The Trump administration’s release of long-awaited Epstein files didn’t provide what survivors were looking for, Sarah Fitzpatrick reports.
Jeffrey Epstein’s victims began the day believing they might finally get something they’d been requesting for years: a direct conversation with the nation’s top law-enforcement official before the Justice Department made public a full trove of long-buried documents and photos. The victims sat by their phones waiting anxiously—but also, they told Fitzpatrick, with a bit of hope.
Just over 24 hours earlier, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had placed a call to a group that supports survivors of Epstein’s abuse, according to multiple people briefed on the outreach. [Friday] morning, the Justice Department indicated via email to the group that Bondi would try to speak with survivors and expressed support for them, according to people familiar with the correspondence. But soon after, they were told that the attorney general would not be available.
Meanwhile, survivors learned that “some files would be released, but many would not—at least not yet. Survivors were left with familiar feelings of disappointment and disillusionment, as well as unresolved questions,” Fitzpatrick reports. Sharlene Rochard—who first met Epstein in the mid-1990s, when she was a teenager—told Fitzpatrick that she has taken additional security precautions in and around her home in recent days. She and other victims had asked the DOJ for advance notice and preparation for what was coming, she said. But she didn’t get that.“I feel really disappointed,” Rochard said. “America is getting a look tonight into how we have all felt for years.“
“The failure to schedule the call with victims was only one piece of a broader, frantic rush inside Donald Trump’s Justice Department as it approached the final hours of its congressionally mandated deadline,” Fitzpatrick reports.
— Kate Guarino, senior associate editor, audience and engagement, *The Atlantic*
Why yes, they are delusional. I don’t think that was in question.
Beneficial-Long-7033 on
It won’t go away. All the people need to do to keep it alive is to repeat one cry, again and again.
Release the files!
Calcutec_1 on
The coverup is now out in the open. That can only end one way
bickering_fool on
if anything…its going to carry on longer.
East-Will1345 on
The contempt these pricks have for the American people is limitless.
PopPalsUnited on
Now exposing the coverup begins.
AvaAdams99 on
It should be grounds to impeach the pres. And incarceration for the entire staff behind this along with him…so scandalous!
Big-Rule5269 on
Releasing pics and the media labeling Clinton as “half naked” when he’s in a Jacuzzi or swimming pool. Also, the pics of Clinton with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross have Jackson’s kids redacted. Yeah, there’s only one reason for that. Trump’s DOJ is going to lose on this.
Most-Artichoke6184 on
I guarantee the entire White House was laughing their asses off yesterday when those heavily redacted files were released.
fastautomation on
Just a reminder that an impeached and removed president cannot pardon others.
Character_Log2770 on
Tell us Orange Turd is a pedophile without telling us…
CertainAged-Lady on
If anything, it proves that they have something to hide and it’s them & their powerful donors.
shybutnaughtybby on
If by ‘this is going to expose everything ‘ they really mean ‘give us a Friday PDF with 550+ fully blacked-out pages and a bunch of pool pics,’ the yeah, mission accomplished lol.
TransiTorri on
At this point, it feels more like acts of desperation than any coherent plan at a cover up. This is hasty, sloppy, poor thought out if thought out at all.
None of this indicates some clever actions of skullduggary, this is a cornered rat flushing evidence down a toilet that’s backing up while police are kicking in the door.
Accomplished-Run221 on
They think of it like they do everything: you’ll achieve progress, justice, and truth, only after crawling miles over broken glass.
burnthatburner1 on
It’s kind of amazing to look at the fox news comments section under the article about the Epstein release… comment after comment saying this is a big nothingburger because if there were incriminating info about Trump, Biden would’ve released it. They’ve fully bought into that narrative.
katatoria on
I don’t think they care whether it goes away. Their MO is to stall forever.
Available_Year_575 on
This story is about the “survivors” aka victims. Someone please explain to me: they’re the ones who know who actually had sex with minors vs just went to a party. Why do they need to see files when they already know? And they’re adults now, why don’t they just tell us?
Stereo_Jungle_Child on
Oh, it’s not going away…it’s just not going to matter as much as people keep thinking it will when we finally do find out the truth.
It’ll be glossed over and downplayed and shoved in a memory hole. There’s a LOT of rich, powerful, and well-connected people who already control/gatekeep public opinion who will make sure of that.
phosdick on
You gotta feel pretty good about the mental (in)capacity of folks who think that, after so many failed efforts to cover up the rapes and trafficking, they can ultimately succeed in keeping this shit from coming out. I’m torn between hoping they continue to squirm while exposing their filthy souls to us all, and wanting to see a quick end to their self-inflicted slow-motion implosion in public.
