The FBI appears to be hiding files in the Jeffrey Epstein case...

 

File photo of Jeffrey Epstein. Fox News/DOJ photo. 

The FBI has been accused by Attorney General Pam Bondi of hiding files in the Jeffrey Epstein case. Fox News. Bondi had requested all files held by the FBI in the investigation into the Epstein trafficking network, but only received 200 files. Those files were released today, though there was little in the way of new information. Bondi said that there were thousands of pages of documents still at the FBI office in New York and that she expected them to be on her desk by tomorrow. New FBI director Kash Patel, who was confirmed eight days ago, has said that the FBI would enter a new era of transparency. 

My Comment:

Right wing folks on X are not happy about the events today. Folks wanted everything released and they wanted it released yesterday. The files that were released today were mostly old news and I haven't really heard of anything new in these files. It didn't help that Congressional republicans literally "rick rolled" folks that were looking for the files. It was not a good look and more than a few people are furious about it. 

But I also think that expectations are way too high. We actually know pretty well who was involved in the Epstein trafficking/blackmail network. Folks like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew and Alan Dershowitz are well known to have to had close ties to Epstein and some of them have been directly accused of abuse. I really don't know what else folks expect to be released.

My guess is that folks are hoping that there will be new names that haven't shown up before or that there will be some major revelation that will send half the Democrats (and a few corrupt Republicans) right to prison. That isn't going to happen. There might be a few more documents in the FBI office in New York, but I would be pretty shocked if they have anything much that we don't actually already know or suspect.

The real story is that the FBI is appearing to stonewall the Attorney General. That's pretty unforgivable and the folks in charge of that decision need to be fired and fired yesterday. It's totally unacceptable to ignore a lawful order like this and they can use whatever argument they want, they don't have a leg to stand on. 

Of course even if the FBI does release these documents to Pam Bondi, that doesn't mean that the documents will be released immediately. I am guessing that the documents would have to be reviewed and some redactions, mostly relating to the identity of the victims, would have to be made. That would take at least some time.  

The real question I have is if the fact that the Epstein network will have whoever was funding and controlling it. Epstein has been a called an intelligence operative and I believe that is accurate. The real problem is that nobody released who was actually running him. Was it one of our three letter agencies? Or was it Israel, as many suspect? Such a revelation would indeed be shocking and could more than explain the reluctance to release the files. Just imagine if it was the FBI that was running the Epstein network... 

Either way though, I am not expecting too much more from the Epstein case. It's possible that some of the folks involved could be charged, and I think that's what everyone really wants. But I am not holding my breath. I am guessing that even the new files held by the FBI will end up disappointing people. 

I do think this case has become a bit of a liability for the Trump administration. Today's little stunt wasn't exactly popular. Folks wanted everything and everything now but instead we got 200 old pages of stuff we already knew. And they hyped up the release way too much to the point where folks were going to be disappointed regardless. So far much of the criticism has been leveled at Attorney General Pam Bondi and I think some of it is fair. She does seem to spend a lot of time on Fox News and folks have noticed that she hasn't released the files relating to Sean "Diddy" Combs, the JFK assassination and the MLK assassinations. At least some of the criticism of her would have been tamped down if she had released those files as well.