DOJ Denied Jeffrey Epstein Blackmail … But Not Ghislaine Maxwell Blackmail
WSJ has confirmed not only that Donald Trump’s name is in the Epstein files — and that Pam Bondi told him that on some unidentified date in May.
When Justice Department officials reviewed what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a “truckload” of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, they discovered that Donald Trump’s name appeared multiple times, according to senior administration officials.
In May, Bondi and her deputy informed the president at a meeting in the White House that his name was in the Epstein files, the officials said. Many other high-profile figures were also named, Trump was told. Being mentioned in the records isn’t a sign of wrongdoing.
The officials said it was a routine briefing that covered a number of topics and that Trump’s appearance in the documents wasn’t the focus.
They told the president at the meeting that the files contained what officials felt was unverified hearsay about many people, including Trump, who had socialized with Epstein in the past, some of the officials said.
The detail that Trump was told means that Trump lied when ABC asked him about it on July 15 (as you watch the video, watch how Karoline Leavitt’s head swings around as Trump is asked).
On July 15, an ABC News journalist asked Trump, as he took questions from reporters at the White House, what Bondi told him about the Epstein files: “Specifically, did she tell you at all that your name appeared in the files?”
“No, no, she’s—she’s given us just a very quick briefing,” Trump responded. He also said Bondi had “really done a very good job” on the Epstein review.
DOJ, FBI, and the White House have now all issued statements that don’t address the issue. The Bondi/Blanche one that appears in this ABC piece emphasizes that there was nothing left to investigate — something totally contradictory from Blanche’s plans to do a proffer with Maxwell.
In a statement, Bondi and Blanche said, “The DOJ and FBI reviewed the Epstein Files and reached the conclusion set out in the July 6 memo. Nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution, and we have filed a motion in court to unseal the underlying grand jury transcripts. As part of our routine briefing, we made the President aware of the findings.” [my emphasis]
Consider how that emphasis compares with the full, most tortured paragraph, in the July 7 release.
This systematic review revealed no incriminating “client list.” There was also no credibleevidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.
As I wrote at the time, this very short paragraph was sandwiched between two actually credible sections stating that much of the material would implicate the victims and that Epstein killed himself (was allowed to kill himself) in prison.
So yesterday, DOJ and FBI released (or rather, made available to Axios without yet, apparently, releasing it via normal channels) a two-page unsigned notice (which may be on letterhead created for the purpose).
It included two main, credible conclusions:
- Much of the material that FBI has depicts victims and any release of that material would retraumatize the victims.
- FBI concluded (and Trump’s flunkies agree) that Jeffrey Epstein killed himself. DOJ released two files (one unaltered, one enhanced, both with titles that do not even mention Epstein) showing that no one entered his cell the night he killed himself.
But there’s also a short, broader conclusion that is less sound.
This systematic review revealed no incriminating “client list.” There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. [my emphasis]
Emphasis on credible?
Of course there’s a client list; one version of it was already released. There are also the names or descriptions shared by victims of the men who abused them. And while there may be no evidence in the FBI files that Epstein did blackmail Trump or anyone else, he had blackmail material on them.
DOJ’s current story emphasizes the third sentence: There wasn’t enough to open an investigation against uncharged third parties (whom we now know to include Trump). DOJ is less interested in talking about what was always clearly a dodge: no, there’s no client list, but there are people who, the evidence shows, raped one or some of Epstein’s victims, and that list could be released.
The second sentence looks a lot different, just a few weeks later.
There may be no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed people.
But all this has been proceeding as Ghislaine Maxwell seeks a way out of prison. All this has been proceeding as the WSJ gets stories about Trump using his signature as pubic hair. All this has been proceeding as Trump’s defense attorney claims to be representing the interest of the country by meeting with Ghislaine — all while ignoring the victims.
That paragraph always looked like misdirection.
But now DOJ is misdirecting even from two of the three sentences in that paragraph.
Timeline
February 16, 2017: Alex Acosta nominated Secretary of Labor.
July 2, 2019: Jeffrey Epstein indicted.
July 12, 2019: Alex Acosta resigns.
August 10, 2019: Epstein dies by suicide.
June 20, 2020: Geoffrey Berman fired.