This will come out in the end and they, along with their many disgusting co-enablers, will be relegated to the sad cesspool of condemned and punished child molesters.
(at least I sure hope so!)
fancydad on
I hope it haunts all involved to their graves
we_are_sex_bobomb on
If Donald Trump wasn’t delusional he’d still be an obscure slum lord in New York
TWOhunnidSIX on
The thing is, the Trump administration *had to know* that redacting all the files was going to be a terrible look.
If they chose that over the alternative of releasing it all unredacted… whatever is in those files is *really really bad* for Trump.
Holden_Coalfield on
When The Russians and Wikileaks wanted to ensure the public that there were a lot of true bad things in HC’s emails, they dripped out lots and lots of absolutely true and innocuous emails for the public to discuss.
What that was effective at doing, was slowly getting the public to accept the veracity of the emails so that they would accept that what was coming was true.
At their peril, the trump team is trying to use the same slow walk tactic to release steam while attempting to normalize the contents of the Epstein files by public discourse.
But they are also at the same time confirming for the public that what is in the files – is true. Hidden there, and still there.
The longer they do this, the more the public’s curiosity is going to be piqued for the truth.
This is a death spiral
Malfeitor1 on
It’s all about kicking the can down the road
MostlyACatPillow on
Have you met these people? Delusion is required for office.
Arrrchitect on
All of Trump’s other crimes went away. What makes anyone believe that this time will be different? Nobody ever holds him accountable. He will get away with this too, just like he got away with Jan. 6, stealing classified documents, trying to steal an election, taking bribes, etc etc etc.
Rude-Strawberry-6360 on
I am left to assume all the redactions are Trump, Republicans and conservatives.
JamUpGuy1989 on
I mean…
Some of the victims themselves went public earlier this year. And said they will make their own list public of who they saw and/or abused them.
ReadingTheRealms on
I think republicans trust their base to be as brain dead as they’ve always been. They’ve “released” the files and the base will now parrot that we got what we asked for and there was “nothing” there so we can all now move on. At this point, it’s going according to plan
Sabiancym on
Look at all the other insane shit they’ve done that has gone away or become normalized? They’ve been kidnapping people off the streets for most of the year, some of whom are never heard from again. Yet nothing was done and now it’s just a regular day to day thing. Trump says things every single day that would have had previous presidents impeached or at least heavily investigated.
Unless civilians actually take action, this will go away. Since we know people refuse to actually do anything until a threat is literally at their door step, I’d be willing to bet that this won’t be talked about at all in 6 months.
worf1973 on
At this point, it’s time for the victims to aggregate and publish everything they have and expose all these people.
34 Comments
The Trump administration’s release of long-awaited Epstein files didn’t provide what survivors were looking for, Sarah Fitzpatrick reports.
Jeffrey Epstein’s victims began the day believing they might finally get something they’d been requesting for years: a direct conversation with the nation’s top law-enforcement official before the Justice Department made public a full trove of long-buried documents and photos. The victims sat by their phones waiting anxiously—but also, they told Fitzpatrick, with a bit of hope.
Just over 24 hours earlier, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had placed a call to a group that supports survivors of Epstein’s abuse, according to multiple people briefed on the outreach. [Friday] morning, the Justice Department indicated via email to the group that Bondi would try to speak with survivors and expressed support for them, according to people familiar with the correspondence. But soon after, they were told that the attorney general would not be available.
Meanwhile, survivors learned that “some files would be released, but many would not—at least not yet. Survivors were left with familiar feelings of disappointment and disillusionment, as well as unresolved questions,” Fitzpatrick reports. Sharlene Rochard—who first met Epstein in the mid-1990s, when she was a teenager—told Fitzpatrick that she has taken additional security precautions in and around her home in recent days. She and other victims had asked the DOJ for advance notice and preparation for what was coming, she said. But she didn’t get that.“I feel really disappointed,” Rochard said. “America is getting a look tonight into how we have all felt for years.“
“The failure to schedule the call with victims was only one piece of a broader, frantic rush inside Donald Trump’s Justice Department as it approached the final hours of its congressionally mandated deadline,” Fitzpatrick reports.
— Kate Guarino, senior associate editor, audience and engagement, *The Atlantic*
Read more: [https://theatln.tc/dzuo7O39](https://theatln.tc/dzuo7O39)
Why yes, they are delusional. I don’t think that was in question.
It won’t go away. All the people need to do to keep it alive is to repeat one cry, again and again.
Release the files!
The coverup is now out in the open. That can only end one way
if anything…its going to carry on longer.
The contempt these pricks have for the American people is limitless.
Now exposing the coverup begins.
