Trump and Johnson's Illusion of Transparency on Epstein is Grotesque Political Theater

Trump WH says full release all of the Epstein Files would be a "hostile act" as Trump calls for end to bipartisan push for full release of what he calls the "Democrat Epstein Hoax."

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On Friday morning, Trump announced in a Truth Social post that the Justice Department had “done its job” and called for an end to the bipartisan push for more information about the Epstein Files.

After a long rant blaming the Left and Democrats for anyone’s interest in justice for the victims of an international sex trafficking scheme that ruined lives and over which Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking, Trump claimed the DOJ “has done its job, they have given everything requested of them. It’s time to end the Democrat Epstein Hoax, and give the Republicans credit for the great, even legendary, job that they are doing.”

Donald Trump earlier called the bipartisan discharge petition to force the release of all of the material the DOJ has on the Epstein Files — which Epstein survivors want — a “hostile act.”

“The White House adopted a threatening posture, distributing a statement to multiple media outlets labeling any Republican support for Massie’s discharge petition a ‘hostile act to the administration,’” CNN reported.

For all but the most diehard Trump fans, it’s very clear that the Republican President is engaged in a concerted effort at a cover-up that involves whipping House Republicans against transparency and full disclosure.

"This is a Democrat hoax that never ends. From what I understand, I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given," Trump said in the Oval Office.

One problem with Trump’s narrative is that a handful of Republican lawmakers are working in a bipartisan manner with Democrats to get the release of the Epstein Files, and the Republican base is still pushing for the Epstein materials they were promised. So Trump’s attempt to blame Democrats for the pressure he’s facing is weak.

The dynamics behind Trump’s efforts versus the handful of Republicans who are resisting the obvious propaganda efforts of calling a lack of disclosure ‘full disclosure’ are critical. In this fissure, we can see both how Trump controls and manipulates elected officials to do his bidding and we can see the fractures within the Republican Party.

The victims’ voices are being amplified by a bipartisan effort led by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), with what seemed to be sincerely felt offers by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Massie to read the list on the House floor, thereby offering the protections afforded to speech on the House floor, a move that might offer protection to the survivors from any lawsuits.

Speaker Mike Johnson’s Desperate Political Theater

Against these efforts, we have House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) putting on carefully crafted political theater in which he tried to claim that the victims don’t want the files released via Khanna and Massie’s discharge petition.

“Wait a minute. I asked the survivors in person. I said, what — is that true? Are you worried about your protections? And they said, no, that's not right. We do want this bill,” PBS reported.

The Khanna-Massie discharge petition would force the Department of Justice to release all of the information from the Epstein files. All of it. So of course this is what the survivors want.

A discharge petition is a way to work around the leadership to force a vote on something the leadership is not allowing to come to the floor. So it’s an attempted workaround of Mike Johnson. The signers as of Thursday (given the pressure campaign from the White House and Republican leadership, this could change at any minute) included Reps Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace, but they would need two more Republicans to sign on if they got every single Democrat to sign.

Johnson had already, in a moment of panic in mid-July, sent the entire House home to avoid a vote that might cause the release of the Epstein Files.

But upon their return, they got right to work with this discharge petition, forcing Johnson to pressure Republicans to “not support Massie's discharge petition during a closed conference meeting Wednesday morning, according to multiple sources. Johnson instead argued the ongoing investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the better path forward,” PBS reported.

Why would Johnson need a “better path forward” if he truly were seeking full disclosure, which the bill behind the discharge petition would provide?

Indeed, the “better path forward” Johnson supports only came about after it appeared as though the handful of Republicans who joined Democrats would be able to force a vote via the discharge petition.

Suddenly, “the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee released an initial tranche of 33,000 pages of Epstein documents it had subpoenaed from the Justice Department. It seemed like an effort to mollify the Republicans who might support Massie’s measure, which is being co-led by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna,” CNN reported.

But there was no there, there. It was political theater meant to appease and deflect.

“But like the binders of Epstein documents the White House gave right-wing influencers earlier this year, the documents were overwhelmingly old news. House Oversight Democrats and Massie estimated that 97% of the documents had already been released, while the rest were heavily redacted. No media outlet has found anything revealing in them.”

Massie claimed it amounted to about 1% of what the Justice Department has.

They’ve given us the sleeves off their vest,” the Kentucky Republican said.

The victims disagreed. They very much want the Epstein Files released. So much so that they are willing to create their own list since the Trump government is so obviously doing anything but releasing the files that Trump promised to release if he won the presidency.