June 29, 2020: Ghislaine Maxwell indicted.
March 29, 2021: Superseding indictment.
November 16, 2021: Jury selection begins.
December 29, 2021: Maxwell convicted on 5 of 6 counts.
February 28, 2023: Maxwell appeals.
September 17, 2024: Second Circuit rejects appeal.
January 15, 2025: Maxwell delays appeal.
February 10, 2025: Dan Bongino promises he’ll never let Epstein story go.
February 21, 2025: Pam Bondi claims Epstein client list is on her desk.
February 27, 2025: Bondi orchestrates re-release of previously released Epstein files.
March 4, 2025: James Dennehy forced to retire.
March 14, 2025: Pam Bondi conducts emergency review of Epstein and Maxwell documents.
April 10, 2025: Maxwell files cert petition.
April 25, 2025: Virginia Giuffre dies by suicide.
Sometime in May: Bondi tells Trump he’s in the Epstein files.
May 7, 2025: John Sauer delays response; Bondi claims there are thousands of videos.
May 18, 2025: Kash Patel and Dan Bongino affirm that Epstein killed himself.
May 22, 2025: Epstein prison video created.
June 5, 2025: Elon Musk claims Trump is in the Epstein files.
June 6, 2025: John Sauer delays response.
July 7, 2025: Pam Bondi claims there’s no there there.
July 8, 2025: Trump loses it over questions about Epstein.
July 9, 2025: Undefined ABC query about Epstein leads to spat at DOJ.
July 12, 2025: Trump attempts to claim Epstein is a Democratic plot.
July 14, 2025: DOJ defends Maxwell prosecution; David Markus suggests Trump is reneging on a deal.
July 15, 2025: WSJ interviews Trump about Epstein book; Trump falsely tells ABC he has not been told.
July 16, 2025: Pam Bondi fires Maurene Comey, on Trump’s personal authority.
July 17, 2025: Trump yells at supporters who won’t move on from Epstein. WSJ publishes story.
July 18, 2025: Todd Blanche files to unseal grand jury materials; Trump sues WSJ.
July 21, 2025: Mike Johnson dodges week of work to give Trump “space” to fix his Epstein problem.
July 22, 2025: Blanche announces he’ll meet with Maxwell; Oversight votes to subpoena Maxwell for deposition.
The Felon Guy is acting like he knows for sure that there’s blackmail material that he’s very much afraid will come out.
It’s hard to absorb everything “Daddy” was involved with, but in the third-but-last para, is that really “signature as public”…?
(Hmmm, I wonder if Rutte was secretly signalling to one man that Putin wasn’t the only one who had the dope on him…)
Quick typo correction: Pubic hair not Public hair…
Indeed. Trump’s reference to his signature move.
I think Julie Brown, in one of the recent podcasts, made the observation that Epstein would not have needed to send a letter to a powerful and/or wealthy patron threatening blackmail. Both Epstein and the patron knew that Epstein had blackmail material. In the world Epstein moved in, explicit threats of blackmail would be considered low class.
As much as I can’t stand NYTimes op-ed contributor Ross Douthat, he did interview Julie Brown for an Opinion column and I think it’s this bit you’re thinking of (the column is audio with this excerpt from the edited transcript):
Exactly, though Douthat is needlessly hamfisted in getting to the point. At this level of power and wealth, an obtuse, “Give it to me or I reveal what you just did,” would not work, and would more likely lead to the scammer being found face down in a ditch. If not, it would be the end of his business, because no one would touch him after that.
Epstein was a corrupt facilitator. His line have been more upbeat: “If you liked that, I can get you an endless supply, with absolute discretion.” Establishing and opening up connections – for himself, his patrons, and among his customers – would have been the play.
Facilitator is a good descriptor, but I don’t think we yet know the full extent of Epstein’s facilitation. I think the human trafficking was both his own problem but a problem shared by other men. He used that shared problem to create an extremely exclusive club of like-minded persons who were all compromised to varying degrees by membership.
But what was this club really about? Mar-A-Lago as an example of a private club looks like a golf club and a social club but it’s more than that as we’ve seen over the last seven years. It draws a network of like-minded persons who not only play together but work together — like the three asshat members who were the shadow directors of the VA during Trump’s first term. They were there for more than golf or society events; they were there to be a shadow government.
