Despite Congress’ Epstein Vote Trump Plans To Continue Coverup

By Zeteo Photos: YouTube Screenshots After the tense, protracted standoff between Donald Trump and his own House GOP caucus over a vote to release the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files, the House finally voted on Tuesday after the president pretended he wasn’t incandescently mad about it. Trump was humiliated – “badly,” his own senior personnel privately admit, unable to stop his craven party stooges from obeying him and ignoring the external political pressures. But his administration and his party loyalists have no intention of relenting in their scandalous cover-up. That House vote – to force Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Trump DOJ to release confidential files on the late billionaire sex offender and former Trump buddy – was overwhelming, following a sustained pressure campaign from Epstein survivors, their families, and others. We already know that Trump’s name is in those still-secret files – but Trump and his top officials have conducted a woefully corrupt, months-long cover-up to keep you from seeing why his name is in those federal files. So, the cover-up will continue until morale improves. If Trump signs the thing, which the Senate backed not long after the House vote, it’ll be for show. The White House has an even better insurance policy than the Senate or House could possibly offer. In the days leading up to the vote yesterday, the president demanded that the Justice Department launch investigations of Democratic associates of the late Epstein. The department, of course, hopped to it. At the time, some observers suspected that this doubled as a sneaky, deliberate way for the Trump White House to block the release of whatever still-concealed Epstein records that Trump wanted buried. The administration could claim that active criminal investigations are ongoing, and therefore, it isn’t legally required to hand over certain documents. Two Trump administration officials familiar with the matter bluntly tell me that – one official’s words – “of course” that is one distinct option that has been quietly discussed by senior Trump appointees lately, including in the West Wing and at the Department of Justice. To some of them, it’s a highly preferable and necessary option. After all, the administration has a vastly different definition of what laws they have to follow (read: if they do it, it’s legal), and of what they are legally required to fork over. “We are going to do what is legal,” the other Trump official tells me, with a hint of smugness that only comes from possessing raw political power in the rapaciously authoritarian Trump era. On Tuesday afternoon, the president suffered a blow to his ego and to his aura of personality cult, no doubt. The resistance to Trump’s agenda and his narrative is having an effect – which is why he and his people will resort to an increasingly blatant array of dirty tricks to protect their man in Washington (and Mar-a-Lago). “Trump’s demand for a ‘new investigation’ into certain Democrats gives the DOJ the perfect legal loophole to withhold entire portions of what is known as the ‘Epstein Files,’” says lawyer Bradley Moss, whose firm represents people who have been targeted by the Trump administration. “Transparency advocates and victims of Epstein and [Ghislaine] Maxwell need to stay on alert for the real possibility that what gets released will be incomplete, heavily redacted, and far from the full universe of information held by DOJ … The real test of Trump’s lame duck status will be how much Republicans push back when DOJ inevitably tries to claim an ongoing investigation warrants redactions and withholdings.” Indeed, per NBC News: “The legislation says the attorney general may withhold or redact any information that identifies victims or would jeopardize an active federal investigation.” Roughly translated: Donald Trump thinks you are very fucking stupid.