Who’s Using Who?

Trump falls back on old, familiar ways:

As things are revealed and, I hope will take place quickly, you will see that it is yet another Democrat CON JOB," Trump wrote.

"Hopefully, the Grand Jury Files will put an end to this HOAX. Everyone should see what is there, but people who are innocent should not be hurt," the statement continued.

Trump is ignorant enough to not know one court has rejected the request to release grand jury records outright (largely because the DOJ admitted it had no grounds for invoking an exception to the rule), and another has told the DOJ to do its due diligence and talk to victims first, among other things. But he’s also feral enough to know he can blame the courts for not releasing the records, and MAGA will buy it.

Or not.

The POTUS could direct the AG to pursue legal proceedings to release the documents in possession of the DOJ (assuming Bondi would actually know how to do that). He could, but he won’t. Because he knows that if those files are released, he will be a pedophile by association, as some in the files are already being called (wrongly, IMHO. Epstein did have a social life that didn’t include orgies with everyone he ever met.). But calling Bill Clinton a pedophile because he wrote Epstein a note for his 50th birthday, lands a bit differently than MAGA deciding Trump is the pedophile in charge of the “Deep State” that they’ve been looking for.

This case started with Epstein’s awareness that his victims were poor, working class girls invisible to the world at large. Had Epstein preyed on girls from Palm Beach or among the society class of Manhattan, he’d have been exposed almost immediately. But poor girls are invisible, and remain so, largely, to this day:

"Let me start by asking you, I mean, this — this nightmare has followed you for a very, very long time, I mean, decades. And I'm sure that Jeffrey Epstein's re-emergence, I mean, all over the news, has been incredibly painful," said Psaki. "How are you? How are you doing? How are you, how are you digesting all of this?"

"Thank you for asking that," said Farmer. "That's very thoughtful, because a lot of people aren't aware of every time his picture is on one of their podcasts or, you know, and I've asked several people, can you please not just flash this picture everywhere or Maxwell's and not glamorize them? But thank you for asking that, because a lot of people aren't aware that that retraumatizes victims."

"Every time we have to see his face, and it's a case that has just never gone away," Farmer continued. "It just — it just won't go away. And I need your audience to understand that, you know, I reported this almost three decades ago. So a lot of people will say, 'Oh, why is she just coming forward now?' And they think it's political and it's not. It's something I've been working on pretty much — I dedicated all of my youth to this. And so I'm doing it not just for me, but for the victims who are now deceased and the victims that are very much alive. And I want to get justice for all of them."

"I feel that for my little sister to have gone through what she went through and to have had to testify against Maxwell and then have to suffer," she added. "And there are others that I love very much who are suffering this right now about Maxwell. It's completely unacceptable. Why would Maxwell be given a voice when she is a convicted pedophile? I just — it's been very difficult and I appreciate the question. I appreciate you asking."

The victims are invisible. Two or three have testified against Maxwell (the women in Florida never got a chance to testify against Epstein. Alex Acosta saw to that.). Or appeared in the Netflix documentaries on Epstein and Maxwell. But the number of victims is much, much larger than 6 women (I’m counting from memory the women appearing in the documentaries, and the two who testified. I could be off by one or two.). Those women are all very brave, and Maria Farmer speaks for many more of them. Especially as Epstein becomes a political football, and Maxwell may be given a chance to change her future, a chance the courts are unlikely to give her.

But Trump has never respected the legal process. And he’s never thought of others, except for what they can do for him. Or to him.

We can’t victimize the victims again, treat them as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell did, in order to get Trump. If we’re going to think about what Epstein does to Trump, we have to think about he did to his victims, too. And what talking about him still does to them. Not so we can be silent; but so we can be respectful. And so we can stand with them; not tacitly use them all over again.