A Cover-Up In Plain Sight

Image courtesy of The Guardian

Trump is attempting a cover-up in plain sight. And it’s already backfiring.

On Friday, the Department of Justice released documents in response to The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA). Immediately, critics of the regime pointed out the many obvious deficiencies, noncompliances and outright evasions that violate both the letter and the spirit of EFTA.

The failures were so legion, and the attempts to mislead and misdirect so apparent, that EFTA’s authors, Reps. Ro Khanna of California and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, publicly threatened to bring contempt proceedings against Attorney General Pam Bondi.

This is sadly another example of the regime flooding the zone with shit, so let’s grab hands and climb out of it to examine what’s going on from higher ground. For this project, it’s extremely useful to begin with what EFTA actually requires so we can see how dramatically the Justice Department’s production of documents fell short.

Ignoring requirements of the Act

EFTA is blissfully short and to the point, as laws go. You can read it in less than a few minutes—and under one if you’re good at skipping past boilerplate legalese! You can find it here, but let me set out the parts that are relevant for our discussion and the DOJ’s patently incomplete and noncompliant production.

The law required production of all Epstein-related files within 30 days of its enactment:

Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall, subject to subsection (b), make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices…

Then it lists a bunch of things covered under the Act, which I’ll summarize in bullet form. It’s all documents relating to

• Jeffrey Epstein

• Ghislaine Maxwell

• Flight logs or travel records

• Individuals named or referred to in Epstein’s criminal activities, settlements, immunity or plea agreements, or investigations

• Entities with known or alleged ties to Epstein’s trafficking or financial networks

• Any Epstein or Epstein associates immunity deals, non-prosecution agreements, plea bargains, or sealed settlements.

• Internal DOJ communications concerning decisions to charge, not charge, investigate, or decline to investigate Epstein or his associates.

• All documents about spoilage or tampering of evidence related to Epstein or his associates

The government was required to produce all