What was it Epstein facilitated besides human trafficking? How was he making his money, because teenage girls aren’t very expensive to obtain and keep if they’re vulnerable and groomed.
Replying to Rayne at 9:44 pm . . .
For Epstein, this was all about power, both power over the girls he trafficked, and also playing power games with the pals he supplied with sexual partners. He had plenty of money, but chose to measure his power in what he could provide to his friends that they could not provide to themselves or others. In essence, as he hung out with his friends, he was saying to them “you show me your balance sheets and I show you my bedsheets and the girls who adorn them, and then let’s talk about who has more power.”
Per CBS, Epstein worked in the investment and wealth management industry, first with Bear Stearns (pre-crash) and later with various billionaires.
“Discretion” in a devil’s bargain like this goes (or is presumed to go) both ways. Either side can rupture it, in any of a variety of ways. Given that this is a “gentlemen”‘s game, the bargain is struck by handshakes or even a meeting of privileged eyes. I doubt Epstein himself lost sight of the stakes, but it seems Prince Andrew (for example) did. Rich people make blunders like that all the time, and they count on the world’s oldest safety net, the one that keeps the aristocracy’s sins hidden…for a price.
Trump is upholding the Epstein side of this omertà in order to save himself. He gets to play at being aristocracy this way. His play knights, Blanche and Bondi, do whatever he says. He is still counting on “discretion” but not Epstein’s anymore. Now it’s Maxwell’s. And if anyone understands this code, it’s Ghislaine.
Yes. In order to facilitate transactional opportunities for “patrons, and … customers” (a salient distinction); the ‘sex’ trafficking that tabloid-spirited press dwell on (right on cue), is no more the point than reconstituting racism, misogyny & xenophobia are the point of THOSE mercenary tactics.
You ask why Epstein would be vouched for and given a “pile” of dough (or credit) with which “to start a portfolio & create a track record.”
Just for example, money stolen by Putin and his droogs from the Russian public began to ‘need’ laundering on a larger scale around about when that would have been, no?
Intelligence agencies have historically represented the interests of particular industries invested in “opening up” …closed areas like the Soviet Union, and made use of such products. Just for example.
Intelligence agencies have elevated people like Roy Cohn, Roger Stone, Pecker, Epstein, Maxwell, and other kinds of fences who facilitate the sort of crime Putin was surely engaged in long ago .. if not now.
Money laundering itself was practically invented by cats like Bill Casey at intelligence agencies.
Funny that Mike Flynn, who was talking back in the day about thoroughly privatizing intelligence, just popped up out of the blue around this.
Thanks for the cite.
In the realm of the rich and powerful, connections and leverage are stock in trade.
How did Epstein make his money? He worked for Wexner and Leon Black, initially, doing estate and tax planning. For the exceedingly rich, estate and tax planning isn’t about setting up living trusts. It involves setting up shell companies to offshore money and hide assets from spouses. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see money laundering thrown into the mix for others. Sen. Wyden talks about $1.1 billion flowing out of Epstein’s bank account.
Raises the question, how did a guy with no background or obvious training get those gigs in the first place? Epstein was obviously a smooth and forceful salesman. But choosing a guy like him is not normally how legit. billionaires make or keep their money. His resume was thin, even for Bear Stearns.
Typically, that means one or more movers and shakers vouched for him and gave him a pile with which to start a portfolio and create a track record. That still leaves the why unanswered.
That Kissinger quote, if you really think about it, is pretty self-serving to really ugly men who want beautiful women. And if you REALLY think about it: Male dominated society has been GROOMING women and girls for 50 thousand years to accept powerful men as attractive, no matter how ugly they were. Like Kissinger, trump, weinstein etc. There are no to very few books or other cultural expressions like books about pretty women choosing handsome, but poor men over powerful ugly ones. To see a live example of how pervasive this is, go to Warsaw, Poland. Walking the streets there one can see TONS of pretty and thin women, on the hands of obese, 220 pound plus short men. It happens in other places too, but I never saw this phenomenon as prominent as there: A country, so traditional, it’s the only country in Europe to ban abortion.
