The media IS addicted to this’cat and mouse’ story…
Hoping to find something to SERIOUSLY Hurt Trump….
The Trump administration estimates it has about one week to go — and as many as 700,000 more pages to review — before it finishes releasing all the Jeffrey Epstein files.
- Meanwhile, they’ll lose the PR war, day after day.
Why it matters: No other controversy has sandbagged President Trump and his administration like the Epstein files, the subject of a rare revolt by congressional Republicansand endless guilt-by-association news stories and social media commentary.
- Trump and the Justice Department also have compounded their problems with clumsy messaging and puzzling redactions made while pledging transparency.
- The White House has begun managing the DOJ’s account on X, an effort to finish out the year and the Epstein file disclosure requirements set by Congress.
- The account is also taking on a sharper tone that has more of a rapid-response campaign edge and less of the stodgy just-the-facts tone associated with the department.
Driving the news: Tuesday’s release of about 30,000 new investigative records highlighted the administration’s predicament in mass-disclosing information. Numerous documents mentioned Trump and Epstein, but some of the headline-grabbing records are of questionable veracity.
- A 2020 FBI tip from a caller relaying a conversation with a limo driver who claimed he drove Trump 25 years before and overheard him talking about “abusing some girl” to a “Jeffrey.” The caller also ranted about an Oklahoma City Bombing conspiracy theory.
- An alleged 2019 jailhouse letter from Epstein to convicted sex offender Larry Nassar implicating “our president” in liking “nubile” girls.
- But the letter was post-dated after Epstein’s death and was processed by a Virginia mail room that didn’t handle letters from Epstein’s New York jail.
- Hours after the release, DOJ said on X that the FBI believed the letter is fake, triggering a flood of online criticism from skeptics accusing the department of intentionally posting disinformation.
- DOJ warned Tuesday morning on X that some of the records might be politically motivated and “untrue and sensationalist,” but it was releasing the records “out of a commitment to transparency.”
- That last comment was slapped with a community note because so many critics pointed out DOJ missed the Dec. 19 deadline to release all the records under the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress and signed by Trump 30 days before.
The intrigue: Late Monday night, DOJ experienced another problem when someone found a backdoor way into its website’s “staging area” for documents before they’re ready to go live, an official said.
- That resulted in the records being released early, before the administration was ready, leading the department to remove the documents briefly from online, leading to accusations of a coverup.
- In another instance, a sharp-eyed reporter noticed that a 2008 email had redactions that weren’t justifiable. But officials say the email wasn’t redacted by the administration. They say the email was redacted by a lawyer in a 2010 civil case and was then included later in the Epstein files.
Behind the scenes: There’s a palpable sense of exasperation and annoyance in the administration about all of the headlines pertaining to Trump and Epstein and the inability to explain everything and just get the disclosure done.
- “It’s a combination of extreme frustration at everything: at what Congress did, at our response to it, and a concern that it won’t go away,” an official said.
- “There’s also a little bit of indignation at the media — that this wasn’t even a story for years and years. And now, not only is it a story, but the top of many news pages on a given day.”
The big picture: After a decade of news coverage, scores of lawsuits, criminal investigations, investigative reports in the mainstream media and tens of thousands of documents released by DOJ and Epstein’s estate, there is still no credible evidence showing Trump had sex with a minor or participated in sex trafficking with Epstein….
…
- “This will end soon,” another official said. “The conspiracy theories won’t.”….
Update …
With more than a million pages to go, Justice struggles with Epstein files
Days after the deadline for release of the Epstein files, the Justice Department is far from its goal.
(A Million + Documents found)
Good Morning people…..
I’ll be back posting a bit later …….
Yea …….
Hegseth IS gonna keep messing with people who can’t shoot back…..
Quote of the Day
“We want to make sure that he’s not infiltrating, that we’re not infiltrating into our country and ban Santa.”
— President Trump, speaking to a four year old and ten year old on Christmas Eve.
More Christmas Wishes From Trump
President Trump, on Truth Social last night:
“Merry Christmas to all, including the many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein, gave him bundles of money, went to his Island, attended his parties, and thought he was the greatest guy on earth, only to ‘drop him like a dog’ when things got too HOT, falsely claimed they had nothing to do with him, didn’t know him, said he was a disgusting person, and then blame, of course, President Donald J. Trump, who was actually the only one who did drop Epstein, and long before it became fashionable to do so…”
“Now the same losers are at it again, only this time so many of their friends, mostly innocent, will be badly hurt and reputationally tarnished. But sadly, that’s the way it is in the World of Corrupt Democrat Politics!!! Enjoy what may be your last Merry Christmas! President Donald J. Trump.”
You would think that unhinged rant and lie would be too much for the Republicans who steadfastly and overwhelmingly support Trump.
But nothing is too much for them.
Cept 25 and counting ARE bailing out of the House?
Special elections HAVE been going Dem’s way?
Donald’s poll numbers suck IN General and have dropped about 10% among GOPer’s?
Afternoon……
Snow removal duty .,..