Trump’s FBI Spent Nearly $1 Million on Redacting Epstein Files | A new report reveals the FBI’s frantic “special redaction project” when they thought the Epstein files would be released.

Then the eventual “release” of the Epstein files cannot be trusted fully. It’s all about constructing narratives with these politicians. No wonder people no longer respect them.

And this is not criminality, why? I wish they are all rounded up and locked away for life

disgraceful

In the words of another infamous fascist, you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide.

In this case, however, it will be worse for Trump to redact – everyone will simply read “Trump” for every redaction.

And if they’re not redacting other names, they will undermine the basis for redacting anything in the first place, and some court will order everything produced un-redacted.

I’m fully confident that they will somehow still manage to screw it up.

If a mill was just overtime, I wonder what the total cost was/is. Call, it tainted, but I believe that this release is going to connect a lot of dots. Hopefully everything unravels. Imagine the amount of evidence and the complete lack of prosecution. That in itself is unexplainable.

Hell, I’d just feed all the data into ChatGPT with the instructions to “Redact everything that has anything to do with Donald Trump”. Simple and cheap.

Redacting or even reasonably parsing a set of documents and other files this large is a very difficult task to get right. Even if this isn’t being done by the “very smart, the smartest” people put in leadership positions in this administration, there’s nearly a 100% chance that it will be possible to use unredacted information (and other public information) to fill in many of the blanks left by redaction. No slight on the men and women doing the work, it’s just not possible to examine every direct and indirect link in the various documents and files to ensure redacted details can’t be regenerated. The data set is simply too large to do this with. The Internet has proven multiple times that if several hundred thousand folks (or more) start digging through your document trove, they find stuff you missed.

I think people who know they’re in the Epstein documents in an unflattering way should be working to put together a plan for when it’s their turn in the barrel. I can also guess which likely candidates for an “Epstein outing” will not consider doing that, mostly because it will never occur to them.

Our tax payer dollars spent protecting pedophiles

And then *still* didn’t release them and claimed they didn’t exist. So all that time and money and they still couldn’t scrub enough to get Trump’s stink off of them to be able to release. 

Americans would be much more likely to believe that Trump’s latest reversal is genuine if his administration, alongside the DOJ and Republicans in Congress weren’t making every kind of effort over the last several months to run interference for Trump, delay votes, withhold information and divert attention away from this scandal and the president’s deep ties to the world’s most notorious child sex trafficker.

After months of trying desperately to bury this scandal, Trump is now publicly reversing his stance because his DOJ has made sure to comb through and selectively omit every document, every word, every piece of evidence that could implicate him and anyone he’s trying to protect.

if you think Trump and his DOJ will approve the release of anything remotely transparent, then I have some Trump meme coin to sell you.

It’s already been reported that the FBI was tasked with digging through thousands of pages of Epstein related materials to search for any mention of Trump. The implications are obvious. What other intention could the Trump administration possibly have for instructing the FBI to basically ctrl-F Trump’s name for redaction or some other nefarious purpose?

It’s also telling that it took ten months for Republicans to unanimously vote in favor of releasing whatever information the DOJ finds adequate enough to placate the base. And only after their ringleader gave them the okay. Prior to that, the goal was to obstruct and distract at any cost, and at the insistent behest of Trump of course.

This distraction effort included political stunts and diversions like when the DOJ tried to manufacture “treasonous” charges against Obama while justice department officials were privately courting Ghislaine Maxwell at the same time.

Republicans—predominantly Mike Johnson—even used the government shutdown as an excuse to suppress and delay the disclosure of Epstein related documents.

Johnson deliberately delayed swearing in congresswoman Grijalva in order to prevent her from being the yes needed on a discharge petition that would force a vote on the further release of Epstein material.

And in response to Democrats releasing emails obtained by the Epstein estate recently, Trump ordered Republicans to not authorize any additional disclosures. Mere days had passed when Trump completely changed his tune. How does this *not* arouse suspicions?

And bear in mind that Trump always had the authority to order the release of these documents, but instead chose to pass that responsibility onto others. It speaks volumes that this is one of the few times that Trump didn’t exercise his unilateral powers.

Trump even sued the WSJ for releasing the infamous birthday letter:

> The letter concludes: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

How can any sensible person believe that Trump’s about-face reflects a desire for full disclosure or even sympathy for the victims?

And the answer to this rhetorical question should be made more evident by the fact that the Trump administration has spent the better part of his term dismantling independent oversight, obfuscating facts and data and putting up barriers to transparency.

