Public sentiment regarding the release of the Epstein files is overwhelmingly skeptical and critical, driven by distrust in the transparency and integrity of the process, particularly concerning potential manipulation and redaction to protect powerful individuals, including Trump. Calls for accountability and justice for Epstein's victims are strong, highlighting frustrations with perceived political gamesmanship that undermines genuine efforts for transparency and justice.

Trump

Political Leaders

It's ridiculous how you can give all the evidence in the world trump did it and it won't change a thing. Everything back to how it was

The_AxR_

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trendingtattler

A month ago Patel and Bondi were saying there was no files, so they lied underoath. But, obviously there's no accountability under this administration.

So, what changed in a month? Everything of substance has been scrubbed from the files. We're not going to get any justice or accountability. Par for the fucking course.

salsamander

Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana was the sole Republican in opposition. 

Better check that search history

Serpentongue

A nearly unanimous vote like this is very suspicious to me

Birdfan23

Someone actually voted no? Good luck explaining that one.

biblackchick

Don't get excited. They're voting yes because they know with an active investigation, the DOJ won't be able to release anything. Also, there's already talk of senate amendments that will likely block the names of powerful predators from being released.

Caromora

Can't wait for Trump to block part of it as part of an ongoing investigation! /s

droobidoobidoo

Oh so the Republicans are suddenly in favor? Looks like the fake dossier is finally ready!

strutt3r

https://preview.redd.it/ue62r2w3r22g1.jpeg?width=640&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=bd7a8850d77b5d32d8701b135e37e3b601ed6f07

MrsRandommmm

Dear god I didn’t expect near unanimous

JustHereForCatss

The fix is in.

Zero chance they're releasing the real files.

Lanky_Magician_2383

![gif](giphy|J8FZIm9VoBU6Q)



I hope the nincompoop that voted no will be named and shamed.

Kiwi-vee

when something seems too good to be true...

olipoppit

Trump and consequences? 🤔 
what is this dream land you speak of

Opening-Barracuda-98

Clay Higgins from Louisiana was the sole vote against. 

His closets must be packed full of skeletons!

Lances_Looky_Loo

I'm *so* excited for all mentions of Mango Zedong to be completely scrubbed and redacted, and ultimately, for absolutely nothing to come of this

![gif](giphy|26ueYUlPAmUkTBAM8)

FemaleAssEnjoyer

Gonna be redacted to hell. The only reason they are agreeing now is because

platocplx

What a bunch of Lemmings, they could have voted yes several times, but now the great dictator says release the files, they all obey and vote like he wants to. Unbelievable that grown up adults can’t think themselves

GongTzu

Shame it probably won't mean fucking shit.

CAPTJTK

iliketoreddit91

Except Clay Higgins.   
  
"His record includes allegedly putting a gun to the head of one of his ex-wives, voting for a neo-Nazi, and assaulting an unarmed Black man while working as a cop."

Oh. Checks out.

beautyinsinkingships

The "we've had enough time to strip out all the stuff we were worried about" vote, I see.

altarwisebyowllight

They struggled for so long to get a 218th vote. Once they had it, suddenly they had 427 votes!

Proman2520

RockCultural4075

mac725

What's the betting it'll get mysteriously held up in the Senate though? 💀

yellowsapphire88

So we can assume the files are entirely doctored by now. The only files to be released with any integrity at this point would come from the survivors, should they ever choose to.

thr-oh-noes

SaltandLillacs

Representative Clay Higgins is in the files.

CarbyMcBagel

Don’t get your hopes up

https://preview.redd.it/t9s72hbos22g1.jpeg?width=1179&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp&amp;s=ddd9ca6444fb8b20745073ce316efa44cae714fc

Branchomania

Only voted YES because they know Trump will vetoe it and fall on the sword himself

AlwaysAlani

So do you think the files will be:

Insanely redacted? 
Stopped by DOJ due to an active investigation? 
Or Straight up modified?