You might want to read more folk and fairy tales because women have been warned repeatedly against men with wealth and power across many cultures.
Unfortunately, those of us awake to the threats are still going to have to save their asses.
Thanks Rayne. “ […] women have been warned repeatedly against men with wealth and power across many cultures.”
Risking Godwin’s Law … “Children accept the conditions they are born into, and, to a degree, I was getting used to the bombings, fires, and death around me. I remember that I thought those things were normal.” ― Alfred Nestor, Uncle Hitler: A Child’s Traumatic Journey Through Nazi Hell to the Safety of Britain
And for “Epstein’s” children, on the cusp of adulthood, in their initial feeling that what was expected of them—in the relation of their bodies to the bodies of these men—was what they had been “warned repeatedly against”, there was … Ghislain saying, implicitly or otherwise: “No. No. You are an adult now. Just get used to it, because this really is the way of the world. This is normal.”
Reply to Sandor Raven
July 25, 2025 at 9:51 am
Maxwell also selected girls/young women to groom who were vulnerable in other ways — like the victim whose father had died recently, whose household was at risk financially. This is another factor not readily visible when young women pair with older, wealthy, but unattractive men; the young women are likely not well off, may have daddy issues, or be at risk in other ways.
And then there’s cases like Weinstein in the movie industry. When the entire industry is held hostage by older, wealthy men and there is little chance of breaking through without paying homage in the form of sex or appearing to favor these men…well. The public should have been asking more questions.
replying to Rayne, 25 July at 10::33:
Epstein and, especially, Maxwell, refined their predation far more consciously than that. In addition to developing the trauma-radar that Maxwell used to single out girls with a predisposing history–those whose boundaries had already been violated and thus rendered blurry–Maxwell also focused her schoolgirl trolling efforts in West Palm Beach–the part of the county where the working class folks who staff the mansions live, and where she knew she could play on financial desperation as well as the psychological wounds she did not hesitate to sound out by asking questions.
Most of the girls mistook her solicitation as caring, because (as Maxwell knew) they had experienced a deficit of real caring in their lives for all sorts of reasons–many of them related to the stark wealth disparity between East and West Palm, a microcosm of the nation at large.
June 10, 2025: JD Vance makes unscripted and unexpected trip to visit Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch in Dillion, Montana.
Betcha it was a beg to back off the story.
EDIT: Missing is September 1974, Donald Barr (Bill’s father) hired a 21 year old college dropout to teach math and physics at a (now) $70,000 private academy in Manhattan.
Also, August 10, 2019, Epstein commits suicide under Donald Barr’s son, Bill Barr’s, responsibility as Attorney General.
Not just any private academy. it was the Dalton School which has had its own in-house problems of inappropriate conduct by teachers and headmasters dating back to the ‘seventies. Many children of the rich & famous attended including a Murdoch child, Prudence, and a Spitzer.
Epstein’s short time there ended in dismissal.
Elite prep schools have had sex abuse problems for decades. After Douglas Barr left (or was “let go” from ) his position at Dalton, he became the headmaster of the Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY, one of the “little Ivy League” prep schools which included Riverdale and Horace Mann and, at least for athletic contests, Trmp’s own alma mater, the NY Military Academy. According to Noel Casler, the warm-up man for “The Apprentice” who violated his NDA to speak out against Trmp, Douglas Barr was nicknamed “Chester the Molester” while at Hackley.
I know from personal experience that there was at least one sexual predator employed at Hackley when I was there and Great Is the Truth: Secrecy, Scandal, and the Quest for Justice at the Horace Mann School by Amos Kamil and Sean Elder (NY: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2015 ISBN 978-0-374-16662-5) lays out a history of child sexual predation by teachers, administrators, and employees not only at Horace Mann but also throughout the elite prep schools across the nation. It should have been obvious that an educational system based upon the notorious British public school system would include child sexual predation. This has continued at least to the last generation or two as seen in the book A Very Private School as Charles Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, describes.
There is a much wider context to the Epstein story which extends not only into the elite prep school system, the modeling business, but also, possibly, to such people as Marc Dutroux, the pimp and murderer who helped collapse the Belgian government in the 1990s. Did Epstein or either of the Maxwells, father or daughter, ever do business with him?
