Once again, I’m apologizing at the top of a longer-than-I’d-like-it-to-be Saturday night column. Nonetheless, whether you’re just getting in from a holiday party or waking up early for a busy day (or perhaps late, given ongoing festivities), I hope you’ll take a moment to work your way through all of it.
Don’t mistake two of this week’s attention-getter stories, Trump renaming the Kennedy Center in his own honor and the unveiling of unpresidential plaques at the White House deriding Presidents Obama and Biden, for anything other than what they are. They are clickbait, designed to foment outrage. An effort to distract us from the main event, the Justice Department’s failure to release the Epstein files, which Congress required it to do by last Friday in the Epstein Files Transparency Act. There are no surprises here. Republicans were willing to let the government shutdown linger to avoid reopening and the inevitable passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Even after the shutdown ended, House Speaker Mike Johnson delayed swearing in newly elected Arizona Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva for 50 days after her September 2025 special election because she was the vote that would put the discharge petition for the Act in motion. They may have voted for the bill, but that was only after public pressure had made its passage, and the consequences for members who didn’t vote for it, all but inevitable. So while there are lots of pictures of President Clinton, there are very few of Trump, and reporting that one that was initially released was clawed back. By the end of the day, the AP was reporting 16 items had been removed from the released documents. There is page after page of redaction, and also redactions on documents that look interesting but have all possible meaning and context removed. It’s not exactly full-throated compliance with a law called the “Transparency Act.”
None of this is surprising. Not DOJ’s failure to comply with the law—Friday was the deadline Congress set for turning over the files, not a start date, which was how DOJ treated it. Not DOJ’s failure to release material that would give the survivors more insight into the crimes committed against them and who was responsible. That’s important for survivors, not just so that they can understand and heal, but because they’ve had to fight to be believed, and they have been so easily cast aside. There was one instance in the release that illustrates this. Maria Farmer had reported in 1996 that Epstein stole nude photos of her sisters Annie, then 16, and a younger sister who was 12 at the time. Among the documents released Friday is one that confirms she was telling the truth. She came forward despite Epstein’s threats of harm to her. She was broadly disbelieved.
Also lacking in the release was anything that clarified Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. There were plenty of salacious photos of Bill Clinton—interesting in light of Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles’ admission to Vanity Fair that Trump wrongly claimed the files implicated the former president in visits to Epstein Island. But there is nothing that helps us better understand Trump’s involvement. Wiles acknowledged that Trump “was on [Epstein’s] plane ... he’s on the manifest. They were, you know, sort of young, single, whatever — I know it’s a passé word but sort of young, single playboys together.” Trump has denied any wrongdoing but is apparently unwilling to release materials that would bear that out if it’s the case.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that his name showed up in the Epstein Files. That’s unsurprising. The two men’s friendship is public and well known. Nonetheless, Trump campaigned on releasing the files, as though he had nothing to hide. But that changed after Bondi’s revelation. Back in September, CNN reported on the timeline of what followed: “The efforts to downplay Epstein conspiracy theories and previous promises for disclosure really kicked off on May 18, when top FBI officials Kash Patel and Dan Bongino appeared together on Fox News and suddenly said Epstein had indeed died by suicide.” They also point out that, “Elon Musk’s later-deleted claim that Trump wasn’t releasing the Epstein files because he was in them was lodged June 5, after the May briefing,” and “Trump’s recently launched, baseless claims that powerful Democrats ‘made up’ the Epstein files would fit with his tendency to deflect and distract when there’s something he doesn’t want out there.” Suffice it to say, whether it incriminates the president or not, the materials Bondi was referring to remain undisclosed to the public for the most part. On the campaign trail in 2024, when asked about releasing the Epstein Files, Trump responded, “I'd have no problem with it." The Epstein Files Transparency Act required the administration to turn over the files, but allowed it to withhold or redact records that could identify victims, including images of child sexual abuse, or documents that are otherwise classified. DOJ routinely declines to release records that could compromise an active federal investigation, and the new law permits that exception as well, although Trump’s social media post/order to Bondi to open a case into Democrats named in the files casts a serious pall over the legitimacy of any claims of that nature. New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush noted that it took Bondi a mere 217 minutes following Trump’s directive to report that she had opened an investigation into Clinton and other Democrats. But since Trump is not under investigation, records that mention him should be fair game for release. There would be no reason to withhold them. Instead, the Justice Department focused on materials regarding Bill Clinton, who is explicitly part of the investigation Trump demanded that his Attorney General open. Any claim materials are being withheld because of the new investigation are highly suspect. On Friday, ahead of the drop from DOJ, The New York Times ran a story headlined: “‘Don’s Best Friend’: How Epstein and Trump Bonded Over the Pursuit of Women.” It started, “The president has tried to minimize their friendship, but documents and interviews reveal an intense and complicated relationship. Chasing women was a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency.” “Female bodies were currency.” Let that one sink in. Further down in the story, the phrase appears again, used to describe the “intense” bond between the men, the basis for a friendship where “Neither man drank or did drugs. They pursued women in a game of ego and dominance. Female bodies were currency.” The Times was clear that despite the nature of the men’s friendship, it found “no evidence implicating Mr. Trump in Mr. Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of minors.” Part of Epstein’s origin story involves being hired to teach math and physics at the private Dalton School in Manhattan, even though he hadn’t graduated from college. Dalton’s headmaster was on the way out as Epstein was arriving. His name was Donald Barr, the father of one of Trump’s first-term Attorneys General, Bill Barr. Reporting about Epstein’s hiring says it’s not confirmed that Barr senior was responsible, although that is consistent with the timeline: “Around the time Epstein arrived at the school, Donald Barr — Attorney General William Barr’s father — was ending his tenure as the school’s headmaster. Susan Semel, who taught social studies at Dalton from 1965 to 1988 and wrote a book on the school’s history, says Barr made several unconventional hires during his time as the head of the school, though it’s unclear if he hired Epstein.”