Repulsive_Incident27

Will it pass the senate though or was this just a big show?

asoupconofsoup

I personally believe it is more about party splintering. He can release the files *without* a vote if he really wanted to release a bunch of doctored files. He also can withhold files that are part of a current investigation.. and he just started one. My guess is this is his way of just putting the matter to bed before more Republicans turn.

AllHailSeizure

Regardless of the intent behind it, evidence of the president being a pedophile is indeed a huge threat to national security

ArthurDaTrainDayne

Your premise strikes me as unfalsifiable. If Trump isn’t implicated in the files you’ll just claim his name was removed. 

My-Dog-Says-No

since when is being mentioned in a document indelible proof? you do realize anyone could mention you or anyone else in any document at any time for any reason. add to that the fact that there is no chain of evidence and you may as well be pulling your intel from here on reddit

tnic73

So every conspiracy theory about Trump changing or altering or hiding the files runs into the same problem:

It assumes the FBI/Trump have complete control of every copy of every single Epstein files. Something we already factually know is not true.

Since other copies exist, the information will come out eventually 

The reason Trump and the other Republicans (like Mike Johnson) got on board was the realization that opposition to this vote would be seen by a majority of voters as an admission of guilt.

So they got on board to avoid a political death sentence.  

It bought them a bit of time before they have to face the music and thats it. But stalling for time has always been Trumps first play.

VanguardAvenger

Without seeing what is released we just don’t know. This thing is so politicized that we will likely never know for sure. 

If Trumps name was all over them (legit or not) his base would scream they were manipulated. If his name isn’t all over them (legit or not) the democrats will scream he scrubbed them. 

Do I think his name isn’t in there?  Yes. He knew Epstein and they were friends, or at least friendly to each other. If one of my friends ends up running a secret sex trafficking ring, my name would be in their files, just because we’ve texted, hung out, discussed fantasy football ball trades. It makes sense his name is there. As are the names of dozens of other famous/important people. 

What we don’t know is the context. There isn’t going to be this magic smoking gun. A list with something like “Trump, Mary 15, piss play, June 2007. “  or an email “So, Donny did you enjoy that 16 year olds piece of ass?  She sure can suck the chrome off a bumper”. 

It’s likely going to be generic emails, guest lists, gifts etc. People already lined up for or against without evidence. The birthday card people said it looked like a young girl, it’s a fucking outline. We have no clue. Trump has allegedly referred to them as girls. We don’t know what that means. As I’ve gotten older I realize I call young women in their late teens early twenties as girls. A lot of people do. 

As far as reversal. It is possible they weren’t scrubbed but he wanted them to go through the files with a fine tooth comb to make sure nothing incriminating or at least illegal comes out. They have that confirmation now so he is fine releasing them.

h0sti1e17

I’ve actually read the primary source bill passed by congress. It’s a stronger than expected bill. Every document that is classified under national security must be accompanied by meta data that includes the date of classification and the reason for classification. The bill also states that information cannot be redacted because it embarrasses a politician. It also includes financial data. The obvious problematic category exception is ongoing investigation which you’ve already mentioned. 

This doesn’t mean his name can’t be redacted for national security reasons, however I think it will be difficult for the DOJ to fully release everything about Epstein without opening up a bunch on unintended rabbit hole inquires that lead to more questions. To some degree, this Pandora’s box has been opened and the more information that comes out the harder it gets to put the genie back in the bottle. This case touches much more than just Trump, though it clearly touches him too. 

I think the big concern is that the bill doesn’t come with an enforcement arm, so the DOJ doesn’t actually have to comply with the bill. Pam Bondi can simply do what she wants. Congress could then charge DOJ officials with violating the terms of the passed bill, however Pam Bondi would still be in charge of prosecuting those individuals. I think the likely play is not classifying Trump’s name out of the documents (because it would leave a trail of metadata), but rather the DOJ simply choosing to selectively release whatever they want knowing there’s no actual consequences to doing so. They’ve had months to plan this release as it was obviously coming. Delaying Adelita’s confirmation and thus the bill passing provided a fairly large time window to plan for the inevitable passing of this bill.

Severe_Appointment93

I’m not too worried about this. The cover up won’t succeed. He’s too deeply into this.

