Trump Could Have the Last Laugh on the Epstein Files

Donald Trump’s head-spinning about-face on legislation to force disclosure of the Epstein files by his own administration is leading a lot of observers to wonder if the 47th president has lost his mojo. Some write about the embattled president as though he’s Richard Nixon being stalked by congressional and media predators with the Epstein files being a turning point that blows up Trump’s control of the legislative branch and the GOP, as Politico Playbook suggests:

It’s Congress that emerges empowered. This is the most useful piece of presidential oversight we’ve seen from the legislative branch all year. Has the spell been broken? Might we see a genuinely co-equal branch of government start to reemerge? The laws of political gravity suggest at some point over the next 12-18 months, Trump’s authority — as a term-limited leader — will start to ebb away.

Maybe so, but at this point it’s unclear whether Trump’s wild gyrations on the Epstein files represent a panic-stricken surrender or just a strategic retreat. Clearly the House is going to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act by an overwhelming bipartisan margin today. Let’s say the Senate does the same thing, and Trump signs the bill as he’s said he would. It’s at the implementation stage of the process that Trump may regain the power he appears to have lost. As Rebecca Schneid reports, there’s a loophole in the disclosure process you could drive a Cybertruck through:

After months of insisting that the Epstein files were a “hoax” and his Department of Justice (DOJ) closing its investigation into the case, Trump ordered a new probe last week into several of his political opponents for their links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. …

[L]egal experts and some key figures pushing for the release of the files have questioned the sudden about-turn, suggesting that Trump may be using the new DOJ investigation to block any further releases.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, the key driver behind the push to force a vote in the House of Representatives to release the files, suggested the investigation may be a “smokescreen” and a “last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files.” 

“If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can’t be released,” Massie said Sunday.

Aside from the fact that the “ongoing investigations” proviso means certain materials can be held back despite enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the loophole puts the White House and Attorney General Pam Bondi back in charge of what is released when. Arguably this could enable Team Trump to further weaponize the files against political enemies while protecting the president to the maximum extent possible. Ultimately it will come down to a test of public trust, and Trump could yet convince his MAGA base that Jeffrey Epstein was the center of a global cabal of leftist sex traffickers after all just as was always suspected.

None of this will be easy to accomplish, and Trump would surely prefer to stay focused on his new “affordability” messaging while keeping a tight grip on the Republican Party as it approaches treacherous midterm elections. But the Nixon vibe around Trump could be misleading, and the belief that he’s been cornered by the Epstein files could be highly premature.