Dead Men Do Tell Tales

     It's always risky to take a criminal like Jeffrey Epstein at his word. However, most of us let our guard down during private communications. There's less of an incentive to lie if we assume they won't be read for public consumption, if there aren't reputations to protect.

     Having said that, it would also be reckless and wouldn't necessarily serve the interests of truth to dismiss out of hand the tranche of documents handed to the House Oversight Committee by Epstein's estate. These consist of tens of thousands of emails written by Epstein to people like Ghislaine Maxwell and Trump biographer Michael Wolff.

     The emails indisputably seem to have been targeted for dissemination to the House committee and many of them are insulting, defamatory and condemnatory of Trump (which leads one to wonder why he'd spent Thanksgiving with Trump at Mar a Lago in 2017).

     Indeed, reading just a few of these emails, one gets the sense that it would be more difficult to explain why Epstein would lie about Trump than it would be to explain why he'd tell the truth about him. We don't know what precipitated the split between the two longtime friends. The accepted theory is that it was over a real estate deal in Palm Beach when both men bid on a property. But that's not what's important.

     What is important is how thoroughly Epstein seems to have turned on Trump. It was an animus that bordered on the outright venomous. In some emails, Epstein wrote that Trump didn't seem to have a decent particle in him,that he was "unbelievably evil" and even called him "borderline insane".

     Most chillingly, Epstein said, "I'm the one that can take him down."

     Plainly, Epstein had plans for Trump and he was ready to make his move. So perhaps it's no coincidence that Epstein was arrested moments after landing after a trip to France.two and a half years into Trump's first term. And perhaps it's no coincidence that Epstein was a suicided a month later.

     As I've said several times before, it's one thing to have a few dots to connect. It's another thing entirely when there are so many dots that they form a picture, like the pixels on a TV screen. And everything we already know about Trump and Epstein (and one gets the sense the worst for Trump is yet to come) show an eventually bitter relationship.

     The animus was mutual. In countless desperate attempts to separate himself from Epstein, Trump has called him a creep and other names. He said he booted him out of Mar a Lago and revoked his membership, despite Epstein saying he was never a member. 

     Trump, ironically, is now trying to deflect attention from himself by mentioning Bill Clinton and others. Here's the problem- Epstein wrote in one of those emails, in all capital letters, that Bill Clinton was never at Epstein's island.

     In other words, everything Trump has been claiming is being disputed by the Epstein emails.

     Now, does Epstein's turnaround on Trump retroactively make him a hero or a decent person? Of course not. Epstein was a well-scrubbed scumbag who victimized countless underage girls for his sexual gratification and ruined their lives. At least one of them has committed suicide over it. One girl, named "Maria" by Katie Johnson, permanently disappeared.

     All it proves is that Epstein had an axe to grind and, just as many a true word is spoken in jest, many of them are also spoken in bitterness.

     And, unremarked by everyone is the sheer level of Trump's panic and at how willing he is to burn bridges to protect himself. The most notable split has been with Marjorie Taylor-Greene.

 

     Greene is one of only four Republicans who'd put their names to the discharge petition intended to release the Epstein files in full. Greene, to put it mildly, has been supportive of Trump and she's debased herself to no end in her service to him. Yet lately, Greene has been siding with Democrats about a whole host of issues, including the plight of those in Gaza, SNAP benefits being suspended and, of course, the release of the Epstein files.

 

     For now, she's a useful idiot but we need as much help as we can to get justice for those girls. And Trump has been spitting venom at Greene over a text message she recently sent him that drove him over the edge. As a result, Trump called a "ranting lunatic", probably the only honest thing he's ever said recently, and pulled his endorsement for her.

     Let's get one thing straight- Greene is no more a secret hero than Epstein. Having drunk the Koolaid countless times, Greene's predicate for demanding the release of the files is taking down the Clintons and other Democrats. She literally cannot fathom why Trump is going after her. And, like a diehard MAGAt, it's honestly never occurred to her that she could be protecting a pedophile, that maybe Trump doesn't want the Lolita Express's flight logs released because he knows his name is all over them.

      Trump also wants to take down the Clintons but not at the expense of his own reputation. That's why he's fighting so hard and viciously to keep the Epstein files from being released. Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee, is confident the vote on the Epstein files' release will sail through the House and that many Republicans will vote with the Democrats. And even a famously thin-skinned asshole like Trump knows he can't go after all of them.

     Jeffrey Epstein said he was the only one who could take down Trump. It looks as if he might posthumously get his wish.