I know that this edges over into QAnon spaces and is very uncomfortable but it is real. Look at the record at Dalton, at Horace Mann, at other schools and review what happened in Belgium. This kind of evil happens.
*OR* it was a backstabbing Vance ensuring they keep on the story.
Donald Barr (Bill’s father) left the school in February of that year and Epstein started in September, so it’s not clear that he hired Epstein.
Maybe we are looking at this wrong. Trump’s fetish is not young girls, as far as we know. Trump’s fetish is money. All of Trump’s associations revolve around money. Maybe his friendship with Epstein revolved around the rich old men at Mar a Lago or others who might have been interested in what Epstein could offer. Follow the money. Those bank transactions that were flagged by the big banks could hold a key to this.
Perverted rich old men or innocent young girls? You know Trump’s answer is in his actions.
I think that’s about right. My suspicion is Epstein was running some sort of back door arbitrage in money laundering, and (speculation on my part) for higher stakes with black ops like exfiltrating money from sovereign funds, brokering yacht sales to oligarchs, and perhaps moving money to sanctioned parties. Epstein accumulated a lot of money and it seems unclear how he did it. (Could some of this be in the files?) Trump had a hard time getting legitimate loans and it seems quite likely that Epstein would have been a source of unreported sums of cash that need bleach and starch. These seem to fit comfortably within the realm of Trump’s gangland persona.
Conspiracy Venn: Epstein’s resume does not square with his extreme wealth.
Epstein’s wealth never squared with anything. He was no genius. Senator Ron Wyden has tried recently to jump-start an investigation based on wire transfers flagged as SARs, Suspicious Activity Reports, many llnked to Russian accounts.
Wyden’s investigation might bear fruit, which is I suspect why we’re not hearing much about it. Something to call your congress folk about.
Watch this video! It has essential information from the victims’ lawyer, Bradley Edwards.
Congress can get the birthday book today if they choose to. Why isn’t Congress thinking about enacting legislation to protect current and future victims. Why doesn’t Congress want to protect the American people?!!. This is what the American people want.
Do your job, Congress!
Congress can subpoena Epstein birthday book from Epstein estate, Epstein victims’ lawyer says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLepbAwOaIU&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD
Edwards not only says that, he also said:
(text copy-pasted from the dailybeast article on the video)
Theoretically, it would be possible to get a deposition or statement describing the compilation of the book — and report specifically on the Trump-signed entry.
Suggested addition to the timeline:
May 30, 2025: Elon Musk’s term as Special Government Employee expires
Perhaps with a note: Musk appeared in the Oval on his last day, acting erratically with a black eye he attributed to his five year old son.
I’ll say that I personally thought he was on drugs, which could still/also be true, but in light of the timeline of events and his subsequent role in them it is at a minimum suspect.
Helpful addition to an excellent timeline!
Trump is the VICTIM here! Those girls threw themselves at him! What else was a man supposed to do? ENTRAPMENT!
It might come down to this.
He’s absolutely gonna do that. Paid-MAGA influencers are already blame-shifting to their parents, as Maxwell herself is on record doing—which is the whole point, predators prey on vulnerable children.
*At least some of whom (Poole, Rubin and more I’m forgetting ATM) were shown to be getting paid by Russia.
Enigma Files
Never smile at a pedophile
No, you can’t get friendly with a pedophile
Don’t be taken in by his welcome grin
He’s imagining how well
you’d fit within his spin
Never smile at a pedophile
If he starts a chat
and stops to talk awhile
Always run, walk away,
say good-night, not good-day
Clear the aisle but never smile
at Mister Pedophile
It may seem that he’s heaven-sent
With some words that are excellent
But there’s always
some special case, time or place
To forget heaven-sent
For instance:
Never smile at a pedophile
No, you can’t get friendly with a pedophile
Don’t be taken in by his welcome grin
He’s imagining how well
you’d fit within his spin
Never smile at a pedophile
If he starts a chat
and stops to talk awhile
Just be shrewd, and take stock
Call it quits to his talk
Clear the aisle but never smile
at Mister Pedophile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MAHad3hUP8&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD
Never Smile at a Crocodile
How about a verse where you switch to “Madame Pedophile” and female pronouns?
