The Victims of Epstein/Maxwell Would Like a Word
Trump calls it a "hoax." It's not.
Catching up:
Staggering U.S. Tariffs Begin as Trump Widens Trade War - The New York Times
US import taxes hit levels not seen in nearly 100 years - AP
Trump Pledged to Bring Back Manufacturing. The Sector Is Sputtering. - WSJ
Public health experts dismayed by RFK Jr.'s defunding of mRNA vaccine research : Shots - NPR1
Stephen Colbert Calls RFK Jr. ‘Roid-Addled Nepo-Carnie’ After Cutting Vaccine Funding
South Park brutally mocks Trump and JD Vance in latest episode | The Independent2
Trump and Putin to Meet in ‘Coming Days,’ Kremlin Aide Confirms. What could possibly go wrong?
Happy Thursday.
Listen to the victims
Let’s start with this story: “Top Trump officials will discuss Epstein strategy at Wednesday dinner hosted by Vance” | CNN Politics
Trump was asked about the reported meeting yesterday. Amidst laughter, Trump declared the Epstein/Maxwell story was a “hoax”:
Look, the whole thing is a hoax! It’s put out by the Democrats because we’ve had the most successful six months in the history of our country and that’s just a way of trying to divert attention to something that’s total bullshit! Okay?
You can watch here:
The real bullshit? Trump’s cover-up, spin, and attempts to distract.
So — before the media and the chattering classes lose interest and move on — this seems a good moment for a reminder and a reality check. Dan Pfeifer provides a useful summary:
Donald Trump was friends with a notorious sex trafficker for many years.
In 2000, Epstein poached a 16-year-old girl working as a spa attendant at Mar-a-Lago. That girl says she was sex-trafficked after going to work for Epstein.
Last week, Trump implied he knew about this at the time and was mad that Epstein took a staff member — suggesting he had contemporaneous knowledge of Epstein bringing a young girl on board.
In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine:
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
The Trump administration fully intended to release the Epstein files — until they discovered Trump’s name was in them.
Trump has repeatedly lied about whether his name was in the files.
Now, the federal government is doing everything it can to prevent the public and the media from finding out the details of Trump’s relationship with a sex trafficker.
This is a political scandal for the ages — and it’s getting worse every day.
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As Trump’s cover-up shifts into high gear, more than ever attention ought to be paid to what the victims are saying:
The attorney for Annie Farmer, Sigrid McCawley wrote to Judge Richard Berman:
By the Government’s admission, “over one thousand victims” suffered from Epstein’s and Maxwell’s actions. To date, however, the combined forces of our country’s law enforcement agencies have only ever arrested these two individuals in connection with crimes committed against countless young women and girls, and the Government’s recent suggestion that no further criminal investigations are forthcoming is a cowardly abdication of its duties to protect and serve.
“Of those two,” McCawley wrote, “ Epstein escaped justice through his apparent suicide, and Maxwell is now, to the victims’ horror, herself attempting to escape justice by negotiating for herself a potential pardon. It is obviously impossible for two people to conduct a decades-long sex-trafficking enterprise involving thousands of victims without other individuals who participated in and facilitated these unspeakable atrocities.
Attorney Brad Edwards, who also represents hundreds of victims, wrote that the Trump Justice Department’s actions are forcing victims to relive the sweet deal Epstein got in 2008.
Edwards litigated extensively in court for judicial recognition that the government shirked their obligations under the Crime Victims Rights Act, depriving the survivors of an opportunity to be heard before striking the plea deal.
“That case, litigated pro bono by undersigned counsel for more than a decade, arose precisely because the government previously violated the rights of many of these very same victims,” Edwards wrote in his letter. “It is especially troubling that, despite the outcome of that litigation, the government has once again proceeded in a manner that disregards the victims’ rights—suggesting that the hard-learned lessons of the past have not taken hold. This omission reinforces the perception that the victims are, at best, an afterthought to the current administration.”
“Epstein victim in tears after Trump won't rule out pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell” - Raw Story
Actress Alicia Arden spoke out about Trump's decision not to release the Epstein files on Wednesday in a press conference with attorney Gloria Allred.
"I'm tired of the government saying that they want to release them," Arden said. "So please just do it."
"And the next question is, should Ms. Maxwell be pardoned?" she continued. "No, Ghislaine Maxwell should not be pardoned. She was convicted of sex trafficking of children. This is a terrible crime."
Arden became emotional while reflecting on the renewed interest in Epstein's crimes.
"It's very upsetting to me, and I cry with tears like I am now," she explained. "In my living room, watching this all the time when I see it on the news every day, Jeffrey's in my brain, and I see him again and again, and I remember what he did to me in that hotel room."
Via CBS: “Family of Virginia Giuffre questions Maxwell’s treatment”
“Giuffre, who claimed Epstein and Maxwell began abusing her when she was 16 years old, died by suicide in April. Now, her sister-in-law Amanda Roberts is calling for transparency in the Epstein case and speaking out against the possibility that President Trump could grant Maxwell a pardon.”
You can watch here:
"People need to see the real truth and the humans that were actually affected by this … those are the testimonies that need to come to the forefront and come to light," she said in an interview Wednesday with "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King. "It would be a travesty, it makes me sick, it makes survivors sick, it's a slap in the face, the idea that she (Maxwell) could potentially get a pardon. Survivors are saying no, no to leniency. No to a pardon. Will you silence them again?"
Flashback: Virginia Giuffre describes Ghislaine Maxwell as a “monster.”
“She’s worse than Epstein. She did even worse than Epstein. She was vicious. She was evil and she was a woman.
“ I would like to see Ghislaine stay in jail forever.”
You can watch here:
Jessica Riedl: the Last Fiscal Conservative
On today’s ‘To the Contrary” Podcast, I’m joined by Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute, for a conversation about the Trump 2.0 economy. We cover everything from fantasy math in drug pricing claims to the White House’s assault on economic data, growing authoritarian tendencies, and the chaos of his tariff policy. We also dig into the gerrymandering arms race…
Subscribers can listen to an ad-free version right here… or you can watch on YouTube / Listen (and subscribe) on Apple/ Spotify / iHeart / RSS Feed.
Thursday dogs
Auggie and Eli keep an eye on the turkeys. (The smoke is a mosquito repellent.)
BONUS: My downstairs bathroom has an unexpected visitor.
For a good explainer of mRNA vaccines, let’s go to Trump’s alma mater, UPenn: World-changing mRNA vaccines | Penn Medicine
Penn Medicine is home to the breakthrough messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology that enabled the highly successful COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. Now the path is set for a whole new class of mRNA vaccines with the potential to eradicate countless other diseases, even cancer.
BONUS: “GOP Senator [Cassidy] Who Confirmed RFK Jr. Blasts Vaccine Move.” If only he had been warned before he voted to confirm this crank. FFS.
Via the Independent:
It also includes a dog-killing parody of the director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Cartman imitating vocal Trump activist Charlie Kirk.
Repeat after me: “I can’t believe what you say when I see what you do.” - James Baldwin
There's a reason MAGA is so upset by South Park going full throttle with the mockery. While I'm still horrified and saddened by the progress lost because of this Corrupt Den of Fools, these bullying dickheads have finally woken the sleeping giant of America's comedians, who took it easy on Trump during 1.0.
The Trump mockery has hit escape velocity and is in the culture now. It only gets worse for them from here, and while I'm still afraid of the damage they are going to inflict, their cultural power is waning.
Most of the country doesn't want to live in 1950's Mississippi.