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On the scandal that won't go away...

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Jeffrey Epstein is back in the news, years after he died of suicide in 2019 in a federal jail, imprisoned while waiting trial for charges that he sex trafficked minors and conspired to sex traffic minors. He was, for years, a long-time friend of Trump's until they had a falling out over a real estate deal (I guess the sex trafficking of minors and the "Lolita Express" stuff were not deal breakers.) 

Epstein has been in the news for a while, at least since Trump brought him up on the campaign trail back in 2024, promising to release information about Epstein and his clients. From ABC News:

"'Would you declassify the Epstein files?' Fox News' Rachel Campos-Duffy asked. Trump responded, 'Yeah, yeah, I would.'"

In January 2024, a year prior to the election, Pam Bondi, future USAG, went on Fox News with Sean Hannity to ensure that the focus remained on the Epstein files after some files were released by the Biden DOJ, claiming:

"... Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison for 20 years were she belongs. And if people in that report are still fighting to keep their names private, Sean, they have no legal basis to do so unless they are a child, a victim or a cooperating defendant..." 


All of that brings up the question: what is the base's enduring fascination with a dead man who was listed on the sex offender registry? 

But first, before that question is addressed, here are some disparate threads that weave together various conspiracy theories along with the Epstein story. 

The Macrons file a lawsuit against Candace Owens
The French president and his wife, Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, are suing Candace Owens over claims that Brigitte is a man. From CNN:

"The lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court alleges Owens has broadcast 'a relentless year-long campaign of defamation against the Macrons' according to a statement from Tom Clare, the Macrons’ lawyer.

In March, conservative commentator Candace Owens revived an absurd conspiracy theory with a YouTube video titled 'Is France’s First Lady a Man?' according to the complaint.

"Promoted widely on X, Owens said the conspiracy theory was, 'likely the biggest scandal in political history.'

"Since then, Owens has produced numerous videos about Brigitte Macron for her nearly 4.5 million YouTube subscribers, including a multi-part series called 'Becoming Brigitte.'

"The lawsuit further claims she has also sold merchandise promoting the claim."

It is unclear why Candace Owens would spend any time exploring a theory that Brigitte Macron is a man when there has been a lot of publicity about the fact that Mrs. Macron was a married mother of three and 39 years old when she met her future husband when he was a 15-year-old student at a school her daughter attended. That's an interesting origin story for any couple but one ignored by Owens, who seems to be in the throes of an anti-trans crusade. 

In a video posted on social media after the suit was filed, Owens doubled down on her claims. Looking straight at the camera as if speaking directing to Brigitte Macron, she says, "You were born a man and you will die a man. That's the point I'm making. Give us a blood sample...." 

Owens ends her diatribe with: 
"We are revolting against this. We are revolting against the PERVERTS that run the world. I want to be very clear here I count you among them. I think you are sick. I think you are disgusting. And I am fully prepared to take on this battle - on behalf of the entire world. That's what I'm going to say - on behalf of the entire world, I will see you in court."

The ego required to attack a politician's wife (a mother of three) "on behalf of the entire world" needs to be quite gigantic, but Owens seems full of her sense of her power to protect the world from Brigitte Macron. SHE is doing all this work "on behalf of the entire world" so that perverts that run the world (like a 70+ year old mother and grandmother married to the French president) will be held to account. Like Alex Jones, Owens has made millions of dollars lying to her audience. For some time now, she has decided to promote an anti-trans story about the wife of the French president. There is much money to be made, apparently, in tapping into the vein of fear of the "perverts" who rule the world. 

It will be interesting to see the Macron v Owens case unfold. As Owens says, onto discovery for this case! 

Next stop: Pizzagate... 
Back in 2016, during Trump's first campaign for president, there was a rightwing conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton was the head of a child-sex trafficking scheme. I don't follow the rightwing social media channels, but according to the BBC, in early November 2016, just before the election, Wikileaks started leaking emails related to Hillary Clinton. In a trove of John Podesta emails, a funder's name was mentioned. From the BBC:

"In early November, as Wikileaks steadily released piles of emails from Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, one contact caught the attention of prankster sites and people on the paranoid fringes. 

"James Alefantis is the owner of Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant in Washington. He's also a big Democratic Party supporter and raised money for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He was once in a relationship with David Brock, an influential liberal operative.

"Alefantis - who's never met Clinton - appeared in the Podesta emails in connection with the fundraisers.

"And from these thin threads, an enormous trove of conspiracy fiction was spun."

People really believed that Hillary Clinton, Democratic candidate for president, was operating a massive international child sex trafficking business out of a pizza parlor in DC. One North Carolina resident was so outraged about Clinton's pedophile sex business that he traveled with his gun to the pizza parlor to rescue the children. From the Washington Post:

"What was finally real was Edgar Welch, driving from North Carolina to Washington to rescue sexually abused children he believed were hidden in mysterious tunnels beneath a neighborhood pizza joint.

