... The most transparent administration in history'
Before explaining the government's rationale for blacking out Trump's name, let's recap. Along with aliens and JFK's assassination, conspiracy theories surrounding the life and death of convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein have long consumed MAGA.
Epstein avoided federal sex-trafficking charges in 2008 when he agreed to plead guilty to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution. In July 2019, following an investigation by the Miami Herald that also scrutinized the integrity of the government's probe, Epstein was indicted on federal charges of sex trafficking of minors. A month later, he died by suicide in his jail cell, federal law enforcement authorities said, while awaiting trial.
Epstein's death led to a swirl of renewed interest among Trump supporters, which in recent months has verged into an obsession. Last year, while still on the campaign trail, Trump vowed to "declassify" material in the government's possession pertaining to Epstein. Before Pam Bondi was nominated as attorney general by Trump, she insisted that the public had a right to know more details about the case. "If people in that report are still fighting to keep their names private," she said on Fox News last year, "they have no legal basis to do so, unless they're a child, a victim, or a cooperating defendant." In January, Kash Patel, the FBI director, told a Senate Committee during his confirmation hearing that he'd ensure "the American public knows the full weight of what happened."
Then on Feb. 27, during a highly publicized event at the White House, Bondi rolled out what the Justice Department referred to as the "first phase" of the release of the Epstein files. It was attended by former Pizzagate provocateur Jack Posobiec and other far-right influencers. They were given binders labeled "The Epstein Files" and "The Most Transparent Administration in History" that contained about 200 pages of documents that Bondi characterized as "declassified." She also suggested that the records would contain previously undisclosed details about Epstein.
Instead, Bondi's big Epstein files party was a bust. It turned out the documents she called declassified, which included pages from Epstein's infamous "black book," had been previously released, most recently during the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell four years earlier. (The black book revealed Trump's name and the names of his wife, Melania, and other family members.)
Trump's followers were irate. Bondi was angry, too. She fired off a letter to FBI Director Patel demanding to know why the bureau failed to provide her with the thousands of pages of documents related to the Epstein investigation and indictment she requested. She wanted answers from Patel, and accountability. ...