The Miami Herald did the spectacular early reporting on the Epstein story and was largely responsible for resurrecting it. “By the time he was 45, Epstein was living 18 blocks from Dalton in a nine-story mansion now worth $77 million, one of several posh homes where investigators say he molested dozens upon dozens of young girls, who were recruited to give him massages and coerced into sex acts. He followed a similar pattern at his waterfront estate in Palm Beach.” It was in Florida that Epstein was permitted to plead to lesser charges of soliciting prostitution in state court in 2008, receiving a slap on the wrist instead of the serious sentence he would have been facing had the federal case against him proceeded. The deal that got him out from under those charges was signed off on by then U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, Alex Acosta, who went on to become Trump’s Secretary of Labor during his first term. The NYT story from Friday described Epstein as “perhaps [Trump’s] most reliable wingman.” Regardless of the precise nature of the relationship, Congress has spoken. It has required DOJ to release the files, and the Justice Department has, shamelessly and openly, failed to do so, partially complying in a manner that is blatantly political. There will undoubtedly be calls for Congress to do its job, and with a slender Republican majority in the House and the volatility around the issue of Jeffrey Epstein, which was the catalyst for Majorie Taylor Greene’s abrupt decision to resign, there is no telling if the Democrats will have to wait for the prospects of a change in control following the midterms to move forward. It could certainly come sooner if Republicans who voted for the bill join Democrats in calling for its enforcement. Continued public engagement will be essential. That’s what drove the Transparency Act to passage. As the Times noted, “Close to 20 women have publicly accused Mr. Trump of groping, forcibly kissing or sexually assaulting them — behavior that he once bragged he could get away with because of his celebrity but later denied ever engaging in. In 2023, the writer E. Jean Carroll won a $5 million civil judgment against Mr. Trump for sexual abuse and defamation.” The public’s interest in understanding whether the president had more than a social friendship with Epstein is grounded in that context and understandable when we are talking about our country’s leader. Bill Clinton faced impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Although he wasn’t convicted, the truth still matters to the American people and they are entitled to it here, as they were there. Rachel Foster, the Co-Founder and Executive Council Chair of World Without Exploitation, a survivor-led national coalition that works to end sexual exploitation, sharply criticized the Justice Department for failing to fully release the remaining Epstein records in violation of the law: “The law is clear, the mandate is clear, and the Department of Justice’s failure to comply sends a message that the impunity of powerful individuals who benefited from Epstein’s criminal enterprise is still being prioritized over the pursuit of justice for survivors. To comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the Department of Justice must provide their full reasoning for the redactions. Any meaningful effort toward transparency for survivors demands a far more thorough explanation. We further urge an independent review of redactions to ensure individuals who caused harm and violated the law are not afforded the same protections as those who suffered harm. Transparency requires accountability, not selective disclosure that obscures responsibility. Survivors deserve more than symbolic gestures. They deserve a genuine, good-faith commitment to truth, accountability, and reform.” Ultimately, that must be about justice for the survivors, who have had to wait for it for far too long. See what DOJ has released for yourself. The “Epstein Library” is searchable on their website. I try to make this newsletter useful and available to everyone. Nothing about this moment is easy. This work takes time, care, and attention. Your paid subscriptions are what make it possible. Thank you for your support. If you’re able to, I hope you’ll subscribe if you don’t already. We’re in this together, Joyce You're currently a free subscriber to Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance . For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Saturday, December 20, 2025
Redacted: Donald & Jeffrey
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