Not accounting for Trump’s own desperate efforts to sweep this scandal under the rug since it was first revealed that his administration had no intention of releasing the “Epstein files.”

Or his constant politicizing of the “files” and his insistence that the whole thing is just another “democratic hoax.”

Trump has also contradicted himself on this matter repeatedly. First there were binders full of files, then there weren’t, but Republicans were also releasing carefully selected documents of their own, much of which was previously made public.

Then his administration signaled that the investigation was basically over, but his deputy AG and personal lawyer went to Florida to interview Ghislaine Maxwell in private under the guise of learning more about Epstein’s crimes, but it was really just an effort to orchestrate a cover up with Maxwell in exchange for clemency and a transfer to a cushy, low security, white collar prison nicknamed “club fed.”

Reports came out revealing that Trump’s name appeared in the documents, but Trump continued insisting that it was all a “hoax” while at the same time urging investigations into Democrats who are included in the documents that supposedly never existed in the first place.

Fox News even deliberately edited Trump’s response during an interview when he was asked if he would release the “Epstein client list.”

> “Yeah, I think we should release it. People deserve to know.”

Fox left out his follow up:

> “But you have to understand, there’s a lot of lies in that list. A lot of names that shouldn’t be there. You don’t want to ruin innocent lives.”

And now you expect me to believe that Trump’s sudden reversal and the GOP’s conveniently timed change of heart are even remotely sincere? Give me a break.

I also want to address a common whataboutism from Trump supporters who demand to know why “Biden/Democrats didn’t release the files,” which is almost always asked in bad faith as part of a not-so-subtle attempt to try to exonerate Trump of wrongdoing.

First, the current controversy doesn’t revolve around past inaction, but around Trump’s efforts to stall and block the release of Epstein materials. It’s also centered around his flagrantly corrupt behavior throughout this whole fiasco; his consolidation of legal and prosecutorial powers under a DOJ that is now beholden to him; his administration’s utter lack of transparency; and Trump’s inconsistencies in the face of political pressures. In other words, ***stop deflecting*** Trump supporters.

That said, and contrary to what conservatives claim, Democrats did call for transparency and pushed for the release of Epstein related records as early as 2019, and even continued pressing for information through Biden’s term.

Democrats even requested hearings and pressured the DOJ for accountability, despite facing legal and bureaucratic obstacles.

Moreover, Democrats did not have unilateral authority over the release of the “Epstein files” during Biden’s presidency.

Documents related to the investigation were held under the authority of the Department of Justice, and a DOJ that was not stripped of its independence and undemocratically faithful to the president like it is now.

Ongoing investigations, privacy concerns and strict legal constraints prevented their release and/or slowed the process. At the time, president Biden couldn’t just publicly disclose sensitive materials and case files without obstructing investigations and violating statutes.

It’s also important to note that Epstein was not at the center of the cultural and political conversation during Biden’s campaign. Not like it was for Trump in the run up to the 2024 election.

Epstein’s arrest and death had just occurred while Trump was president in 2019, but in 2020, and in case you need a reminder, the country was undergoing an economic and global health crisis, which was only made worse by Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic and his kleptocratic policies that ballooned the debt and deficit. Not to mention January 6th and a national discussion about political violence and extremism that followed. Priorities were focused elsewhere to say the least.

Won’t even be digital or paper-based – they’ll just release a big tub of black paint.

So what’s to stop one of those guys from taking an unredacted copy and leaking it?

Given their panic and delays around Epstein, I believe everything that has been alleged about Trump’s behavior, including Katie Johnson’s accusations. What we already know is damning enough.

And you can’t say “Well, Trump doesn’t seem like the type” because he seems exactly the type: arrogant, entitled, no empathy for victims, no moral standards, not averse to rape and sexual assault, frequently pictured with young girls, in charge of Miss Teen USA, numerous creepy comments about young girls and his ‘every day is a wonderful secret’ message in Epstein’s birthday book. Not to mention the many contact numbers Epstein had for Trump. They were close friends.

Just like the way the jfk assassination was handles and caused a lot of distrust in politicians, the epstein files will go down in history as another reason people lost faith in politicians.

Let that sink-in, the US gov is spending tax money to protect pedophiles…This is why the current gov is so hostile towards people. *False Consciousness much?*

Trump will release the files and when they come out solid black boxes he will throw Patel and possibly Bondi under the bus to save himself.

Wasted effort. Everyone already knows each redacted name is “Donald Trump”

The files will be released clearly modified and Trump will probably throw the FBI under the bus as if he doesn’t know they are doing the things