Donald Trump REALLY wants us to stop talking about Jeffrey Epstein

This week, the House Oversight Committee released an additional 22,000 pages of records related to financier/sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that contained many emails pertaining to Donald Trump. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to seat a new Democratic member, who will provide the final vote needed to pass a discharge petition and bring the release of all Epstein-related information to the floor for a vote.

The White House has been struggling to develop a strategy to contain the fallout, but an announcement from the president on Friday could signal a last-ditch Hail Mary effort. Meanwhile, a previous data dump containing hacked communications between Epstein and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak continues to expose how deeply connected Epstein was to Israeli intelligence.

Discharge Petition

On Wednesday, Top officials in the Trump administration met with Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) in the White House Situation Room of all places—where nothing is recorded and no electronic devices are allowed—to discuss her support for a discharge petition demanding the release of Justice Department files related to Epstein. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel were among those in attendance. It was part of a broader pressure campaign by the administration to dissuade Republican lawmakers from backing the vote.

At the time, the petition was one signature short of the 218 needed to force a House vote, with Boebert among the few Republicans to support it. Later that same day, Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) was finally seated. Grijalva has been very vocal about her intent to provide the 218th vote, and it seemed the Trump administration hoped to peel away one of the four defectors.

Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Nancy Mace (R-SC) have all been dug in on their position, and Boebert was seen as the one most capable of being flipped. However, following the meeting, Boebert announced that her position had not changed.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has done everything in his power to delay that vote, including sending Congress home early, claimed that it would finally go to the floor next week. Several Republicans who did not sign the discharge petition have since said they will vote to release the files when it comes to the floor.

A discharge petition is a procedural tool that allows members to bring a bill or resolution directly to the House floor for consideration, bypassing committee review when the committee has not taken it up. This is to prevent a committee from effectively holding a vote hostage.

The associated bill would force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, along with any information about the investigation into his supposed suicide while in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or ongoing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted. However, and this is crucial, the Justice Department would not be allowed to redact information due to "embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary."

The bill seems likely to pass the House but would still need 60 votes to avoid a filibuster in the Senate. If it passes the higher chamber, Trump can veto the bill, but the optics of that would be disastrous and could generate enough backlash to generate the 66 votes needed to override a veto.

What's in the new documents

Because the documents from the House Oversight Committee were released as image files rather than searchable PDFs, it has been more difficult for journalists to unpack their contents. That said, none of what has come out so far looks good for Trump. While none have accused Trump directly of criminal actions, they continue to show that the two were much closer than Trump has admitted. 

One text thread between former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and Epstein, while the latter was in prison, shows them discussing, almost jokingly, the fact that Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre had been poached from Mar-a-Lago, which had not been made public at the time. Trump was to meet with Prince Andrew, who has since been stripped of his royal titles for his involvement in the affair, that day. Bannon mused, "Can’t believe nobody is making u the connective tissue."

Interestingly, Bannon, who also served time in federal prison, was in close communication with Epstein right up until his controversial death in a New York City jail cell. Bannon even recorded 15 hours of interviews with Epstein in 2019 for a documentary project that was never released. Bannon has described the footage as part of a planned five-part series titled The Monsters: Epstein's Life Among the Global Elite. It was allegedly intended to rehabilitate Epstein's public image, preparing him for a high-profile interview with 60 Minutes. According to reports, the sessions were not purely journalistic but also functioned as media training, with Bannon coaching Epstein to appear "friendly," "natural," and "sympathetic." 

The documents also show Epstein claiming Trump had spent time with at least one victim at Epstein’s home and "knew about the girls." In communications with D.C. gadfly and author Michael Wolff, Epstein continuously suggested he had leverage over Trump. In other communications, Epstein described Trump as "dirty," the "worst person I’d ever known," "dangerous," "mad," and "borderline insane." He suggested that if Trump claims he’d never been to his mansion or flown on his plane, he would be "flat out lying."

Epstein’s ties to Israel and Russia

It's also been revealed that Epstein had connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin and positioned himself as someone who could provide insight into Trump’s behavior. In a 2018 email, Epstein suggested to Thorbjørn Jagland, then secretary-general of the Council of Europe, that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could gain insight into Trump by speaking with him, writing, "I think you might suggest to Putin that Lavrov can get insight on talking to me."

