By Johnathon Shaffer / Sports Editor
Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on federal charges of sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking on July 6, 2019. The indictment accused Epstein of running a trafficking ring that involved dozens of underaged girls, and took place at his mansions in New York and Florida, as well as his own private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Epstein pleaded not guilty, and was held without bail. Epstein also allegedly had a client list that implicated many celebrities and influential people. A month after his arrest, Epstein was found dead in his cell. His death was ruled a suicide.
You would think this would draw more attention from the federal government to find just who was involved with these serious and heinous allegations and bring them to justice, but it appears that they are only protecting those involved with the incident, rather than bringing the truth to light.
First and foremost, with the basic synopsis of the case, a major question to ask is, why would Epstein kill himself if he was pleading not guilty? If Epstein, no matter how terrible his acts were, was willing to defend himself in court, it would be safe to assume he wouldn’t kill himself, and that there were other forces at play.
There is also the issue around the recording of Epstein’s jail cell. The DOJ released the recording of the time before and after Epstein’s alleged suicide, claiming that there was no foul play. However, many people, including independent journalists, have voiced doubts about the footage, claiming that it was digitally altered to skip over a minute of time.
“Metadata embedded in the video and analyzed by WIRED and independent video forensics experts shows that rather than being a direct export from the prison’s surveillance system, the footage was modified, likely using the professional editing tool Adobe Premiere Pro,” wired.com said.
This goes directly against the assertions of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who claimed that the prison’s CCTV system was reset every 24 hours, so every night’s footage would feature a missing minute.
One of President Donald Trump’s major campaign topics was the release of the Epstein files, JFK files, MLK files, etc. While he has made good on his promises with the JFK files and the MLK files, there is still a massive amount unknown around the Epstein files, much to the chagrin of the American people. After a few months of showboating, and claiming that they had thousands of pages on Bondi’s desk ready to release, the DOJ and the FBI then claimed on July 7 that the Epstein files never existed.
Then, Trump claimed that the Epstein files did exist, but they were a “Democrat hoax” and that his supporters should “not waste time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”
The DOJ in recent months have also made a huge deal about the partial releases of the Epstein files, of the FBI and DOJ’s investigation on him. There are two major problems with this, though.
One, the releases reveal almost no new information. According to House Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, 97% of the release on Sept. 2 was already known information.
For the second and most obvious reason, a partial release implies that there is something to hide—that there are powerful people to protect. The release was 33,000 pages long, which may sound like a lot, but the DOJ also reports that there are over 100,000 pages to release. Much of it is also redacted. Does this not sound any alarms?
On Sept. 17, FBI director Kash Patel testified before the US House over the Epstein files.
When asked by representative Ted Lieu if Trump was on Epstein’s client list, Patel avoided the question entirely.
“The index has been released,” Patel said.
As Lieu also mentioned, this is a huge red flag for America: the FBI director could not give a firm answer whether or not the president of the United States was on the Epstein client list.
Before the recent motions for the Epstein files to be released by a bipartisan movement, Republican representatives said they did not want a release of the Epstein files, under the notion that they do not wish to release any recordings of sensitive content involving children.
This is blatantly just an excuse to not reveal information about those who would be incriminated by the information released, as it would be very easy to release all the information while keeping sensitive information private.
As a part of this release movement, Congress recently released a letter between Trump and Epstein that outlines a conversation they had. The letter was designed with a woman’s compromised body, and signed by Trump. The letter was for Epstein’s birthday in 2003, and contained very strange comments, including a comment from Trump.
“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday–and may every day be another wonderful secret,” Trump wrote.
In general, it is very confusing as to why there isn’t more support for the release of the files. Even if it incriminates a lot of very powerful people for a heinous crime, and they hold important roles in government or certain industries, the cry for justice should be louder than the voices of the rich. If people are incriminated by this, they were obviously never suited for the job or role in the first place. They should, and can, be realistically replaced by capable people.
Overall, the government as a whole who are attempting to cover up the Epstein files, think that the people they govern are idiots. This entire story may appear to be scattered and loosely connected, but the cover up of everything related to Epstein the government has done is also scattered, loosely connected, and contradictory. With every passing month, there is always something new that contradicts what was said before.