Former Prosecutor: It seems to raise questions about Mar-a-Lago being a place where Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell were able to find young women. Virginia Giuffre was one of the most prominent victims. The one thing that you didn't hear from Trump was acknowledgement that she was victimized by Epstein
— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) July 30, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Thing is… I sympathize with those of you who are tired of the pixelated water torture, but yes, the victims of Epstein, Maxwell, and Trump deserve to see — at the very least — public acknowledgement of the crimes they suffered.
As for the fear that voters would grow bored, or resentful, of the media’s attention: journamalist John Heilemann, currently at Puck, felt impelled to interview ‘most storied and deeply sourced Trumpologist’ Maggie Haberman on what he clocks as a month of “Trump’s Epsteinitis”:
… Maggie also happens to be the rare journalist whose revelations have, on more than one occasion, cut to the core of who Trump is, causing him to lose his shit—which makes her analysis of his current verklempt-ness both unique and uniquely insightful. In our chat, we discussed why the Epstein story undermines Trump’s carefully cultivated image as an outsider, the potential limits of its long-term political costs, and how covering Trump 2.0 differs from covering Trump 1.0. As usual, the excerpts below have been condensed for space and edited for clarity; you can feast on the whole enchilada here.
John Heilemann: The title of your book, Confidence Man, is, of course, a double entendre, alluding both to Trump’s massive confidence in himself and to the fact that he’s, well, a con man. And it strikes me as especially apt in the context of the Epstein story, which is a direct result of Trump having conned his base with a conspiracy theory and a misplaced sense of confidence on his part that it would never blow up in his face.
Maggie Haberman: One reason this story is problematic for him is that he had very successfully, for a long time, positioned himself as a political outsider, as a person operating outside the system. During his trial in New York last year, for example, he really embraced the outlaw image. But the Epstein story cuts against that.
Because Epstein was, in a way, the ultimate insider—the people who consorted with him were all members of the political, financial, business, and even academic elite.
Correct. The other problem for him is that he keeps calling this a hoax. It’s not just his own supporters, but many members of his own government, who pushed the conspiracy theories for years, ever since Epstein died [in 2019], about what was in the files. And it’s now sort of swallowed him, at least for the time being.
I’m not nearly the expert you are, but I can’t recall a prior instance in which Trump was so flagrantly at odds with his most ardent followers. We’re seeing MAGA influencers and key voices in MAGA media calling bullshit, saying they feel betrayed by him—and he’s not giving an inch and instead is just trying, over and over, to change the subject. That strikes me as unprecedented. Am I wrong?
There have been moments where his base has made it clear they’re upset with something he has done, and generally Trump has moved away [from doing what the base hasn’t liked]. We are now seeing a consistent period where he’s doing things that his base doesn’t favor. And we’re seeing it over and over again. But I don’t know what the cost is. If you look at his polling, some of his averages are clearly, steadily seeing some erosion, but not a massive dip. Putting aside President Trump, the Jeffrey Epstein story was a mainstream story about a sex trafficker for a long time. It’s unlike other stories that have generally operated at the fringe or been niche…
Much of what MAGA has been about is a sense of grievance among ordinary people, stoked endlessly by Trump, who think that the elite regard them with disdain. So it was striking a couple weeks ago when Trump went on Truth Social and basically said, If you still care about this story—a story he and his allies promulgated for years!—you’re stupid. Which makes him sound like just another two-faced politician trying to gaslight them, like just another member of the elite, that is. And by doing that, I think he’s really playing with fire…
man, there actually is a real, no-shit conspiracy here. i don’t think it’s that trump had epstein killed, but barr clearly tried to sweep it under the rug as fast as possible and didn’t care much about the details.
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) July 30, 2025 at 2:25 AM
===
i also mostly don’t care about the truth, i want all these people to burn and shoot and stab each other. live by the low trust, die by it.
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) July 30, 2025 at 3:57 AM
===
But why won’t the Democrats…
Nah bro.
You will not impeach Trump on this current coverup. Demanding that you try is yet more affirmative impotence.
You CAN, however, use political leverage over right wingers to get them on the record NOW whether they WILL impeach when he gives her commutation.— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 11:35 AM
You know who gets to be in charge of impeachment NOW?
Noted sex abuse cover-up artist Jim Jordan.Apparently this needs to be said: You want to disrupt Trump’s fascist attack, you need to use power against REPUBLICANS, not Democrats.
