As a president and politician, Donald Trump has always proved more skilled at the art of the distraction than the art of the deal. Switch the play. Flood the zone. Look over there. Distraction, though, relies on offering up content more captivating than the present subject of fascination.
And therein lies his problem with Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased convicted sex offender who it sometimes feels is haunting the corridors of the White House like some mocking ghost.
Not even a US attack on Venezuela, or some other Wag-the-Dog-style military adventure, could compete with an episodic saga with the possibility of more explosive instalments in store. Documents already released by Congress are akin to trailers and teasers. “I know how dirty Donald is,” Epstein wrote in a 2018 email thread. In another email, again in reference to Trump, he wrote: “I am the one able to take him down.”
In Washington, scandal is often the highest form of entertainment, seized upon by journalists and politicians alike. What makes the Epstein affair so destabilising for Trump is that it is no longer being treated like drama. It involves real victims, with horrid lived experiences. Women telling their stories are finally being heard.
In September, during a two-hour press conference on Capitol Hill, nine of Epstein’s accusers shared details of his abuse. Speaking publicly for the first time, Marina Lacerda described how she worked for Epstein from the age of 14 until she was 17, at which point she was deemed “too old”. Lacerda, who is now in her late thirties, had first been introduced to Epstein as a vulnerable teenager trying to support her family, who had emigrated to New York from Brazil.
As he repeatedly raped and abused her, Epstein used her family’s financial and immigration issues to coerce her. Having become a key witness in Epstein’s 2019 federal indictment – the disgraced financier died by suicide later that year in a Lower Manhattan jailhouse – she appeared on Capitol Hill to demand the release of the Epstein documents held by the Justice Department. There, she also delivered a message for the US President. “Donald Trump, thank you so much for calling us a hoax, because now you’ve empowered us and now you’ve made people listen to us even more.”
Crucially, some of Trump’s most fervent Maga allies have been listening, among them Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace. These are “real women”, Congresswoman Mace told CNN on the eve of the House of Representatives vote which would compel the Justice Department to release its complete tranche of Epstein files. “They have real stories. They have real lives. They have real devastation that is never-ending.”
Just a few months ago, Mace was one of only a small handful of Republican lawmakers brave enough to defy Trump over the release of the Epstein files. Now there are more than 200.
Foremost amongst them is Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a devoted Maga cheerleader. For leading the campaign for the release of the Epstein files, however, “MTG” became over the weekend Trump’s public enemy number one. The US President called her “wacky” and a “traitor”, fuming on Truth Social: “Lightweight Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Brown (Green grass turns Brown when it begins to ROT!), betrayed the entire Republican Party when she turned Left.”
But in the 72 hours since attacking Greene and slamming other Maga dissenters, we have witnessed something extraordinary. Faced with the biggest Republican revolt of his presidency, Trump made the biggest about-face of his presidency, a 180-degree U-turn. Now he has pledged to sign the bill authorising the release of the files. House of Representatives Republicans might even vote unanimously to release the documents, which would have been unthinkable just a few months ago.
Not even after his central role in the January 6th insurrection, when lawmakers themselves came under violent attack, did so many Republicans rebel against him. Over Epstein, Trump has not only lost control of the narrative, he has lost control of his party.
Passage of the House of Representatives bill, titled the Epstein Files Transparency Act, would compel the Justice Department to make publicly available “in a searchable and downloadable format” all its files pertaining to Epstein within 30 days. These might include flight logs, materials relating to his death in custody, documents related to people and companies with connections to the disgraced financier, along with photos and videos taken from his residences.
But it is by no means certain whether this tranche of Epstein material will see the light of day. The Senate, which the Republicans control, would also need to vote in favour of releasing the documents, and the Republican Senate Majority leader John Thune has said members of his caucus are hardly clamouring for their release. Thune, though, will come under enormous pressure, much of it from the Maga base, when the House of Representatives passes the bill.
Even if Congress votes to release the files, the Trump administration could impede the process. Last week, Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate, among others, former US president Bill Clinton, former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers and the US bank J.P. Morgan Chase for their alleged connections with Epstein. Now, the administration could cite those ongoing investigations as legal justification for withholding portions of the files.
Here, they could quote the language of the proposed House of Representatives bill, which would allow the Justice Department to hold back any documents that “jeopardise an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary.”
If released, the files might also be heavily redacted. Again, the House of Representatives bill states the Justice Department could withhold or redact portions of records containing information that “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy”.
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The Epstein files could completely exonerate Trump. On Sunday night, he posted on Truth Social: “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax.” But Trump could do that instantly with the flourish of his Sharpie pen, without waiting for a vote either in the House or Senate. As US President, he has the power to authorise the immediate release of the files.
Among the reasons this scandal has refused to go away is his reluctance and refusal to take that simple course. That, and his long and bitter fight to prevent once-loyal members of his Maga movement from forcing his hand.
Nick Bryant is the author of The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself
