OPINION:
Democrats received a big win Tuesday when they suckered a handful of malcontent Republicans into joining their campaign to compel the release of the Epstein files. Or was it the Democrats who were just suckered into distributing material dragging their own members through the muck?
Serial pervert Jeffrey Epstein’s preference was to hang out with people on the left side of the aisle, and his emails confirm his obsession with undermining Donald Trump. Liberals fantasizing about a trove of videotapes that will take down the president will be disappointed.
The previous administration was so nasty that it raided the first lady’s boudoir looking for dirt on Mr. Trump. There’s no chance its agents didn’t also sift through the Epstein archive seeking something salacious.
We’ll soon find out. All but one House member voted Tuesday to force the executive branch to hand over the goods, and the Senate didn’t bother amending the ham-fisted legislation. The problem with sharing the raw files is that investigators often follow rumors that lead to dead ends. Misleading evidence can put good names through the wringer.
Maybe that’s what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will say about his marketing firm’s writing to Epstein to ask whether he would like “to get an opportunity to get to know Hakeem better,” as The Washington Times reported Tuesday.
Delegate Stacey Plaskett was caught texting Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing. The scoundrel played Cyrano de Bergerac, feeding the nonvoting Democrat representing the U.S. Virgin Islands the words she needed to bash Mr. Trump in the middle of a committee meeting.
“Quick I’m up next is that an acronym?” she asked after the deviant instructed the delegate to bring up “RONA,” referring to presidential aide Ronna McDaniel.
Even Lawrence H. Summers, President Clinton’s Treasury secretary, sought advice on having an affair from the now-deceased degenerate. Mr. Trump spent valuable political capital to avoid creating this circus. He didn’t want the distraction.
“I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert. I guess I turned out to be right. You know who does have? Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, who ran Harvard, was with him every single night, every single weekend. They lived together, they went to his island many times. Andrew Weissmann, I hear,” said Mr. Trump, responding to Capitol Hill’s latest move.
Once he signs the legislation, the Justice Department will have 30 days to publish all papers in its possession concerning Epstein. This means we’ll see the sweetheart settlement deals that the department cut with the convicted sex offender.
Details on the rather suspicious circumstances of Epstein’s “suicide” must also be provided. The only exceptions from disclosure include pornographic images involving minors, matters that would jeopardize an ongoing investigation and Uncle Sam’s favorite catchall, “national security.”
Sunlight is certainly overdue, but this isn’t where it should stop. A reinvigorated congressional zeal for transparency is needed to prod the FBI, the Justice Department and the CIA into showing us everything they have on the Russiagate hoax and the assassination attempts on Mr. Trump.
Foot-dragging bureaucrats are experts in running out the clock to protect themselves and their institutions. They conceal misconduct just long enough for public interest to move on to another shiny object.
Revealing a treasonous conspiracy to take down the elected president of the United States is just as important as obtaining justice for plutocratic knavery on an island.
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