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Talk about one of the most historic political fumbles in American history.
Promising unprecedented transparency and the long-awaited release of the Epstein files (at least what’s still intact at this point), Pam Bondi instead chose to be the ringmaster of an absolute circus.
Now, I didn’t expect to actually get any legitimate and incriminating files yesterday, because what’s there to trust about a federal attorney general who did absolutely nothing as the Lolita Express flew out of West Palm Beach for eight years (2011–2019) while she was held the office of Florida attorney general? I mean, we knew who Jeffrey Epstein was at least by 2008, as he’d already pled guilty and been convicted for procuring a child for sex. An attorney general who arranged for George Zimmerman to face a stacked deck as he was viciously prosecuted for an act of self-defense, reveling in the “destructive glory” of the “racial morass” she’d perpetuated? An attorney general who is for red flag laws? But I digress.
Anyway, Bondi appeared on a Fox News segment with Jesse Watters on Wednesday night, hyping up the viewer and promising that “tomorrow” we’d be getting “a lot of information” regarding the convicted pedophile—Bondi even spoke about how “sick” Epstein’s actions were, insinuating the information coming was actually going to be damning.
But then “tomorrow” rolled around, and we got a bunch of Conservative Inc. “influencers” giddily smiling on the White House steps, holding up “Phase 1” binders, in what can only be described as props. I’m not actually sure if there were any documents in the binders, but all that “sick” information turned out to be an even more redacted version of what’s already been circulating in the public square for years. As an AP article reported:
The small batch of documents included copies of flight logs from Epstein’s private plane, which have long been available in multiple court cases, and a heavily redacted photocopy of an address book purportedly compiled by Epstein and his longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, which has been cited in media accounts for many years.
These “influencers” have since come to Bondi’s defense, arguing that it’s bad actors in the Southern District of New York as they reportedly didn’t actually hand everything over to Bondi so really it’s their fault that everything was such a disastrous flop—but to that I’d say, well no duh, Bondi admittedly only had a couple hundred pages of already published evidence. Yesterday, the DOJ website released a strongly worded letter (also dated yesterday) from Bondi to FBI director Kash Patel, stating this:
Before you came into office, I requested the full and complete files related to Jeffrey Epstein. In response to this request, I received approximately 200 pages of documents, which consisted primarily of flight logs, Epstein’s list of contacts, and a list of victims’ names and phone numbers.
I repeatedly questioned whether this was the full set of documents responsive to my request and was repeatedly assured by the FBI that we had received the full set of documents. Late yesterday; I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related. to the investigation and indictment of Epstein. Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files. When you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information.
Are we supposed to believe that Bondi and Patel honestly believed that all the government had on Epstein was a mere 200 pages of boring flight manifests and simple contact information for any and all associates, business or otherwise? If it were me, and New York Democrats like James Comey’s daughter handed me a bunch of bland documents claiming that was all of it, I’d know they were lying, and I’d immediately raid the office to prevent further tampering. (These people have already had years to destroy whatever they need to.) What I wouldn’t do is give them space while routinely asking if that’s all of it, because the answer is obvious, no, it’s NOT all of it… then give them another 12(?) hours to round up all that was left out and deliver it to my office. (If you read her letter, you see that Bondi gave the bad actors in New York a deadline of the following day at eight o’clock in the morning.)
What. A. Joke.
What has just happened is extremely puzzling, and totally at odds with their rhetoric. One can hope that they have a deeper plan than is immediately obvious, but if that’s not the case, then we’re seeing either total ineptitude, or something far more concerning.
As one X user articulately noted, what Bondi just did with the “influencers” encompasses so much of exactly why we hate the Democrats: “selective ‘truth’ given to selected people.”
If this is a harbinger... then God help us.
(See also, “That GOP majority? It’s REDACTED” by M. Walter)
Image: Public domain.