Guess what Dems did last week (reportedly w/involvement from villain #2 Hakeem Jeffries)? Made the Speaker give up his power for a week.
I get that you all have a rabid desire to heighten polarization in Congress, which is Trump’s super power.
That helps him.
You gotta do the opposite, and ON THIS ISSUE you can do it easily w/o sacrificing policy.
@bone00afide.bsky.social
— Physicians for a Healthy Democracy (@physiciandemocracy.medsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 8:40 AM
===
New Republic journalist…
Epstein hired a teenaged Giuffre out from under Trump in 2000. Trump didn’t kick him out of Mar-a-Lago until 2007—a year after the FBI started investigating him for sex trafficking.
— Alex Shephard (@alexshephard.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 2:42 PM
===
this is the basic timeline
— Alex Shephard (@alexshephard.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 2:55 PM
===
Contemporaneous reporting from 2007 claims Epstein was blackballed from Mar-a-Lago for going after a teenage masseuse but strongly suggests—if we take Epstein’s claim that he was there recently at face value—that reporters sniffing around is what actually got him banned pagesix.com/2007/10/15/s…
— Alex Shephard (@alexshephard.bsky.social) July 29, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Status Quo – the Time for Maintaining the Status Quo has Come and Gone
Baud
I will enjoy the scandal through you, AL.
Baud
Old Man Shadow
I’m not as deeply into it as others, but I think for me, it touches on the inherent corruption of the law, the government, and the Republic. It touches on the deeply misogynistic culture of America.
And really, that any wealthy person could do this again, today. And they could get away with it for decades by being friends with the right people, by donating to the right campaigns, by gifting people with trips or parties or sex or a chance to rape an underaged girl.
Epstein would still be alive today and likely still raping underaged girls and hobnobbing with the powerful, rich, and connected if one reporter hadn’t finally taken a look at him and his sweetheart deal.
Meanwhile, poor immigrants are disappeared by the government into regimes that torture people or concentration camps that torture people for often not even committing a bloody felony. Black people have been murdered by the police for innocent behavior like getting gas or playing video games or walking in a park… meanwhile, the Sacklers get to enjoy their fortunes.
It just really, REALLY FUCKING stirs in me that we don’t have the rule of law. There are so many goddamned people who need to fucking pay for their crimes who won’t. They’ll fucking die and get fucking lauded by the rich people’s bought and paid for journalists. They’ll sometimes get their fucking state funerals and their fucking presidential library monument like some ancient fucking Pharoah.
It really is enough to make one want to go full French Revolution.
TONYG
Virginia Giuffre was an (underage) employee of Mar-a-Lago who was then hired by Epstein. People, young and old, change jobs all of the time. It’s pretty weird of Trump to refer to this incident as Epstein “stealing” Giuffre. Unless, of course, she was an underage sex-slave of Trump who was stolen by Epstein. Giuffre “committed suicide” several months ago. How convenient.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Old Man Shadow:
I have a garage full of tumbrels on the off chance that happens.
MattF
I’ll bet that seven year gap between ‘Epstein did a bad thing’ and ‘Trump reacted to it’ makes people go hmmm.
Chief Oshkosh
I haven’t followed this story as closely as some. Has an intrepid reporter asked Trump “You say that you kicked Epstein out for stealing under-aged female employees from Mar-a-Lago. It’s been proven that Maxwell helped Epstein traffic these girls for sex abuse and torture and that Maxwell herself sexually abused and tortured these girls. Why are you considering pardoning Maxwell?”
coin operated
drip…drip…drip…
I, for one, hopes Democrats keep this in the media. Hell…the current corps of stenographers should be ecstatic to keep this in the spotlight…this has got to be, hands-down, the easiest conspiracy for them to cover in over a decade.
…mainly because one of the principals *won’t stop talking about it*.
Trollhattan
Should retire my predictorating hat because I was right: Kamala not running for governor
washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/30/kamala-harris-governor-president-2028
Baud
@Trollhattan:
Oh wow. That’s big news. I guess people will now speculate about 2028.
Betty
@TONYG: According to Tara Palmeri who spent a good deal of time with Virginia, she said Trump was not one of her abusers.
Baud
WaterGirl
@TONYG: Yes. A thing to be stolen, not a young woman with agency.
Alternatively, one can “steal” a girlfriend, so maybe she was Trump’s personal [insert whatever description you like here].