Capy_3796

No, he didn't pick the timing. He delayed it sure, but the petition to call fhr vote forced his hand, as rhe resulting dominoe effect makes it more obvious that he is protecting him.

The parts of the epstien files are not going to be stored in judt one place, and once they are released, it also unmuzzles people who can talk a out them.

So knowing he can't stop it at this point, he is falling back to his next option, bluffing. He is going to try to gas light and lie to eberyone that anything indicates his guilt actually demosteates his innocence. We have alrrady seen hom try this tactic with the recent emails and the whole "dog who has not barked" bit.

Murky-Magician9475

Biden's administration had access to all these files and such, if you think that Democrats don't have copies of the originals and wouldn't immediately expose clear coverups...

This isn't a matter that only the republicans have had their hands on, and because of that, it would be VERY hard to just try to remove republican names only and try to spin it all on democrats. 

The real problem is that these documents will probably be bad for foreign agents, causing international scandal. Prince Andrew already went down, but imagine anyone else connected to high levels of foreign government. Its one thing to expose members of your own government for being pedos, but imagine if the documents implicated high ranking foreign dignitaries, such knowledge could be seen as a flat out political attack.

The_Itsy_BitsySpider

to be honest this OP is pretty tough as a CMV. And my post may get deleted for agreeing, but I think Johnson probably told us excetly this on the House floor yesterday when he was on about the fact he's FOR releasing the files, but needs to be in a more controlled manner and he's requesting the Senate make changes. I dunno that the can or will, or that matters, but he was talking about protecting victims. 

But "victims" in that sentence did NOT mean the ladies asking for the files to be released, who were all sexually abused. "Victims" he defined there on the spot as new/other people who will be wrongfully accused and/or smeared for incomplete evidence or proximity or public conclusions blasted on social media and the news without any proper judge jury or trial. 

He's got a real point here, I won't lie... but also this literally means that he's saying to redact information that may be used in this way. So like if there isn't enough to lock trump up, but he's mentioned as going to the island 50 times and there are photos of him near some of the girls, or hearsay from so and so that he was probably involved, or that they think he did "x".... all of that could be viewed as potential fuel for false or incomplete/premature accusations for real legal charges outside of the proper way of things, and be redacted. 

I dunno what will happen, but that's a take I think could happen.

SLUnatic85

If Epstein had dirt on Trump he would have used it to get out of prison under Trump.

If there was bad stuff in the Epstein files about Trump then Biden would have released it.

The reality is that there is probably nothing that proves pedophila in anyone since people generally avoid documenting crimes, but probably plenty that would cause problems with politics and foreign relations unrelated to
pedophilia (Epstein donated and lobbied a lot, mostly to Dems but some Israel stuff too). That would explain why both Biden and Trump resisted release.

JohnLockeNJ

If Trump is not involved that is the day pigs fly in the sky!   Even  a kid knows  there is NO such thing pigs fly in the sky!!!!!

Unfortunately we live in a country with over  60 millions dumb a. and amoral to vote for this trash now we and they all suffer of their vote consequence.  Many people do not know the meaning of vote consequence especially the MAGA crowd.

With global warming and  inflation those that we voted for wrong or right  expending our tax dollars and time for this nonsense while putting the more important things aside. Understand what it means now MAGA dumb a.?    How does grocery and gas bill  make you feel? You voted for the trash that is doing  this to you and the rest of us that is smart enough NOT  vote for that trash orange face fake hair clown whom also is a tax cheater, wife cheater, pathological liar, racist,  stupid, coward and traitor and many more of the worst quality of a trashy human being. 

USA is declining because no country can thrive and prosper with that many dumb, stupid and amoral people!!!!

According_Reserve_65

Congress has its own authority that supersedes the DOJ. 

If the DOJ tries to block it for classification, it will go to the courts and release will be compelled. 

Laws passed by Congress, as long as they aren’t against the constitution, really are the final say on matters.

CombinationLivid8284

Honestly, that was always a given. They never were going to release a file that confirms Trump fucked a kid. The DOJ is not independent from the president these days.