This respectfully offered from the intense desire that Ghislaine Maxwell not be normalized (or worse) by MAGA forces seeking to use her lies to exonerate Trump.
Sure, just switch out the pronouns and title in the last two stanzas.
Love it!
This is probably a trite and obvious observation, but we know there must be at least … 11 occurrences of Trump in the Epstein files — because those were public knowledge before this year (sometimes long before).
7 hits in Epstein’s flight logs
2 times left a message by phone and his name was written on those old-time message forms
2 mentions in Epstein’s 2010 deposition (at least, his name is used twice in the quoted matter ; maybe it really only counts as once)
That’s all just stuff I noticed while browsing lazily and unsystematically through old links. There’s probably more.
I’m pretty sure most of those are not what has Trump in a screaming race-baiting panic (although the last one could be a strong hint). But why didn’t he or his tankies use those occurrences as a stalling tactic?
Would add: he appears repeatedly in the Epstein call logs—using many different phone numbers publicly tied to him (12, IIRC).
As to why he’s losing it—goes to the difference btw being in the public domain, and his all-important MAGA base being aware of it/ his influencers being able to wave it away, IMO.
The timing of this, and of more Internet content suggesting Trump’s health is failing, raises a question I can suggest, but without researching federal, Florida, and New York law, on statute of limitations beginning when undertage victims reach statutory adulthood, to the present. In effect, if Maxwell and Epstein’s estate are now covered by such a civil and criminal bar, it’s a good time for Trump to resign for health reasons and JD to give a Ford pardon. Somebody in the media likely will look that way, so we should be alert if it hits the web. And, of course, Maxwell’s latest consort with Trump’s defense lawyer still has not yet played out.
In the video right after “(…Leavitt’s head swings around…)”, Trump says the “files were made up by Comey,…Obama, and” he stutters a few times trying to say butler, oops Biden…
There’s an easy way for Epstein to handle a blackmailing. He supposedly was the investment manager for these rich pervs. He could tap their accounts, and they wouldn’t talk. Or he could slightly overcharge compared to others, as a silent bribe. Etc.
I found fascinating from this from Savage Librarian July 20, 2025 5:01 pm
https://gregolear.substack.com/p/deconstructing-the-epstein-myth-what
I don’t know much about Stephanie Koff, except I know Mary Trump had her on a podcast. But this interview with Greg Olear offers some interesting things to think about, especially in terms of finance and partners in crime.
And there are some surprising tidbits like the butler who moved to Moscow. I can’t really tell how much of this stuff has actually been authenticated, though:
Deconstructing the Epstein Myth: What MAGA Got Right About the Stakes 7/15/25
The dark ecosystem that created both Donald and Jeffrey: A conversation with Stephanie Koff about the world beneath.
Any of you been inside that temple on the Island? At the Epstein ranch? Or inside the Skull and Bones crypt at Yale? It is said that nobody learns what it’s like to be a 33d Degree Mason, without being one.
There is Davos and Bohemian Grove. Lots of things where privacy exists, what you see is not entirely what you might get, outsiders guess if even aware from reading what exists and not. Opus Dei – is Leonard Leo a member or not? Is JD? Cults and possibly CIA privateer assets if around they don’t seek publicity, and likely have ways of recruiting that are not publicized. Things like arms trade, drug smuggling, money laundering I have not seen any, but I believe they happen.
I don’t know stuff above my net worth, but I can imagine. Suicides like Epstein’s are rare, but not unheard of. More things in Heaven and Earth than I’ve experienced. I have seen only one net image of the inside of that Island temple, small image, but it looked weird. I lack a link, but it has been on the web. Why no more images? It’s private land.
I wonder if Ghislane Maxwell is in the same danger as was Epstein?
Depends on what she says, you’d have to think.
Superb timeline—only suggested add would’ve been the firing of the top DOJ Maxwell prosecutor (Maureen Comey), but ofc you already had that. Great catch on Maxwell delaying her appeal, too. Speaking of, JD admitted they were shown the WSJ story in advance on one of the MAGA podcasts.