Surly Duff
This is all very entertaining but:
(1) it will most certainly not lead to Trump’s impeachment (to say nothing about world-historical shame, banishment from polite society, and lifetime imprisonment)
and
(2) even if it did, it would redound to the VP’s benefit, who could then run in 2028 as an incumbent.
So, I’m not really seeing any great outcomes here.
Baud
SpaceUnit
So DJT, a wealthy sex pest who brags about forcing himself on vulnerable females, is best pals with the world’s most notorious sex offender who traffics underage women and girls to rich men for sexual abuse and it’s just one of those weird, unexplainable but totally innocent coincidences? Got it. I’m sure they bonded over their fondness for Hallmark movies.
Definitely nothing to see here folks.
Jackie
@Baud: Interesting… 🤔
Matt McIrvin
We have to keep hammering at this thing no matter how unpleasant and tedious it is. It’s weird because it’s not like this is a new story– we’ve known Trump was tight with Epstein even back in 2016 when Trump’s fans were using Epstein as a story *against Hillary Clinton*, and Trump himself seemed weirdly immune to it. But for some reason he’s more vulnerable to it now.
Mr. Bemused Senior
The Epstein case is just one example of the elite impunity that has so corroded our society. I am glad to see it getting traction (after so many years!). I wrote before, I didn’t realize until now just how bad it is.
VFX Lurker
@Baud: Thank you for posting that. Kamala Harris has my support in whatever she chooses to do.
Omnes Omnibus
The fact that the President, an adjudicated sexual assault enthusiast (technical not a rapist, but only just…) was best friends with a serial sex trafficker and is currently trying to cover everything up in a panic is and deserves to be front page news.
Trollhattan
Oh hey, the guy with Pete’s old jerb has an op-ed in our local rag scolding Newsom for being Newsom, or something.
Did the Sec of Transportation just tell us we’re building ten aircraft carriers to ferry people between SF and LA? I has confused.
Old School
Trump really wanted to take credit for the development of the COVID vaccine, but his followers didn’t like the vaccine, so he dropped it.
Trump is refusing to make his supporters happy with Epstein, so it’s only natural to ask if it’s because he’ll suffer more if he does release documents.
Matt McIrvin
@Trollhattan: “For that kind of money, we could boil the human species to death ten times over.”
Belafon
I expect to Trump to be all over the Epstein list, but what if the other problem for him is that there are no Democrats on it?
rikyrah
The ignoring of the victims is what infuriates me the most
Trollhattan
Kristi says everything a-ok and you can let the dog out. In fact, you should let the dog out. No particular reason.
Wapiti
@Old Man Shadow: Epstein would still be alive today and likely still raping underaged girls and hobnobbing with the powerful, rich, and connected if one reporter hadn’t finally taken a look at him and his sweetheart deal.
This.
And it also takes an editor/publisher willing to print the story.
Scout211
Thanks, Joe. You are just so damned smart. No one has ever thought that Trump could possibly be gaslighting the public, the voters, his MAGA fans, the judiciary, his family, foreign leaders, or anyone else, really. No, none of us could see that for oh, the past 20 years or so.
But you see it now and are calling him out now because, because . . .?
mrmoshpotato
It sounds like John Heilemann is as full of shit as Maggie Haberman.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Trollhattan:
I had to look up the TX reference and sure enough, he put the kibosh on that earlier this year:
houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2025/04/14/518800/houston-to-dallas-high-speed-r…
My favorite quote from the piece calling the project:
What a leader! I’m sure he’s instilling confidence in all DOT employees on a daily basis!
When Chao was my boss, sure, she was an apparatchik par excellence, but she was nice about it.
Actually, all of this is in keeping with what this (mal)Administration has been doing this year in terms of clawing back any funding from either of Biden’s bills that didn’t get into the pipeline early enough where construction has started. Although I’m guessing it’s impacted some of those projects if we looked hard enough.
mrmoshpotato
@Belafon:
But Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring out of the basement of a basementless pizzeria!
hueyplong
@Surly Duff: Trump’s removal from the scene might not be a great “outcome,” but it’s a hell of a first step. If you’re trying to win a long term fight, it’s probably not best to think that anything shy of a one-shot final victory isn’t worth doing.
geg6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Exactly.
I really wish these useless himbos/bimbos of the media, who are vastly overpaid for the pablum they serve up, would maybe ask someone in the GOP and administration why they are willing to talk to the convicted trafficker and perpetrator of sexual assault about what she “knows” in exchange for preferential treatment and trying to assign her victim status and not the actual victims/survivors.