The reason Trump decided to support the house motion now is because he saw the writing on the wall. They always had two options to handle this. Either stall the Epstein files or release them and hope the conspiracy minded MAGA base ignores the heavy redaction. Enough Republicans decided that it would be an optics nightmare for them personally to vote against the release so the first option is unavailable to Trump. At this point any resistence to the release just looks worse for him and doesn't prevent their release.

rlyjustanyname

Simpler explanation is probably true: he can’t win a fight against it.

Jon Stewart had a good example worth repeating.
Let’s say you murdered your spouse and hid their body in the backyard. When the police come to your door, you might say “no you can’t come in without a warrant”. But when they come back with a warrant, at that point you know you would probably say “oh, come in, come in, I’ve got nothing to hide”. You aren’t saying that because you necessarily think you’ll get away with it. You are saying it because it doesn’t really benefit you to fight it anymore and fighting it tooth-and-nail at that point just makes things worse.

PuckSenior

The one thing that makes me hesitant to come to the same conclusion as you:

If Trump does feel safe with the Epstein files being released, why didn’t he do it himself before the house even voted? He could have easily done it himself and then claimed that he is so great and so transparent and take all the “glory” for the being the one to release the files. Why would he wait for the bill to come to him? Now he either is just following the house’s ruling, or fights against it.

Andus35

So if he does do that, I feel like that's going to look hella sus. Like putting a bandaid over a stab wound- refusing to release anything from the Epstein files with his name will just make people question what he's hiding even more.

mdb1023

We all know that Trump did bad things. But if Epstein files contained anything that would actually hurt Trump, Biden would use evidence against Trump when Biden was in the office. I can’t find any logical explanation why would Biden not use existing evidence against Trump to start criminal case.

I believe that Trump was against releasing Epstein files, because some information there would ruin reputation and marriages of some very influential people. Those people made a deal with Trump asking him not to release files publicly.

HVP2019

Have you considered the timing of this? It doesn't seem to fit what you are saying.

If he scrubbed the docs by making them classified, he would have to give the order to do so. he absolutely has the authority to classify something, however there is a dept of the federal govt that actually handles the classification of said materials.

Lets assume he somehow kept the order to classify Epstein docs secret from basically everyone and that those involved in selectively classifying DoJ docs in the name of National Security kept their mouths shut. Why not, it's a strange world.

Why did he pitch a fit against releasing them until the day it became clear they would be released?

Why not change his tune the day the documents were classified?

This hypothesis has questions that need answers.

Occam's Razor states that when multiple explanations exist for something, the one with the fewest assumptions or the simplest structure is more likely to be correct. Lets try this hypothesis:

He fought as long and hard as he could, and (Begin hypothesis) when he realized he couldn't stop the release he knew he couldn't veto it or he would be essentially pleading the 5th, and that worth a unanimous vote it would be veto proof anyways. His only play that doesn't admit guilt is to switch sides and say things like "I've always wanted them released". "It's a hoax anyways!"

The timing fits, he needs no collaborators to stay silent, and it tracks with his past behavior.

Tr3sp4ss3r

You're operating under a false presumption. You believe you actually know there is more about Trump in the Epstein files, regardless of what official documents are released and verified accountings are presented to you, and you have no way of verifying that, seemingly only Trump, a dead man, a woman in prison, or other high ranking government officials could actually know that. Trump is in them, we know that, but we don't know to what extent. If you can't accept that you're operating under a false pretense that you yourself "just know" this without any verifiable evidence you're opening up a can of worms I'm not sure you'd like.

Downtown_Ad_3429

John Mark Dougan

He was the Sheriff during the Palm Springs raid on Epstein. He was indicted for extortion and wiretapping and fled to Russia where he is working with military intelligence. Said he had over 400 sex dvds on Facebook. I believe him and think he exchanged the files to Putin for asylum.

If the DOJ redact Trump's name Putin can expose him. Putin embarrassed the US with the 2016 election tampering. Not beneath him, showed Trump's wife naked on TV. Russia just sent aid to Venezuela, they're at odds, good time to play his card.