It should be grounds to impeach the pres. And incarceration for the entire staff behind this along with him…so scandalous!
Releasing pics and the media labeling Clinton as “half naked” when he’s in a Jacuzzi or swimming pool. Also, the pics of Clinton with Michael Jackson and Diana Ross have Jackson’s kids redacted. Yeah, there’s only one reason for that. Trump’s DOJ is going to lose on this.
I guarantee the entire White House was laughing their asses off yesterday when those heavily redacted files were released.
Just a reminder that an impeached and removed president cannot pardon others.
Tell us Orange Turd is a pedophile without telling us…
If anything, it proves that they have something to hide and it’s them & their powerful donors.
If by ‘this is going to expose everything ‘ they really mean ‘give us a Friday PDF with 550+ fully blacked-out pages and a bunch of pool pics,’ the yeah, mission accomplished lol.
At this point, it feels more like acts of desperation than any coherent plan at a cover up. This is hasty, sloppy, poor thought out if thought out at all.
None of this indicates some clever actions of skullduggary, this is a cornered rat flushing evidence down a toilet that’s backing up while police are kicking in the door.
They think of it like they do everything: you’ll achieve progress, justice, and truth, only after crawling miles over broken glass.
It’s kind of amazing to look at the fox news comments section under the article about the Epstein release… comment after comment saying this is a big nothingburger because if there were incriminating info about Trump, Biden would’ve released it. They’ve fully bought into that narrative.
I don’t think they care whether it goes away. Their MO is to stall forever.
This story is about the “survivors” aka victims. Someone please explain to me: they’re the ones who know who actually had sex with minors vs just went to a party. Why do they need to see files when they already know? And they’re adults now, why don’t they just tell us?
Oh, it’s not going away…it’s just not going to matter as much as people keep thinking it will when we finally do find out the truth.
It’ll be glossed over and downplayed and shoved in a memory hole. There’s a LOT of rich, powerful, and well-connected people who already control/gatekeep public opinion who will make sure of that.
You gotta feel pretty good about the mental (in)capacity of folks who think that, after so many failed efforts to cover up the rapes and trafficking, they can ultimately succeed in keeping this shit from coming out. I’m torn between hoping they continue to squirm while exposing their filthy souls to us all, and wanting to see a quick end to their self-inflicted slow-motion implosion in public.
This will come out in the end and they, along with their many disgusting co-enablers, will be relegated to the sad cesspool of condemned and punished child molesters.
(at least I sure hope so!)
I hope it haunts all involved to their graves
If Donald Trump wasn’t delusional he’d still be an obscure slum lord in New York
The thing is, the Trump administration *had to know* that redacting all the files was going to be a terrible look.
If they chose that over the alternative of releasing it all unredacted… whatever is in those files is *really really bad* for Trump.
When The Russians and Wikileaks wanted to ensure the public that there were a lot of true bad things in HC’s emails, they dripped out lots and lots of absolutely true and innocuous emails for the public to discuss.
What that was effective at doing, was slowly getting the public to accept the veracity of the emails so that they would accept that what was coming was true.
At their peril, the trump team is trying to use the same slow walk tactic to release steam while attempting to normalize the contents of the Epstein files by public discourse.
But they are also at the same time confirming for the public that what is in the files – is true. Hidden there, and still there.
The longer they do this, the more the public’s curiosity is going to be piqued for the truth.
This is a death spiral
It’s all about kicking the can down the road
Have you met these people? Delusion is required for office.
All of Trump’s other crimes went away. What makes anyone believe that this time will be different? Nobody ever holds him accountable. He will get away with this too, just like he got away with Jan. 6, stealing classified documents, trying to steal an election, taking bribes, etc etc etc.
I am left to assume all the redactions are Trump, Republicans and conservatives.
I mean…
Some of the victims themselves went public earlier this year. And said they will make their own list public of who they saw and/or abused them.
I think republicans trust their base to be as brain dead as they’ve always been. They’ve “released” the files and the base will now parrot that we got what we asked for and there was “nothing” there so we can all now move on. At this point, it’s going according to plan
Look at all the other insane shit they’ve done that has gone away or become normalized? They’ve been kidnapping people off the streets for most of the year, some of whom are never heard from again. Yet nothing was done and now it’s just a regular day to day thing. Trump says things every single day that would have had previous presidents impeached or at least heavily investigated.
Unless civilians actually take action, this will go away. Since we know people refuse to actually do anything until a threat is literally at their door step, I’d be willing to bet that this won’t be talked about at all in 6 months.
At this point, it’s time for the victims to aggregate and publish everything they have and expose all these people.
I mean are they tho? They always skate….always.