It makes me absolutely incandescent with rage.
Lyrebird
Anne Laurie, I just want to THANK YOU some more for wading through this!
I want to quote Emptywheel everywhere:
and also pray for healing and something like justice for Epstein’s victims
TBH I am hoping that at least one of these lawsuits will allow for questioning of Epstein’s original sweetheart deal. Hope springs eternal.
hueyplong
@mrmoshpotato: “It sounds like John Heilemann is as full of shit as Maggie Haberman.”
Hesitant as I am to spar with the master on topics fecal, I think most of us have considered Heilmann to be full of shit for as long as he’s drawn breath.
Ohio Mom
@Trollhattan: If you were right, do not retire your predictor hat! We need you.
If my mother was still alive, she’d ask you if interest rates were going to go up or down — she died in the mid-1980s, still shell shocked from the stagflation years. The older I get though, the more I see wisdom in that simple question.
Elizabelle
@mrmoshpotato:
Dude. You are never going to have a job in MSM!
Too incisive and accurate. You need to go for vibes. And clouds and shadows, if you cannot find vibes.
Ramona
@Scout211: I am glad you mentioned this. I was wondering if Trumpies were moving on and encountered a fresh-off-the-keyboard WaPo article on WH moving on now that the storm has calmed.
Elizabelle
Duplicate.
But. LA Times reports Kamala is not running for governor of California.
But maybe in 2029.
Personally, I would love to vote for Harris Walz again.
p.a
@Surly Duff: To quote Pete Townshend via Roger Daltry, “ahhh who the fuck are you?”
Ramona
@Lyrebird: Like the identity of the individual who told Acosta that Epstein was an intelligence asset so to not prosecute him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Surly Duff: We’ll, let’s just curl up in a ball and die then. As far as I concerned, if it makes Trump’s life more miserable, it is worth doing.
WaterGirl
@Scout211:
… because it will get him even more subscribers.
Elizabelle
@Surly Duff: Oh, you’re back.
Was hoping they reassigned you to some other blog or country. Lucky us.
WaterGirl
@Surly Duff: All the possible outcomes beat the current alternatives.
Mr. Bemused Senior
It was exactly by talking to the victims,who are still justifiably frightened, that Julie K. Brown broke the story. I suggest that’s why Todd Blanche will never speak to them, will do whatever he can to silence them.
hueyplong
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Agree
piratedan
thankful that the essence of the issue, the victims themselves is not lost on us here, not just the folks that facilitated in the trafficking of these women/girls (shitty enough as that is) but also those that paid for the privilege to rape them in a safe secure environment in secret, knowing that part of the service was the opportunity to do so.
To be fair, I could give a fuck who it embarrasses, would simply prefer that justice be done and those that broke the law, in making the girls available and those that actually performed the assault pay for their crimes.
this should not be a fucking partisan issue
Hoodie
This latest tack from Trump seems to be a little of a “modified limited hangout” in now admitting he was aware that Epstein was recruiting employees at Mar-a-Lago. The problem with the limited hangout is, of course, that you start putting out little threads that can lead to even more questions. So, is he now suggesting that he had some idea that Epstein and Maxwell were doing something wrong, but was ignorant as to why they were poaching young female employees? That’s rich. For example, I don’t recall any information about Epstein running a spa or other business that was competing with Mar-a-Lago. Why would Trump be upset that a few entry-level minimum wage employees were being lured away from Mar-a-Lago anyway? That would seem to be way below his pay grade unless he had a particular interest. Normally, that’s the kind of thing that doesn’t even get on the boss’ radar, so why did he supposedly talk to Epstein about it? And, even if such a conversation did take place, what was the basis for being mad at Epstein? If this alleged discussion did take place, seems more likely he was worried he’d get tied to illegal shit he already knew Epstein and Maxwell were doing. Which would lead to further questions as to how he knew what they were doing.
One thing that came to me recently is that everyone is assuming the Epstein trafficked only in underage girls. What if he offered a more, say, varied collection? After all, some his recruits would eventually be of age and might be marketed to clients looking for that because it was their kink or they were worried about legal jeopardy. After all, there’s a whole industry in marketing “barely legal” porn and Trump told Howard Stern he’d have no problems banging 20-something women. There was that one incident at Trump Tower (IIRC) where Epstein told Trump a young woman accompanying him “was not for you.” Did that mean that Trump might have been expecting to be shown some merchandise and mistakenly thought this was from the part of the catalog meeting his specifications?
