Thank You, Ron DeSantis

 

     No, you're not seeing things.

     A few days ago, Circuit Judge Luis Delgado, ordered the release of the grand jury documents in the Jeffrey Epstein "trial" of 2006. First of all, while this isn't unprecedented, it's certainly very rare. Grand jury testimony generally never sees the light of day. I've heard of grand jury documents that were generated over a century ago that still haven't been released to the public. For this to happen within two decades is absolutely extraordinary.

     In his ruling, Judge Delgado had written, "The testimony taken by the Grand Jury concerns activity ranging from grossly unacceptable to rape — all of the conduct at issue is sexually deviant, disgusting, and criminal." So plainly he was disgusted by what he'd read in those court transcripts. The sweetheart deal that arose from this farce of a trial, in which Epstein was allowed to plead to a lesser charge of soliciting prostitution (Yes, it required calling one of Epstein's underage victims a "prostitute") got him 13 months in the Sheriff's stockade where he was allowed to roam free in Palm Beach for up to 12 hours a day.

     The "prosecutor", Alex Acosta, later went on to become Trump's Labor Secretary and when news of this sweetheart deal was written about by Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, it cost Acosta his job. Then the story died.

     Enter Ron DeSantis.

     DeSantis comes from a long, obnoxious line of horrible governors that the goobers in the Sunshine State insist on putting into the Governor's mansion in Tallahassee. People thought Jeb Bush ("the slow one") was the worst Florida could possibly do. Then they elected Rick Scott, an extraterrestrial crook who pulled off the largest Medicare swindle in its history and even avoided seeing the inside of a courtroom. Then they saw fit to elect DeSantis.

     DeSantis' picture should be next to the word "sociopath" in Merriam Webster. Like Jeb Bush before him, DeSantis tried and tried to get himself elected president only to prove to be less popular than salmonella. Like Trump, he completely mismanaged the pandemic, started a needless, losing war with Disney, signed into law the Don't Say Gay bill that vacuumed books out of school libraries, and otherwise fucked up Florida in more ways than most people can count.

     However...

     On February 29th of this year, DeSantis signed into law a bill called HB 117, which specifically allowed the courts to release the Epstein Grand Jury testimony. Not all grand jury testimony- The Epstein Grand Jury testimony. The title of the Governor's press release even reads, "Governor DeSantis Signs Legislation to Authorize the Release of Jeffrey Epstein Grand Jury Documents."

     Stopped clocks and all that.

     And that brings us to today.

     While we already knew the bullet points through the Miami Herald's excellent reportage of the case, what we hadn't read before were all the victim statements given, and apparently ignored, by prosecutors. There was, for instance, Katie Johnson's testimony a decade before her second case against Trump mysteriously vanished just before the 2016 election.

    

     The details are too disgusting to repeat but Trump forced two twelve year-old children to engage in lesbian sex then orally pleasured him. Then he pushed them away and yelled at them for the "poor  quality" (as if children that age are supposed to be experts in such things).

     Then it moves on to what we've already known, the rape when she was 13 and tied to a bed by Trump in Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse, brutalized when she asked him to wear a condom then threw money at her when she cried out of fear of getting pregnant.

     If true, and I have no reason to doubt Johnson, it paints a picture of an entitled rich guy, a monster, the kind who would assault a journalist during a Mar a Lago interview with his pregnant wife just feet away, the kind that would rape another journalist in a store dressing room.

     So, my question is, why isn't this bigger news? And how come the biggest news is Biden's poor debate performance of a week ago? Biden's stuttering speech and vacant expression was enough to make feckless Democrats jump ship but, for some reason, Republicans are pretending as if these grand jury transcripts don't even exist.

     Instead of attacking the president, they should be flogging this until the Rapture. Every time Trump says something, the Biden campaign or White House should say, "Child molester says what?" Force the issue into the news and keep it there. The sight of Trump pathetically and badly dancing at Mar a Lago all by himself while surrounded by gorgeous NFL leaders should be in countless campaign ads. Trump canoodling with Epstein, Katie Johnson's transcript should be on billboards from coast to fucking coast.

     If Joe Biden wants to make up the invaluable real estate he lost a week ago, that's the way to go about clawing it back. Being a violent, psychopathic pedophile is probably Trump's most closely-held and cherished secret. Bringing that long-hidden Donald Trump kicking and screaming into the light of day will enrage him and make him even more demented than nature's already made him.

     If he wants to file yet another one of his nuisance lawsuits for defamation, then let him. In every trial both civil and criminal there's a phase called "discovery." If he wants to sue the Biden campaign, then let him be advised that he'll have to prove his innocence in civil court.

     Politics these days is a blood sport, especially with this Danny Boyle rage zombie version of the GOP. The Democratic Party needs to stop pretending otherwise, as if calling Trump out on his pedophilia is a distasteful option best left untouched. The Republican Party is filled with gimlet-carrying piano wire artists who wouldn't waste a second if there was even a hint of a suggestion that Biden had raped a 13 year-old girl.

     The election is in exactly four months. Time's a'wasting.