"What was real was Welch — a father, former firefighter and sometime movie actor who was drawn to dark mysteries he found on the Internet — terrifying customers and workers with his ­assault-style rifle as he searched Comet Ping Pong, police said. He found no hidden children, no secret chambers, no evidence of a child sex ring run by the failed Democratic candidate for president of the United States, or by her campaign chief, or by the owner of the pizza place."

What the Owens and Pizzagate stories show: there is a deeply rooted theory in America that perverted people control global leadership positions, and many of them are involved in a global pedophile sex trafficking system that connects powerful people with women and girls who have been trafficked for sex. And that's what makes the Epstein scandal so enduring - here is a man who was on the sex offender registry who mingled and associated with the wealthiest and most powerful among us and died in prison while on trial for sex trafficking minors to rich and powerful global leaders.

Back to the scandal that will not go away
The Wall Street Journal (what is happening with Rupert Murdoch?!) recently released a story on Trump's bawdy contribution to "birthday book" of birthday cards given to Epstein. Apparently in 2003, when Epstein turned 50, his friend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking minors with Jeffrey Epstein and now is perhaps under consideration for a presidential pardon, complied a book of birthday cards given to Epstein, a man who flew on a private plane he called the Lolita Express to his private island stocked with young girls – birthday cards written and signed by powerful people like Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and wealthy business executives like Leon Black, Vera Wang (!!)  and Les Wexner. New photos have just been released showing Epstein was invited to Trump's 1993 wedding to Marla Maples. The Epstein scandal involving Trump seems to be heating up instead of vanishing. 

Unlike Candace Owens' attacks on the gender of Mrs. Macron or Pizzagate, the Epstein scandal isn't really a rumor or a conspiracy theory - the Epstein story is about a real pedophile, a man on the sex offender registry, who associated with very powerful people at the highest levels of government and business. 

Today, Trump would love to have the Epstein scandal disappear, like so many other of his scandals that have vanished into the ether without knocking him out (mocking a disabled reporter, providing a crypto currency for  people and governments looking for favors to "invest in" before he decides about their concerns, inciting an invasion at the Capitol in the hopes of overturning the election he lost; storing classified documents in a Mar A Lago bathroom; sharing classified intel in the Oval Office with Russians, defrauding Trump U students; defrauding his own charity, etc. – the conflicts of interest and overt corruption that the Republicans are willing to overlook these days to gain authoritarian power under Trump are quite stunning.) 

Unfortunately for Trump, the Epstein scandal will not go away just yet. And Epstein remains in the news because the base apparently believes that there is a global child sex trafficking ring where global leaders abuse young girls and Trump and his team repeatedly promised to give up ALL the details on that. The base hates the perverted global leaders who sex traffic girls and/or marry men who pretend to be women. The rightwing media ecosystem has made a tidy profit attacking Hillary Clinton and now Brigitte Macron for their perverted ways. And the base and rightwing media all look to Trump to stop the perverts. 

Given Trump's long-time friendship with Epstein and all the pictures and videos that exist of Trump and Epstein gawking at women at parties, it was a strange decision for the Trump and his team to promise ANY information about Epstein over and above what was already out there. 

And there were abundant promises from the Trump team. Here is a link to a Washington Post story on the timeline of the Epstein scandal, which includes mention of Trump's 2024 campaign promise to share info on the Epstein files. 

In February 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the leadership of USAG Pam Bondi, issued a news release promising the release of Epstein files.

"'This Department of Justice is following through on President Trump’s commitment to transparency and lifting the veil on the disgusting actions of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators,' said Attorney General Pamela Bondi."
At around the same time, rightwing media influencers were pictured holding large "Epstein File" folders in front of the White House for a memorable but meaningless photo op:

CAPTION: CBS News in February 2025 shares a photo of 
people leaving the White House with large Epstein binders 

Concurrently with that press release and photo op, Bondi issued Epstein file materials that essentially had been released earlier, which threw the base in an uproar. They were hungry for big, meaty NEW facts and not happy with the scraps she fed them. And when the Trump administration announced in early July 2025 that there was no "Epstein client list" to be released, the base has thus far refused to let this issue go.

Now with the base clamoring for the Epstein files that Trump now does not want revealed, the Trump administration is all-in on sharing the claim - without any evidence – that Barack Obama worked with Russians to undermine Trump's presidential campaigns. And that, according to RUSSIAN intelligence (the Trump administration is using RUSSIAN intelligence to smear a US politician now - big win for Putin!), Hillary Clinton was drugged up and her trips when she was Secretary of State to Russia showed her commitment to Russia. 

All of it is astonishing - Trump's long-running friendship with Epstein; their falling out over a real estate deal and not the sex trafficking stuff; the bald-faced lies fed by top members of the administration being amplified on rightwing media about Obama and Hillary Clinton as an attempt to divert from the Epstein mess; the use of Russian intelligence by high-ranking Trump administration officials as if the information is factual and not propaganda. What it means is that our nation is in a very dark place. One party is devoted to hiding information about a child sex trafficker, amplifying Russian propaganda, and trotting out all the red meat talking points that the base is fond of consuming regardless of the facts. 

And yet, despite Trump's best efforts, the Epstein scandal is not going away just yet. We will see where this goes. 







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