I just don’t see how Epstein and Maxwell could have recruited so many young women for one or two customers. It doesn’t make any sense.
hells littlest angel
I wonder what the fuck Heilemann thinks the word “verklempt” means, because Trump has no emotions. He’s a bitchy little man, but that’s not the same thing.
hueyplong
@piratedan: “this should not be a fucking partisan issue.”
It wasn’t, until Trump became a suspect.
Trollhattan
@Ohio Mom:
Mom-mom was right: stagflation was like swimming in a pool of molasses–don’t go forward, don’t go back, just tread molasses.
n.b. Ronny did not fix stagflation any more than he ended communism, no matter what the liars tell us.
As to today, stand pat and just look at those black clouds.
geg6
@Hoodie:
They definitely trafficked what we would call adults, meaning 19 to about 22. They targeted girls and women who were troubled, had family issues and were economically insecure. As long as they were young and easily groomed or felt trapped, that was the biggest thing. Seems Epstein really only wanted the teens but they definitely groomed and trafficked young adults.
dm
So, we all know that Bill Barr’s dad hired college drop out Epstein to teach at his school.
But did you know that Barr Pere wrote a trashy science fiction novel about aliens conquering the world using sex-trafficking among the elites to consolidate their power? So says one of the hosts of the Know your enemy podcast.
bbleh
So SURELY it has occurred to someone already that this is an Epsteimological Crisis for the Orange Guy? Or something similar? I can’t be the first …
counterfactual
Worth saying again:
If Trump goes into full narcissistic collapse or blows a blood vessel from the stress, the Republican Party turns into mass of snarling rats eating each other. Or at least that’s what I’m whispering to the FSM
Ramona
@Hoodie: A woman who now lives in Spain and has an Aussie or Kiwi accent is featured in the Netflix documentary on Epstein. She was at least twenty when Epstein abducted and raped her and kept her on the island.
Maria Farmer was also an adult. So, yes, Epstein and Maxwell did rape adult women.
Ramona
@bbleh: An intrusion into the epistemic bubble his cult have constructed around themselves.
Geminid
@Scout211: New Lines Magazine has a good article about one particular aspect of the Epstein controversy: the MAGA movement’s receptivity to anti-Semitic theories being pushed by some on the right including Tucker Carlson. It was written by Ben Lorber and published July 27:
Like most New Lines articles Lorber’s is long and covers a lot of ground both contemporary and historical. One focus is a recent interview Tucker Carlson conducted with far-right podcaster Darryl Cooper. Cooper identifies as a “national socialist” and argues that the real villain of the Second World War was Winston Churchill, not Adolph Hitler. Carlson considers Cooper “our foremost historian.”
Carlson began the interview with a provocative question:
I’m batting ,500 on links today, and this could be a base hit or a whiff:
Now I’m down to .333. I’ll try again in a reply to this comment because it’s a really good article.
Hoodie
@geg6: The psychology behind Trump handling this seems to be a kind of tension between him thinking that he didn’t do anything wrong and him knowing that his buddy Epstein was trafficking young girls, for whom Trump felt no duty whatsoever to protect. Maybe he didn’t get into the underage girl stuff himself, but he obviously had no aversion to having sex with 20-something women. After all, he didn’t have any trouble screwing Stormy Daniels when he met her at a golf tournament. So, he concludes that he did nothing wrong because he didn’t break the law himself, but that’s where his morality stops. He very likely knew that there was an illegal side to Epstein’s business, but he just didn’t give a shit until he thought it might cause him trouble. Otherwise, he was Epstein’s buddy. Yeah, maybe he liked ’em young, but bros before hos, right? He knew why Epstein was poaching young female employees from the spa. He wasn’t taking the gardeners and pool cleaners, after all.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@SpaceUnit: Boy, I think the term “sex pest” really underplays the seriousness of the behavior. I guess “sexual predator” doesn’t have enough alliteration or something. Not picking on you in particular, just that the term has been getting on my nerves for a while and your post gives me a chance to speak up.
Deputinize America
@Hoodie:
All of this was out from 2020 forward, and even some in 2016.
Meanwhile, according to the mediots, the 2024 cycle centered around the “Joe Biden is Old” narrative.
Harrison Wesley
@Ramona: He may well have been, but for who?
