Recreational Outrage

Ah, The Epstein Files.

That glorious beacon of hope, guiding the Left – hoping, praying that these documents will prove the president is a pedophile.

Can I take a moment here to mention how morally reprehensible that is, to wish for someone to be a pedophile? It’s one of the worst things you can accuse someone of, right alongside “Nazi” and “fascist”. And it turns out that these files are a handy way of exiting a debate by declaring “Release the files!” as if that were the only issue at play. Some even claim Trump is creating crises to distract from their release (while those same people don’t believe what’s happening in Minnesota is to distract from the massive fraud taking place there).

The administration can’t win. No matter what they do, they’ll be attacked. First you wanted the files, like NOW!, but now you’re upset because names weren’t properly redacted – and rightfully so, as the Jan 30 release exposed 43+ victims’ names (including over two dozen minors with addresses). Prior to that redaction was bad, now its bad if it isn’t done, and in a hurry. Dems like Rep. Jamie Raskin pushed for a full review, but now criticize partial releases. We’re talking millions of pages of documents, mentioning thousands of people and places. Do you want them released quickly, or carefully? Are we protecting the victims, or retraumatizing them? It’s also confusing how the Left derides Trump for not releasing these files they have had for a year, while simultaneously arguing that the Biden administration, who had the files for 4 years, didn’t know what was in them.

These files do not contain what the Left wants them to contain, and when they don’t get what they want, they often have a violent tantrum. Moreover, I find that they have these violent tantrums without understanding the thing they are throwing the tantrum over. Let’s help our brothers and sisters on the left to view the Epstein Files with a more sober mind.

In 2005, Florida police open an investigation into Epstein after a 14-year-old reports she was paid for sex. Multiple underage women come forward with similar stories. A year later the FBI opens a federal probe, and Epstein is indicted. In 2008, Epstein received an 18 month prison term and was out in 13, totally avoiding federal charges.

In 2019, while Trump was in office, Epstein is arrested in New York and charged with federal crimes for sex trafficking minors, by Trump’s DOJ. Epstein dies in jail. In 2020, with Trump still in office, Ghislaine Maxwell is charged. Her trial runs through 2022 where she’s sentenced to 20 years. Over the next couple of years, court documents start to get unsealed.

Thousands of pages are released in batches. Names mentioned include Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, Michael Jackson, David Copperfield, Stephen Hawking, and others. Most mentions were already public; no major new criminal charges result. There is no public demand for millions of more files while Biden is in office. Quite rightly, many believe that nobody has been charged because the tendrils of the metastasizing tumor of Epstein’s reach crept into too many dark crevices. Pulling at the house of cards would be catastrophic to those who have leveraged public service to become rich. Interestingly, Trump is the only US president to have his net worth go down while in office (insert Lewinsky joke here). It seems more likely that things such as sex trafficking weren’t openly discussed via the communications and that outright illegal acts were communicated in code, encrypted line, or in person.

It is important to remember that Democrats had access to this info through the administrations of both Obama and Biden. The files have been through dozens of law firms, hundreds of hands, and there must be a mountain of copies as a result. Innumerable eyes have seen them. If there were anything in there that would implicate Trump as a sex criminal, the Left would have used it to bury him, probably before a first term. 20 years in which to find something to destroy the most investigated man in history and the worst thing they found was falsifying documents 40 years ago.

There was direct evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of Epstein, but not of Trump. The FBI has not found any credible tips, evidence, or leads connecting Trump, again, after these files being out there in part of whole for nearly 20 years. There are 100,000 names in the Epstein Files, including Trump’s, but nothing credible to suggest he was complicit or took part. In fact, unlike most of the names mentioned in the files, Trump cut ties with Epstein and banned him from Mar-a-Lago in 2007 – 2008, shortly after Epstein’s Florida conviction became public, and around the time the lenient plea deal was being finalized. This is one of the few documented instances of someone in Epstein’s orbit actively severing contact before the federal case exploded years later. Being listed in flight logs from the 1990s, attending the same social events, or being name-dropped in depositions is not evidence of criminality – especially when the same files show dozens of other powerful people with far closer, longer-lasting ties who never cut contact. And Epstein was exceptionally well-connected.

It is widely believed that Epstein was an intelligence asset, possibly for more than one global player. A number of former intelligence officials, journalists, and even some of Epstein’s associates have the opinion that Epstein was running a honeypot operation and feeding compromising material to multiple global intelligence agencies including the CIA and Mossad. A lot would need to be redacted to protect the intelligence community as well as the victims. Being furious and demanding access to files that contain the private trauma of rape victims – information you would never tolerate others rooting through of yours – does not entitle you to that access. Privacy and victim protection are not negotiable just because you’re angry.

The Epstein Files have become less about accountability and more about emotional payoff. Are we about truth, or about vengeance? Real justice demands facts, not fantasies. The Epstein Files are not a Rorschach Test for politically-motivated hate. Just as with wishing yourself into a different gender, it’s similarly not possible to wish Trump into a pedophile. It’s also incredibly slanderous to call people “pedophile protecters”; a pedophile is one of the worst things a person can be, and you saying that I protect them is far more insulting than almost anything I can think of. I’m a father of 5; if anyone wants to see pedophiles removed from society, it’s me. If evidence exists, it should be pursued and justice dispensed. But it doesn’t exist for Trump, at least not until now. The files are far more likely a rope being given the Democrats with which to hang themselves than evidence of a Donald Trump crime. They’re a record of real suffering – suffering that deserves justice, not used a political weapon. Justice requires patience, skepticism, and restraint – qualities that don’t trend well online. If you truly care about justice, focus on the victims, not on wishing people you don’t like into monsters they aren’t.