Friday, January 5, 2024

With Donald Trump's mouth surprisingly shut, and Bill Clinton seemingly unperturbed, what should we make of the Jeffrey Epstein document dump? So far, the story is a dud, and our guess is it will stay that way

Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell & Co.
 

How has Donald Trump responded to being named in the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking documents? In a stunning development, Trump has kept his mouth pretty much closed about the matter. How are average Americans supposed to react to that? Most of us probably have no idea because we've never seen Trump with his mouth shut before? Does it mean he is scared, contemptuous, confident, unconcerned? Heck, your guess is as good as ours. The New Republic (TNR) tries to shine light on Trump's peculiar silence under the headline "Here's How Trump Is Responding to Being Named in Epstein Documents." /Writes reporter Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling:

The first series of Jeffrey Epstein documents have been released, and as expected, they name Donald Trump. And how is the country’s social media–obsessed former president responding? Well he’s gone surprisingly mute.

Donald Trump’s last slew of posts on his Twitter-dupe social media platform TruthSocial seemed like an effort to flood his MAGA followers’ timelines with unrelated content. In a series of rapid-fire posts Thursday morning, Trump shared endorsements for his presidential campaign, as well as a slew of videos from news outlets validating his legal strategy in his upcoming criminal trials. He also made more than two dozen posts attacking E. Jean Carroll, all within the span of half an hour.

Despite the flurry of activity, there are absolutely zero mentions of the revelatory unsealing of nearly 900 pages of a lawsuit launched by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, nearly a decade ago, even though she’s one of Trump’s former employees, meeting Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell roughly two weeks into her employment at Trump’s Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, according to court documents.

Along with Trump’s, some of the major names that jump off the pages range from some of the world’s biggest politicos to show-stopping entertainers. They include former President Bill Clinton, British Prince Andrew, Epstein, and Trump legal ally Alan Dershowitz, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield, and Stephen Hawking.

Their presence in the documents is not proof of any legal wrongdoing.

Trump and Clinton  clearly are the two biggest names revealed so far, and Clinton does not seem too concerned about it, as Houghtaling reports:

A Clinton spokesperson has redirected attention to a 2019 statement put out on behalf of the forty-second president denying any knowledge of Epstein’s pedophilic, sex-trafficking empire.

“In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation,” read the statement.

The list of Jane and John Does, which was formed nine years ago, after Giuffre filed a defamation claim against Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, was partially released on Wednesday. More of the documents could be unsealed sometime today (Thursday, (1/4/24) or in the coming days.

Many of the names are expected to be publicly known Epstein associates, including employees of the financier. Other possible names to be unveiled could include Epstein’s clients and perpetrators, though the judge has specified that the identities of minors or sexual assault victims will not be released.

This story could spring to life in the next few days, but so far, it has been a dud -- and my guess is that it will stay that way. If Bill Clinton is unperturbed, and Donald Trump is quiet . . . well, those aren't the responses you would expect from two of the most talkative presidents of modern times. Maybe being tied to a sex-trafficking scandal isn't as interesting as most of us thought it would be.

3 comments:

  1. When ever the rich are involved in scandals such as this, nothing much happens. The fact that only Trump and Clinton's names have been put out there, its most likely more "important" people ie. rich people were involved. Lets not forget the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth.

    Back in the 1980s I think it was, there was a big story in Europe that the police had broken up a ring of pedophiles. The news reported very prominent people were involved. The suggestion was the trials certainly would be interesting. After the initial articles, never read or heard about the case again.

    Don't expect to hear much about Epstein's case either.

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  2. It's interesting that the whole story of releasing the names connected to Epstein has gone stone cold. Was it Prince Andrew who was tied to Epstein and maybe the 1980s story? His name was in the released documents, but it's all quiet on the Western Front for now.

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  3. Not many names were released in the 1980s case, but my impression was it involved key people within Europe, the usual, no so much all of the top teir but the second tier. Andrew would have still been in the military and Epstein was most likely still learning his "trade". I think it also involved French and Belgiums.

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