Hoodie
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): He’s a self-professed predator, it’s right there in the Access Hollywood tape. Trump’s sociopathy is often on display. His concept of morality is it’s ok to do things that some authority above you lets you get away with. Period. In his discussions he often uses weird constructions about what he is “allowed to do.” He did that recently when discussing a pardon of Maxwell. It’s some real deep daddy issues shit. This allows him to use narrative contortions to justify the shit he does.
Baud
@Deputinize America:
We all know this is only a story now because the white male MAGA base care about it.
Harrison Wesley
@Geminid: That’s kind of unhinged. I didn’t know Tuck-Tuck had gone off the deep end.
mappy!
@Hoodie:
Taco is perhaps trying (in his own ham-handed way) to get out in front of something that may have legs and is sort-of already out there pushing more questions. You’d have to ask why is he making excuses about this now? This specifically.
Hopefully he keeps talking… It all comes out eventually with him. Not that the media wants to put it all together into a tidy easy to digest fare.
Betty
@geg6: I am confused about why Democrats want to speak to Maxwell who has no credibility.
catclub
Can you spell Melania?
Hoodie
@Baud: They probably care because it’s starting to dawn on them that Trump is treating them just like he treats women and minorities. Aside from being dimwits, they lack the sensitivity to being fucked with that a lot of women and minorities tend to have developed from lived experience. These dudes generally live with a delusion – which Trump cultivates – that they’re in control when actually they’re getting fucked just like everyone else. Everything Trump talks about is about “cutting out the bullshit” about people who have the temerity to think that they have the right to tell white guys what to do. But now you have Rogan now complaining about “gaslighting.” That term comes directly from a film about a woman whose perceptions are being manipulated by a man.
Captain C
@mrmoshpotato:
They spelled ‘stenographer’ wrong.
catclub
@mappy!:
I will repeat my view that the only thing that matters is Trump looking like he is covering up for all those Democrats in the Epstein files. And he is too stupid/vain to realize it. Will the House impeach over ANY crime Trump has committed (while NOT in office)?
No.
Will Trump resign under any conditions? No.
As long as it stays on a boil with no release, the worse it is for Trump.
catclub
Way, way off.
Carlson is fully on the cheering for Putin fanclub.
Completely unsurprising he is nazi antisemitism friendly.
Lyrebird
YEP!!! Like that.
Ramona
@Harrison Wesley: That’s the next question. The one which needs to be asked of the one who told Acosta to lay off Epstein because “intelligence”.
Hoodie
@catclub: Yeah, but he’s in there with all those Dems at the orgy with his pants off. He can’t easily run away from Epstein because there is already a public record of his closeness to Epstein. There is also a lot of stuff that has been revealed previously tying him to prominent Dems before 2016, and all that gets dredged back up if he drops a bunch of Dem names as being associated with Epstein. Every tactical fallback he’s tried is making that worse. Now he’s admitting he was aware of Epstein’s recruiting. He’s desperately searching for a narrative where he can sever that connection, but he’s not having a lot of success.
rikyrah
@Baud:
THEY GOT SCREENSHOTS,
catclub
Of course. But as long as he does not release the docs, he looks like he is protecting those elite Democrats ( in the eyes of his fans).
If he releases the docs and says it is ‘perfect’ evidence of elite Democrats guilt, they would buy that.
They would not care that he was in there with his pants off – he was collecting evidence against them.
The ONLY wrong he can do is protect elite democrats.
stinger
@Elizabelle:
Me too.
bbleh
@Ramona: EpSTEImological bubble. Oh the joy …
catclub
@counterfactual: Yes. Agreed.
Geminid
@Geminid: This link to the New Lines article is in a different format and ought to work. At least, it does when I text people.
https://newlinesmag.com/argument/progressives-should-not-be-celebrating-magas-epstein-revolt
It works this time.
Miss Bianca
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I dunno, seeing that “pest” is the root of the word “pestilence”, I’m ok with the term “sex pest”.
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: I think people used to call them “Mashers.”
Another Scott
@Hoodie: +1
Lots of good questions.
Like isn’t this picture from 1996 a little bit, er, skeevy? She would have been around 15 then.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Ramona
@bbleh: *groan
JustRuss
@mrmoshpotato: I just assumed there are two Maggie Habermans, and he was talking about the other one.
