Niel3D Marketplace

Where there’s smoke . there’s sometimes just smoke. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released new emails the other day from Jeffrey Epstein that caused an instant frenzy in Washington, although they are more of what one would expect given what we know so far: They are embarrassing regarding President Trump’s relationship with Epstein, but contain no smoking gun regarding any misconduct. In one email to his former girlfriend and procurer Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein claims that Trump spent hours at Epstein’s home with a victim, whose name Democrats conveniently redacted. The only reason to strike her name, Virginia Giuffre, was that people might go back and see what she said about Trump. In a deposition, she said she never saw Trump and Epstein together and never saw him at Epstein’s home, and denied that he ever flirted with her. (A tragic case, clearly abused within Epstein’s orbit, Giuffre committed suicide last year.) She might not have been telling the truth Giuffre was not a reliable witness but certainly there’s no reason to accept the word of Epstein, a sociopathic liar, over hers. One way to read the email is that Epstein was floating the idea that it was Trump who blew the whistle on him to the police, rather than suggesting Trump partook in his abuses. In another email, to the journalist Michael Wolff, Epstein said that Trump “knew about the girls,” a phrase that has gotten much play in the media, but the disgraced financier added, “as he asked ghislaine to stop,” a reference to Ghislaine Maxwell. This is cryptic, but a very plausible interpretation is that it’s confirmation of Trump’s story that Epstein was recruiting girls from Mar-a-Lago, and the future presidential candidate told him to stop. In a strange email to himself, then forwarded to Michael Wolff, Epstein says that girls, in exchange for payments, came to his house to give him massages that included a sex act. He says, again, that Trump spent time at his house, but that he never got a massage. At the very least, none of this is a smoking gun, yet Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) is saying, “Clearly, Donald Trump was at the center of a child sex ring.” To be sure, Trump isn’t taking any of this well, lashing out on Truth Social and especially targeting Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), who has broken with him over the Epstein files and several other issues, many of them much more publicly consequential. “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Green is a disgrace to our GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY!” wrote the president. For his critics, this constitutes Trump “acting guilty.” It’s more like Trump acting like Trump.