Justinmazing23

At some point the left needs to stop with the stupid conspiracy theories.  Democrats had the files for four years and did nothing to get them out there.  No protests by their constituents either to DO SOMETHING.   Now the dim bulbs among you are suggesting that you'll never accept it even after all the info is released.  How about working on some fresh candidates and fresh ideas for the future.

Confident-Staff-8792

If there is so much evidence against him, why didn’t the dems release this info while they had control

Highmassive

Change your view attempt


Trump is the most polarizing figure in American politics that has ever lived. Since 2015 (and possibly even earlier) he has never had positive media coverage and the first time he won, he lost the popular vote. 


He is easily the most mentioned name on social media and the bulk of posts about him on reddit are negative. There have been at least 2 assassination attempts on him as well, one where he was actual injured. 


So, in short, if anything truly damning were in any of those files, they would have come out a decade ago. Everybody (and I mean everybody) has been trying to get something, ANYTHING, to stick to this guy. And nothing of substance is ever found. The state of new york had to change laws and statutes of limitations just to charge him with misallocation of campaign funds done without his knowledge to make him a felon, and even then he suffered no real consequences. 


He is in those files, but I sincerely doubt he committed any of the acts or crimes leftists hope he has, because if he had there's no way anybody could keep it a secret

SlickRick941

You all really dont understand the judicial system do you? This is an INVESTIGATION. Which means that the courts have control over what is and is not released. It would be a massive overstep and an abuse of power for the President to order a judge to violate the law just to appease the general public. 

If you didn't get all your information from democrat websites then you would know that 3 different judges, all of whom where appointed by democrats and registered democrats, BLOCKED the release of the files. You want to get mad at people? Get mad at the ones who are actually stopping this information from reaching the public.

Let's also talk about the fact that most republicans know that trump is not a pedophile simply because if he was on those files, Biden would have done a god damn choreographed tap dance with them all the way to the press conference so they could tell the world they finally have proof he's the vilest man on this earth. He didn't. None of the democrats even tried. They didn't put up resolutions to have it released. Biden didn't do the very thing you are condemning Trump for and yet I doubt you'd ever say anything about Biden.

maebear1990

If trump was actually in there with any real evidence...why didn't Biden release it and prevent him from being president? I'm sorry but I just cant believe that Biden could of prevented these horrible four years and didnt...

Why didn't democrats vote to release the files before the election?


Our country is being ripped apart... what possible reason could there be that we want them released now but not before the election to hurt his reelection? 

My guess is hes mentioned in passing but nothing concrete with evidence... and he doesnt want them released to protect a buddy of his

SpecialistKing1383

Can't, because something like this is obviously what happened.

The guy has been belligerently denying the Epstein files contained anything (after he originally said they did) for months now.  Threatening anyone who brings them up.  
  
Now suddenly he's eager beaver to release them, and same with his sycophants in Congress.  Please.  
  
If not classified, then simply changed.   I've said all along that I'm baffled that Trump hasn't come out with a fictional "Epstein Files" a long time ago.  He's a cheat and a fraud, so it's not due to any sense of honesty.

Wuthering_depths

The reason is simpler.

The vote for releasing the files was going to happen.  It was going to happen regardless of what Trump did or said.  It was going to be unanimous or nearly so regardless of what Trump said.  No one wants "Guardian of Pedophiles" to actually stick on them.

If he had stuck with the "Vote NO", then it would be obvious that everyone just ignored him.  By switching to "Vote Yes", it fabricates the appearance of following orders.

If everyone ignores Trump even ONCE, then it becomes dramatically easier to ignore him the 2nd and 3rd time.

AdFun5641

why are we assuming that trump is the sole reason this isn't being released?  from all the information we have it seems like epstein was heavily connected with american and israeli intelligence.  the issue is much bigger than embarrassing trump

Infinite-Abroad-436

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. What do you people want exactly?