TONYG
@Another Scott: I’m trying to think of any attributes that Donald Trump has that are not totally horrible — but there are none. Seriously — what man gets a lap dance from his fifteen-year-old daughter? The fact that Trump is worshipped like a god by tens of millions of Americans just indicates how broken our “society” is.
The Audacity of Krope
@JustRuss: It’s easy for me to see how Haberman could be Trump’s official NYT mouthpiece while still managing to piss him off. Trump lies his ass off and acts scandalized when his own words are thrown back in his face. Of course the person talked with making polishing his words to a gleam would be a target of his wrath.
The Audacity of Krope
@TONYG: We sure it was a lapdance? The photo is stationary, after all.
hitchhiker
The Miami police & the feds had a bunch of Epstein victims (dozens!) on the record. They had arrest warrants ready to go for Epstein and two of his accomplices, and those girls were prepared to testify in front of the grand jury or in open court.
Then the prosecutors — without telling anybody in advance — said never mind, we made a deal with him. Two charges, “jail” that he could leave if he paid for his own guards, and probation. The women were designated as prostitutes.
This was after a long, involved investigation that included things like collecting his garbage (where they found notes that said things like, “Ashley can’t come on Friday because she has soccer practice.”)
So now, twenty years later, these girls are in their 30s, or the ones who survived are. We should get to hear how them tell how they were recruited, how they were scared to tell, how they wanted to help stop him, and how the justice system told them to fuck off. The names of the men Epstein shared them with should all be public.
That’s the story, and nobody has to be impeached or indicted to tell it. We would like to know from the victims what happened, but they’re under no obligation to anybody, of course. A hundred or so have already collected big money in civil suits against Epstein, so they may not even be allowed to speak. But that’s what should happen, preferably a few at a time until the truth sinks into the skulls of MAGA. Their hero was best friends with an absolute slug of a man, and he pretended not to know it. Then he used them for their votes by pretending to care about the victims.
The Audacity of Krope
@hitchhiker: Does an NDA survive the death of one of the signatories?
hitchhiker
@The Audacity of Krope: I don’t know.
The Audacity of Krope
@hitchhiker: This place is just lousy with lawyers. Someone HELP US!
PJ
@The Audacity of Krope: I haven’t done any research on this issue (THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE), but an NDA might fall under a “personal” obligation or right that expires with death; in other words, someone else (e.g., the estate administrator) would have to enforce it, but they can’t personally be harmed by any disclosure, so they wouldn’t have a right to enforce it. There is also a public interest element at work here that might override any contract.
The Audacity of Krope
@PJ: Stands to reason, as law ought to.
Scrounger
@TONYG:
Did nobody else notice that apparently hiring 16-year old girls to bring towels to old men in a spa is “just what we do” at Mar-a-Lago?
Ramona
@Scrounger: There’s the possibility the spas are segregated by sex and the teen girls working there handed towels only to women. I’m not trying to defend the Orange ass blister but trying to preserve our credibility in leveling criticism at him.
columbusqueen
@Another Scott: There’s a hellava of a lot of skeevy pics of Ivanka with her daddy, which is why I’m convinced the one sexual sin Trump’s desperate to hide is he deflowered his lovely daughter.
Wilson Heath
Your homework: find every opportunity possible to respond to anything the administration says with “Okay, groomer.”
New Deal democrat
For whomever might be interested …
Last year I pointed out a number of times that the economy was actually weaker than we Democrats would have liked to have seen going in to an election.
Well, yesterday the “Business Dynamics Survey” for Q4 of last year came out. As opposed to the monthly jobs report, which is based on a survey, the BDS is an actual census including about 75% of all businesses (those that have remained in existence long enough to count their actual hiring over time). It is based on something called the QCEW, which is a complete census of over 95% of employers. In addition to the “longitudinally” aspect, unlike the QCEW, the BDS is seasonally adjusted. Ultimately, the monthly jobs reports get annually revised to reflect the QCEW and BDS data.
Based on the latest QCEW, I expected the BDS to report that less than half as many jobs were actually created in Q4 of last year as the monthly reports indicated. And that is what happened, as it cut the reported NFP gains by more than half, to 287,000. For the earlier Quarters of 2024, the gains (losses) were 403,000, (163,000), and (1,000), for an annual gain of 616,000, vs. the reported gain from the monthly reports of 2,012,000.
In other words, at the time of last November’s election, in reality for the last 6 months there may have been no job gains whatsoever. Incumbent parties lose those elections.