The Blood on Their Hands

The destruction of truth and the absence of accountability

Mass murderers in the Oval Office

Over the weekend, a public service announcement was released featuring some of the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted rapists and sex traffickers of girls and young women. You can watch it here:

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The Epstein files need to be released in full so we can finally find out who else is complicit in Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes and hold them accountable. But perhaps more importantly, they need to be released so these women, whose lives were derailed and, in some cases, ruined because of the crimes perpetrated against them can at long last get some semblance of justice.

In the midst of all the chaos Donald is purposefully generating, and the grotesque drama playing out in the debacle surrounding the Epstein files, too many people are forgetting about the victims and survivors of Epstein, Maxwell, and as yet unnamed others. We lose sight of the impact it must have on those who were so grievously harmed not only that there has been no real accountability for the crimes committed against them but also that the president of the United States is using the full weight of his power to make sure there never is. Imagine how it must feel that the most powerful person on the planet is going to such great lengths not only to make sure the truth is never told, but to make that truth a lie.

Donald knows that none of this is a hoax, yet he would have us believe that all of this is the result of political machinations on the part of the Democratic party. Most people demanding the release of the Epstein files simply want to know the truth. And the one person standing in the way is Donald Trump. It is a failure of our humanity that so many people are doing whatever they can to help him.

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We are allegedly one step closer to seeing the Epstein files, as the House voted 427 to 1 in favor of the discharge resolution to push the DOJ to release its material on Jeffrey Epstein. Shortly after, the Senate unanimously approved the bill and Majority Leader John Thune said it would be sent to Donald for his signature. He is expected to sign.

That should be good news, but it’s a bit suspicious. Until this weekend, only a handful of Republicans had signed onto a discharge petition to force a vote on the House floor. That was a vote Speaker Mike Johnson had done everything in his power over the last two months to avoid, including refusing to swear-in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) for seven weeks and refusing to call the House into session for eight weeks.

And then Donald changed course. Instead of stonewalling as he’s been doing for months, he encouraged house Republicans to vote in favor of the measure claiming falsely that he has nothing to hide.

House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat hoax perpetrated by radical left lunatics in order to deflect from the great success of the Republican party, including our recent Victory the Democrat [sic] Shutdown.

Donald’s failure to make this issue go away has clearly been getting to him.

On the heels of being widely criticized for calling Bloomberg reporter Catherine Lucey “piggy,” Donald lashed out at another female journalist, Mary Bruce, of ABC yesterday in response to another legitimate question about the Epstein files.

BRUCE: Why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files? Why not just do it now?

DONALD: You know, it’s not the question that I mind. It’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask these questions. You start off with a man who’s highly respected asking him a horrible insubordinate and just a terrible question, and you could even ask that same exact question nicely. . . You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter. . . people are wise to your hoax and ABC. Your company, your crappy company is one of the perpetrators and I’ll tell you something, I think the license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and it’s so wrong. When you’re 97% negative to Trump and then Trump wins the election in a landslide, that means obviously your news is not credible and you’re not credible as a reporter.

The “highly respected” person Donald referred to was Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman who sat to Donald’s right. The question the reporter asked him was about his involvement in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Kashoggi in 2018. Donald defended bin Salman saying, “You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen.” Those comments are nothing short of sociopathic.

Donald’s threat to revoke the license of the network for which Bruce works is also a red flag. That is not what leaders of democracies do—that is what countries like China do.

As for the lies Donald told in the midst of his attacks on Bruce, he did not win the 2024 election by a landslide. If he won legitimately in 2024, it was by 1.5 percentage points, which is a very narrow margin.

Because Donald is an insecure narcissist, he believes that everyone is subordinate to him and should treat him with deferential subservience. But it is not the job of reporters to be subordinate, just as it is not the mission of news outlets like ABC to misrepresent facts or fail to report stories that hurt his feelings.

Being a thin-skinned bully, Donald is incapable of withstanding scrutiny of any kind, let alone the intense and unflagging interest in his ties to Epstein. The irony, of course, is that this story has gotten out of control because of his suspicious behavior vis-à-vis the Epstein files over the last few months. He made the release of the Epstein files a campaign promise in 2024. The whole reason we’re having this conversation is because he went back on his word as soon as he got back into the Oval Office and his base is furious about it. He can insult reporters and pretend this is a Democratic “hoax” all he wants. He can threaten congressional Republicans all he wants. None of that changes the fact that the one person who has done more than anybody else to cover up whatever is in the Epstein files is Donald.

There’s some speculation that the files Donald has called to be released will be heavily redacted and any mention of him in them will be scrubbed thanks to the sycophantic hacks at the DOJ.

Senator Chris Coons (D-MD) has another, and very plausible, theory as to why Donald changed his mind about Republicans’ support for the bill to release the files:

My gut hunch is that Attorney General Bondi, having just been ordered on social media by [Donald] to open an investigation into a series of high-profile Democrats, will promptly say, ‘Oh, no, no, there’s an ongoing investigation. We can’t disclose any of this.’

And there you have it. During an active investigation, none of the details from the case can be released or discussed publicly. That gives Donald the cover he needs and his thugs at the DOJ more time to stall.

We may yet see some version of the Epstein files, but it will not be a version that comes within a billion light years of harming Donald Trump or those to whom he is beholden.

There may be many people implicated in the hideous crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and we should know all of their names. But the existence of other potential guilty parties still does not mean that Donald isn’t one of them. He certainly continues to act as if he were.