Some of our MAGA lunatics seems to be confused about the recent timeline, so just a little refresher from Bloomberg. Nothing suspicious here lol.
Epstein’s death led to a swirl of renewed interest among Trump supporters, which in recent months has verged into an obsession. Last year, while still on the campaign trail, Trump vowed to “declassify” material in the government’s possession pertaining to Epstein. Before Pam Bondi was nominated as attorney general by Trump, she insisted that the public had a right to know more details about the case. “If people in that report are still fighting to keep their names private,” she said on Fox News last year, “they have no legal basis to do so, unless they’re a child, a victim, or a cooperating defendant.” In January, Kash Patel, the FBI director, told a Senate Committee during his confirmation hearing that he’d ensure “the American public knows the full weight of what happened.”
Then on Feb. 27, during a highly publicized event at the White House, Bondi rolled out what the Justice Department referred to as the “first phase” of the release of the Epstein files. It was attended by former Pizzagate provocateur Jack Posobiec and other far-right influencers. They were given binders labeled “The Epstein Files” and “The Most Transparent Administration in History” that contained about 200 pages of documents that Bondi characterized as “declassified.” She also suggested that the records would contain previously undisclosed details about Epstein.
Instead, Bondi’s big Epstein files party was a bust. It turned out the documents she called declassified, which included pages from Epstein’s infamous “black book,” had been previously released, most recently during the criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell four years earlier. (The black book revealed Trump’s name and the names of his wife, Melania, and other family members.)
Trump’s followers were irate. Bondi was angry, too. She fired off a letter to FBI Director Patel demanding to know why the bureau failed to provide her with the thousands of pages of documents related to the Epstein investigation and indictment she requested. She wanted answers from Patel, and accountability.
Trump’s name blacked out
What happened next kicked off a new phase in the Epstein saga. As I reported in the March 28th edition of FOIA Files, Patel directed FBI special agents from the New York and Washington field offices to join the bureau’s FOIA employees at its sprawling Central Records Complex in Winchester, Virginia and another building a few miles away.
They were instructed to search for and review every single Epstein-related document and determine what could be released. That included a mountain of material accumulated by the FBI over nearly two decades, including grand jury testimony, prosecutors’ case files, as well as tens of thousands of pages of the bureau’s own investigative files on Epstein. It was a herculean task that involved as many as 1,000 FBI agents and other personnel pulling all-nighters while poring through more than 100,000 documents, according to a July letter from Senator Dick Durbin to Bondi.
Senior officials at the FBI’s Record/Information Dissemination Section, which handles the processing of FOIA requests, pushed back on the directives. Michael Seidel, the section chief of RIDS who worked at the FBI for about 14 years, was quite vocal, the three people familiar with the matter told me. Patel blamed him for the failure to send all of the Epstein files to Bondi. Then, a couple of months ago, Seidel was told he could either retire or be fired, according to the people. He chose the former and quietly left the FBI, the people said. The details related to Seidel’s exit haven’t been previously reported.
Seidel could not be reached for comment
In preparation for potential public release, the documents then went to a unit of FOIA officers who applied redactions in accordance with the nine exemptions. The people familiar with the matter said that Trump’s name, along with other high-profile individuals, was blacked out because he was a private citizen when the federal investigation of Epstein was launched in 2006.
A White House spokesperson would not respond to questions about the redactions of Trump’s name, instead referring questions to the FBI. The FBI declined to comment. The Justice Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
‘Gaslight’
That brings us up to today. After the FBI redacted the Epstein files, they were sent to Bondi. (Media reports said Bondi briefed Trump at the White House in May and told him he was named in the files.)
Then, on July 8, the Justice Department and FBI released an unsigned joint statement that said the FBI collected more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence related to the Epstein investigation. However, the promises of “transparency” made earlier by Bondi and Patel didn’t materialize.
“While we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein,” the statement read, “it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” The officials added that “much of the information is subject to court-ordered sealing.”
The statement ignited a firestorm on social media. Trump's most ardent supporters were furious with Bondi and the president. They said it was a cover-up. The influential podcaster Joe Rogan recently accused the administration of “trying to gaslight” his supporters over Epstein.
Trump, meanwhile, has tried to contain the fallout. He lashed out at his base in a series of posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, and blamed Democrats for the “fake” Epstein scandal.
Here’s the bottom line: The FBI's behind-the-scenes decision-making suggests that the chances of aliens resurrecting JFK are greater than Trump’s name ever being unredacted from the Epstein files.
Of course, Trump could agree to let his name out or sign a privacy waiver. Or, when he—and everybody else named in the files—eventually dies, most of their privacy rights will disappear.