UnderdaJail

The files are not being released.  Trump changed positions because he realized he wasnt going to be able to stop the vote for the release and didnt want to seem like he lost the party.  They will sit on his desk for the remainder of his term, he'll say things like "we will release the files when the time is right" or "cant release them during an ongoing investigation." He will just stall and hopes the media will forget about it.  They'll get released along with his tax returns he was so eager to show us.

redditpest

This was always the risk going in because nobody's going to be happy or satisfied with the release of the files. Will the files definitively confirm any actual crimes? Will the statue of limitations still be in effect? Will anybody actually accept anything in the files that doesn't confirm their bias? There's no winning play here because even if we were given the whole thing carte blanche nobody will accept fully that there isn't some deeper conspiracy as has been the case with these files for years. 

Kektus

For everyone trying make excuses for Trump. Multiple people have already said has in the files. All over the files, even. There has been evidence of his involvement with Epstein for decades. There have been prior accusation of child molesting prior to his Epstein friendship that involved girls and boys The Epstein files probably also have info on Trump's money laundering for Russia and others. There is evidence from decades ago of this. He is a pervert and a criminal. Always has been.

Antique_Ad1518

I know its late to this but its been 9 hours since this post and they still haven't released ANYTHING to the public about Trump signing the bill. The whole white house was put on a LID and they kicked out all public and press out. Idk what they could be doing for such a long time, if he was truly going to sign it. He would of did it by now and had it done live. I do think he will sign it but why such a huge delay and kick out everyone and news from seeing it happen is very weird.

ComradeTurdle

His sudden reversal was because there were going to be mass defections of republicans voting for this bill. The reversal prevented the defections being seen as Trump losing because Trump cannot be seen as losing at anything. It was a face saving measure, full stop.

Will the DOJ classify and refuse to release the Epstein client that Bondi said was "sitting on my desk right now" in February? That remains to be seen, but I won't dissuade you from that general consensus.

feuwbar

I would guess the contents of the files containing information about Trump being a pedophile, human traficker, and blackmailed pawn of multiple foreign entities including Israel WOULD indeed be a threat to national security. 

So he could -for once- honestly say that it was redacted for national security. 

However I don't guess there is any clarification of how that law applies *when the president himself IS the national security threat*

co-oper8

Finally someone who realizes that Trump's DOJ is not going to release anything that implicates Trump!  If we have learned anything it is that Trump has installed flunkies in every agency and branch of government that will do his bidding.  Why would anyone have ever thought that this DOJ would release anything that might do political damage to Trump?  OP is the first person I have heard point out what should be obvious to everyone.

Daddyrabbit86

The fact that Trump supported releasing the files for years indicates that different theory is far more likely. He wouldn't have done that if he actually thought he was in them. It's far more likely that, upon winning reelection, his lawyers advised him not to release the files without making double extra sure he wouldn't be incriminated. Hence his sudden U-turn on the release.

Now that his lawyers have had time to go through and review them, he gets to change his tune and call for their release without fear. Which is most likely what happened.

Trump knows just as well as anyone that redacting information doesn't erase it, and his successors could just as easily un-redact those lines, so it doesn't make sense for him to support releasing even a redacted document that incriminates him.

CaptCynicalPants

I think it more likely he's been using this time to destroy evidence, including any original copies. He controls the DOJ. He's had months to do so. The Bill can pass, and the president can sign it. Then the President releases some files, and says he has released all of them. No one can prove he's lying except perhaps attorneys on the case, who can't speak without fear of prosecution. Most of us will know he's lying, but the people who most support him will say "hey, he released the files, he has no reason to lie."

Scrubbing records that thoroughly is unlikely to succeed entirely, but they might hold on long enough until Trump leaves office. There's little we can do to require the administration to produce files they say don't exist.

Itchy-Instruction457

is this the left version of conspiracy theory?

Repulsive-Swim4665

You can’t play this game forever or if you chose to you’ll continue yo move to a worse and worse place. Absence of evidence should lead to you questioning why you think the things you do, not assuming guilt and moving on to the next “this time we’ll get him for sure” thing that your average person knows will be fake.

ExtremelyFakeNews

Tbf why wouldn't he have already done this? He's had since January not to mention he could've done it in his first term. Realistically everything truly incriminating to anyone got scrubbed years ago. The notoriously ethical federal agencies aren't going to give up their blackmail that easily. Remember, nothing ever happens.

