacted, despite officials’ promises otherwise, according to two lawmakers who visited the room Monday.

“There’s still a lot that’s redacted — even in what we’re seeing, we’re seeing redacted versions. I thought we were supposed to see the unredacted versions,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told reporters outside the DOJ headquarters.

Khanna and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. — the co-sponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act that forced the DOJ to release the files after President Donald Trump signed it into law in November — said some of the documents appeared to have been redacted by the FBI or grand juries before they arrived at the Justice Department. But their law requires those original materials be unredacted.

Among those allegedly over-redacted materials are what are known as “302s,” or summaries of FBI interviews with victims, and prosecution memos.

“They have been protecting some of these men,” Khanna said. “Maybe it was not intentionally, but the law is very clear. They need to comply with the law.”

The DOJ has said that it redacted or withheld about 200,000 pages “based on various privileges.” A formal report from the DOJ to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees explaining those redactions is due within the week.

Massie told reporters he “would like to give the DOJ a chance to say they made a mistake and over-redacted, and let them unredact those men’s names.”

But, he added, “they’re already breaking the law — look, they’re way past the deadline.” . . .

Two US lawmakers said Monday that they found at least six names redacted from Justice Department files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein despite indications that the individuals may be implicated in criminal wrongdoing.

Reps. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, made the comments after reviewing the files at the Justice Department following a law requiring their release.

Massie said he had spotted the names of “at least six men that have been redacted that are likely incriminated by their inclusion in these files.”

“We went in there for two hours. There’s millions of files, right? And in a couple of hours, we found six men whose names have been redacted who are implicated in the way that the files are presented,” Massie told reporters.

The lawmakers declined to name the individuals but said one appeared to be a senior official in a foreign government while others were prominent figures. They said the redactions raise concerns because a law they spearheaded last year requiring the documents’ release permits only narrow exemptions, such as protecting survivors or classified material.

“None of this is designed to be a witch hunt. Just because someone may be in the files doesn’t mean that they’re guilty,” Khanna said. “But there are very powerful people who raped these underage girls. It wasn’t just Epstein and (Ghislaine) Maxwell.”

Meanwhile, Lauren Boebert has also seen some things.

It’s been rather amazing to watchKeir Starmer’s career driven to the edge of extinction because ONE of his cabinet ministers his chief of staff is implicated in the Epstein affair, while the stench of the scandal envelopes countless high ranking Trumpers, among of course many others. Even as well connected a creature as Howard Lutnick now appears to be in serious danger, when his only offense was taking his children — and all their nannies, so you know it was on the up and up — to enjoy Epstein’s hospitality on Child Rape Island, as one does:

Trump administration Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday admitted he and his family had lunch on the private island of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein years earlier.

“I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation” in 2012, Lutnick said in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,” he said. “I had another couple with — they were there as well, with their children.”

“And we had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour,” he said.

“And we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife, all together. We were on family vacation,” he said.

The secretary’s admission came as he faces bipartisan calls to resign following the release of records showing that his business and personal relationship with Epstein was more extensive than previously known.

Level headed people are understandably hesitant to endorse conspiratorial thinking, but after all real conspiracies do exist, and I think the odds that there was a successful conspiracy to have Jeffrey Epstein murdered are actually quite good. In part this is because I know someone who has had multiple dealings with incarcerated persons at MCC, and I’ve been assured that a prisoner in Epstein’s circumstances could only die one of three ways:

(1) Truly grotesque incompetence

(2) Active cooperation by his jailers in his suicide

(3) Murder

Obviously (1) can never be ruled out, but note that Epstein’s suicide would have been the first at MCC in twenty-one years. It’s also remarkably suspicious that Epstein was removed from a suicide watch only six days after a purported “suicide attempt” that one source claims Epstein told his lawyers was actually an attack by his cellmate.

A friend suggests the following:

I’m probably first percentile in terms of conspiratorial thinking and even I’m thinking somebody had him killed.

A Dem House should immediately create a bipartisan select committee on Epstein’s sex trafficking operation with the chair having full subpoena power.

GOP doesn’t want to participate – why are you protecting pedophiles?

Pick 20 or 30 targets and haul their asses in for questioning. Subpoena their personal records, bank statements, everything. Include some prominent Democrats too – fuck anybody who had anything to do with this.

They defy the subpoenas or plead the 5th? Refer to DOJ. DOJ doesn’t do anything? Trump and Vance are protecting pedophiles. A Newsom/Shapiro/whatever DOJ will put them in jail where they belong. Dig into a potential cover up regarding his death.

And the steady drip drip is the type of thing the press eats up. It’s a way to keep the story alive forever. Crank it up in mid-2027 and keep it going until Election Day. Make it Hillary’s emails but, you know, an actual huge scandal.

Sounds like a plan.

. . . oh I had missed this particularly charming detail:

“A series of emails included in the files indicated [that after the lunch] Lutnick’s lawyer sent the resume of Lutnick’s family nanny to Epstein, who had expressed interest in meeting her. The documents do not contain confirmation that the meeting occurred.”

Note that all this is YEARS after Epstein’s underage rapey habits had been exposed publicly.