Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell & Co.
How has Donald Trump responded to being named in the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking documents? In a stunning development, Trump has kept his mouth pretty much closed about the matter. How are average Americans supposed to react to that? Most of us probably have no idea because we've never seen Trump with his mouth shut before? Does it mean he is scared, contemptuous, confident, unconcerned? Heck, your guess is as good as ours. The New Republic (TNR) tries to shine light on Trump's peculiar silence under the headline "Here's How Trump Is Responding to Being Named in Epstein Documents." /Writes reporter Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling:
The first series of Jeffrey Epstein documents have been released, and as expected, they name Donald Trump. And how is the country’s social media–obsessed former president responding? Well he’s gone surprisingly mute.
Donald Trump’s last slew of posts on his Twitter-dupe social media platform TruthSocial seemed like an effort to flood his MAGA followers’ timelines with unrelated content. In a series of rapid-fire posts Thursday morning, Trump shared endorsements for his presidential campaign, as well as a slew of videos from news outlets validating his legal strategy in his upcoming criminal trials. He also made more than two dozen posts attacking E. Jean Carroll, all within the span of half an hour.
Despite the flurry of activity, there are absolutely zero mentions of the revelatory unsealing of nearly 900 pages of a lawsuit launched by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre, nearly a decade ago, even though she’s one of Trump’s former employees, meeting Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell roughly two weeks into her employment at Trump’s Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, according to court documents.
Along with Trump’s, some of the major names that jump off the pages range from some of the world’s biggest politicos to show-stopping entertainers. They include former President Bill Clinton, British Prince Andrew, Epstein, and Trump legal ally Alan Dershowitz, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield, and Stephen Hawking.
Their presence in the documents is not proof of any legal wrongdoing.
Trump and Clinton clearly are the two biggest names revealed so far, and Clinton does not seem too concerned about it, as Houghtaling reports:
A Clinton spokesperson has redirected attention to a 2019 statement put out on behalf of the forty-second president denying any knowledge of Epstein’s pedophilic, sex-trafficking empire.
“In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation,” read the statement.
The list of Jane and John Does, which was formed nine years ago, after Giuffre filed a defamation claim against Epstein’s girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, was partially released on Wednesday. More of the documents could be unsealed sometime today (Thursday, (1/4/24) or in the coming days.
Many of the names are expected to be publicly known Epstein associates, including employees of the financier. Other possible names to be unveiled could include Epstein’s clients and perpetrators, though the judge has specified that the identities of minors or sexual assault victims will not be released.
This story could spring to life in the next few days, but so far, it has been a dud -- and my guess is that it will stay that way. If Bill Clinton is unperturbed, and Donald Trump is quiet . . . well, those aren't the responses you would expect from two of the most talkative presidents of modern times. Maybe being tied to a sex-trafficking scandal isn't as interesting as most of us thought it would be.