AbaloneProper5950

While this is possible, and may have made him agree to it sooner, I think that the primary reason is that he eventually accepted that he couldn't stop the files from being released. I feel that Trump would prefer to say that he supports a bill than admit that he doesn't have the power to prevent it.

Al2718x

Trump does not support the release. He knows it will pass with or without his support at this point so they are all trying to save face by supporting it now. They realize it's a moot point now because the house has the needed votes to pass. Why fight a losing battle and look bad?

souljahs_revenge

So typical of the the biased people. If Trump releases the Epstein File... Conclusion... Oh it must be fake or doctored.
Trump doesn't release the Epstein files.... Oh he must be guilty. 


Stop being such a pansy and accept the facts, not just what you think it is🤔 

Adventurous_Agent_96

I think if there are files with redactions or information missing, I expect the house oversight committee to subpoena whoever they can to provide the missing info. People from three different admins have now seen the files, if stuff is missing it’s gonna come out.

Also, I expect people named/listed to start spilling the beans.

SomethingFunnyObv

I don't think he will. Trump just wants this to be quiet. If he starts a 12-houre classification of all the documents pertaining to him, people will just complain that he did that and still call him a pedophile. There's no way out here.

CartographerKey4618

I would not at all be surprised if they try and scrub stuff. I don't this would be the method. I'm going to assume some people on both sides of the aisle have clearance.

So they'd still want to see that stuff behind closed doors.

docfarnsworth

Didn't the Republicans already release like 20000 emails where he was mentioned?  Also if his plan is to classify any documents he's in and prosecute political enemies that are mentioned why didn't he think of doing this earlier?

degradedchimp

This will only buy them time. Sure, they will use it to keep push in their narrative but it won’t necessarily work in the long run. These people are so incompetent I cannot believe they have done the covering job right.

Careful-Awareness766

Regardless, the public will just keep demanding for the names outside of victims and acquaintances to be unredacted and Congress will get pressured over it and they’ll crack eventually when it hurts them enough.

SkywalkerOrder

Alternatively he might be doing this so he can pretend he supported it and then when it mentions him feign surprise and say "Nobody would support these files if they were in them, so they're obviously fake."

Spoon_Elemental

Biden had same files. Surely if there was any shred of evidence implicating trump we would have heard about it and never stop hearing about it. People need to get treatment for TDS, it’s very unhealthy.

Ok-Neat-1956

Why did joe biden not release the files if they had trump in them?

ActualDepartment9873

Well after it has been shown that a democrat colluded with Epstein during congressional hearings during investigations while in his first term he's probably just saying screw it at this point

SippsMccree

He is still opposed, he is just going to claim (correctly or incorrectly) that Congress doesn’t have the power to do what they are trying to do and will challenge to delay it in court.

OnlyTheDead

I am still waiting for someone to explain to me how that if there is real damage to Trump there, why the Democrats didn’t release it when they had control. And an election to lose.

No_Thought1368


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Answer: Few theories on that. 

1. He knows the fix is in and just wants to seem like it's his idea rather than have his whole party vote for the release with him looking like he's lost control 

2. They've redacted the hell out of them and will release a heavily edited version of the files, and pray no source leaks the originals 

3. He recently directed Pam Bondi to launch an investigation into select individuals tied to Epstein, so they may hide all the files they want hidden behind the old 'ongoing investigation' line. 

My money's on 3.

BeYourOwnDog

Answer: While Trump is seemingly supporting the release of the files, he also instructed Pam Bondi to look into Epstein's ties to Bill Clinton. This is significant because, similar to the Biden administration, if there is an active investigation and the files are evidence in that investigation he could publicly be in support of the release but not actually have to do anything. Republicans criticize the Biden administration for not releasing them but Ghislane Maxwell was on the trial, sentenced, and appealed during his administration.

Mahdlo_

U.S. Congress has voted to approve the release of government files on Jeffrey Epstein, amidst significant political tension and bipartisan support.

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