Epstein added that former Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin had previously engaged him for that purpose and "understood Trump after our conversations."

According to Wolff, Epstein claimed he flew to Moscow in 2017 to meet with Putin, and repeatedly bragged about providing services to the Russian president in the final decade of his life. Epstein also claimed to have advised Russian government circles on circumventing Western sanctions as early as 2014 through his ties with Sergei Belyakov, a Russian civil servant linked to the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

The leaked emails show that Epstein facilitated a backchannel between Israel and the Kremlin during the Syrian civil war, advising former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on engaging Putin to secure Russian support for the removal of Bashar al-Assad. In one exchange, Epstein declined an invitation to meet Putin at the St. Petersburg forum unless "real time and privacy" were guaranteed.

Epstein also shared intelligence on European and U.S. figures involved in Russia diplomacy and advised Barak on messaging and media strategy, as well as how to discuss certain matters with the head of Mossad. Yes, "financier" Jeffrey Epstein apparently had a better understanding of how to operate within Israel's Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations than a former Israeli Prime Minister who had also served as the nation's Defense Minister and was actively working in intelligence at the time.

There are also records of Epstein wiring money to an Israeli intelligence agent. That is perhaps the most significant revelation and may suggest why there has been such intense secrecy over Epstein. In other words, not who he had dirt on, so much as who he had been accumulating it for and how they had been using it. 

Trump’s strategy

It is unknown how damning the information in the government’s possession may be to the president. What is known is that he’s acting guilty as hell, and he and everyone in his circle have been working very hard to keep them from coming to light. Whether that is because Epstein had dirt on the president for sexual misdeeds or financial ones, or if Trump is protecting friends and donors who may be implicated, remains to be seen.

I will say that I’ve seen absolutely nothing to suggest that Trump is willing to take the heat for anyone other than himself. He routinely throws close associates under the bus, especially if there’s anything in it for him. That raises the question of whether another entity, say, a foreign actor, is pressuring Trump not to release the files to protect its own interests. 

In the absence of proof that the president had sex with a minor, it is difficult to imagine the files containing anything that would further hinder Trump's reputation in that arena. At least 28 women have accused him of various acts of sexual misconduct, including rape, non-consensual kissing and groping, and other unwanted sexual behavior. He’s been accused of rape on at least three occasions. In two civil trials, a New York jury found Trump liable for "sexual abuse" and forcible touching of writer E. Jean Carroll, as well as for defaming her after she made the accusation.  He has admitted to grabbing women by their genitals without permission and bragged about "inspecting" dressing rooms during beauty pageants he owned. 

On Friday, President Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department to investigate ties between Epstein and several prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and billionaire Democratic donor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. 

AG Pam Bondi has assigned that task to Jay Clayton, interim United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, calling him "one of the most capable and trusted prosecutors in the country." That's a preposterous statement given that Clayton is a corporate lawyer who had zero prosecutorial experience before being tapped for the post, largely because he was seen as a strong supporter of the president. Still, he has a reputation as a serious lawyer who would not want to stain his legacy. Trump likes to put people in a position to prove their loyalty, so time will tell how Clayton handles the responsibility.

That said, there is no way to make this partisan. If Clinton or any of the others are guilty of sex crimes, especially with minors, bury them under the prison as far as I’m concerned, and I think the vast majority of Democrats would agree with that. However, I suspect the strategy is to use the fact that the files are "part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation" to justify their non-release. And that investigation will outlast Trump’s term and perhaps even Trump himself.

Meanwhile, Trump publicly broke with one of his biggest supporters on Friday over her support for the matter.  "I am withdrawing my support and Endorsement of ‘Congresswoman’ Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia,” he wrote on Truth Social. "Over the past several weeks," Trump wrote, "all I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!"

In another post, he seemed to threaten retribution.  "I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics, and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support," he wrote. "She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors."

Again, this does not sound like a man who has nothing to hide. 

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch is also the author of three novels and a short story collection available here.