Leaving aside pretty much everything horrible thing Trump has done/is doing/will do, freedom of information is a good thing and this release is a boon to historians, academics, and anyone with a ing interest in 20th-century history. But, as many have noted, while Trump was happy to sign the executive order declassifying this material, there’s another set of papers he promised to release that hit a little closer to home.
We’re talking about the ‘Epstein files,’ documents connected to notorious international pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who spent years hobnobbing with the cream of society alongside his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell while abusing a series of vulnerable underage girls. In September 2024, Trump appeared on Lex Fridman’s podcast where he was asked about the list, with Fridman saying: “It’s just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public.” Trump replied: “It’s very interesting, isn’t it?,” before saying, “I’d certainly take a look at it.”
But since taking office, Trump has made no mention of the Epstein list, though you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out why. The two were formerly friends, having hit it off in New York in the late 1980s, with Epstein and Maxwell becoming regulars at Mar-a-Lago. The depth of their friendship was revealed by Trump himself in 2002, when he waxed lyrical about Epstein in an interview:
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
Yes, Mr President, it’s safe to say many of your buddy’s partners were indeed on the “younger side.” More pertinently, the files that would be released would confirm who’d traveled on Epstein’s private jet and visited his “pedophile island” of Little Saint James. Inconveniently for Trump, we already know he flew on Epstein’s private jet seven times between 1993 and 1997, though he insists he “had a falling out” with Epstein in the 2000s and never visited Little Saint James.
If these files say otherwise, releasing them would land him in a situation so awkward even Teflon Don might not be able to wriggle his way out of it. But, even if Trump knows he wouldn’t be implicated by these files, his associates might not come out quite so unscathed. For example, incoming Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr has also itted to traveling on Epstein’s jet, though he claims this was long before anyone knew about any “nefarious issues.”
All that said, Trump may yet live up to his commitment to transparency and release whatever files the government has on Epstein. After all, he might decide that some collateral damage to himself and his allies would be worth it in exchange for a litany of bad press for Bill and Hillary Clinton and other prominent political opponents. So, for now, we wait.
Published: Jan 27, 2025 09:49 am