He’s compromised by foreign governments who are using their intelligence regarding his acceptance and laundering of money through his businesses. Epstein was the cog in that wheel. There may have been awful acts against young girls and women who were on foreign land and he felt safe but there is definitely a ledger and evidence that contains enough information to prove he’s given aid and comfort to enemies because he’s compromised
I believe this is hitting close to home right now .. before he could talk about it thinking it wouldn’t become more than just talk .. because he’s involved in all this .. and he doesn’t want someone pinning him involved in sexual acts .. It came to his front door…scared little boy he is
Trump is in the files. Katie Johnson already discussed what he did to her. Doesnt matter that none of those survivors implicated him. He's doesn't want it to come out he was involved. It makes perfect sense that he says it's a hoax
Entrapment of wealthy and important men for the purpose of blackmail, when you step away, sounds like the kind of thing two jerks from NY would dream up as a way to assuage their deep feelings of insecurity, except for the Russian involvement which makes it impossible to ignore and endangers us all.
tRumpy owes Maxwell a pardon in exchange for her silence (he’s already moved her to club fed). Anouska stating that a pardon for Maxwell would make a mockery of justice makes it more difficult to deliver what he owes. That’s why he’s crashing out.
“If Ghislaine Maxwell were pardoned, it would undermine all the sacrifices I made to testify and make a mockery of mine and all survivors’ suffering,”
Let's be very clear, Trumpy was an active participant in every aspect of Jeff Epstein's escapades. He loved hanging out with children because he repulsed adult women and none of them wanted anything to do with him. This was his way of getting laid. Simple, primal and obvious. So many photo of Trumpy hanging out with young girls, literally buying a beauty pageant so he could 'walk into the dressing room to inspect the girls'. This is not normal on any level. But he is every bit the monster Epstein was. Maybe not as prolific, but he knows what he did.
Thank you, Vicky, for your ongoing coverage. In this, and in so many ways today, the mainstream press utterly has fallen down on the job. I'm not as generous as you: I don't believe Trump will lift a finger to help. The man is a thorough louse, a criminal and a grifter. He has no honor, no morals, no scruples. His only interest is in enriching himself. What precisely is he protecting: More will be revealed.
Trump was very protective of the girls who worked at Maralago. I think he provided girls to Maxwell and Epstein and their men. I think Trump was well aware of their trafficking girls and their abuse of girls. I think his nefarious actions are included in the files. Otherwise, he’d release them.
I loathe Trump, and I believe your theory. But as to why … it’s not at all puzzling. He is protecting enormously rich and powerful men … just like himself. I don’t know if Trump was into teenage girls. I do know that no credible evidence of it exists. Peeking in on young women at beauty pageants is creepy AF, not evidence of criminality. One girl accusing him and then dropping the case after numerous inconsistencies were discovered - not proof, even as many people would find this concerning. The other crimes he did commit (and oh yes, I believe he did commit them, and was found civilly liable for one of them) are evidence of moral corruption, not pedophilia.
I just don’t think it matters to Trump. He’s sociopathic - a higher than average percentage of oligarchs are. He acts in his own self-interest. The people he hangs with are transactional. They likely have as much dirt on him as he has on them. They’ll circle the wagons, always. They don’t view average people like us as human.
I’m a constitutional purist and an amateur scholar. Or at least, I once was. I am now paddling in the murky depths of uncertainty along with everyone else who has a working conscience. My degree is in Speech Communication, which I mention because it highlights how I craft language - and also, that I am not a constitutional expert. I wish I was, because I often struggle to make sense of what is happening to us, and why. I’ve spent the past 8 years diving down rabbit holes of judicial opinions, political publications (including those written by people who were “In The Room Where It Happened” - and no, I didn’t read that particular book, because I don’t trust the complicit author). I’ve come away with an understanding that to make sense of any of this, I’d need a PhD level understanding across multiple areas - law, sociology, history, political science, to name a few. So I work with what I have. Common sense, and a working understanding of what the constitution is, and is not.
Broadly, I believe that our fracture lies with the executive branch’s massive overreach, and the legislative failure - outright refusal - to check it. My heart remains with the strained Judicial. They are doing their utmost to remain loyal to what they are tasked with - interpretation of our laws. I am not naive enough to believe that there isn’t partisan creep. But on a large scale, what I see is decisions that can be interpreted logically - even when I don’t agree. An example: Trump’s cuts to USAID. Lower courts ruled that ruled that this was unlawful, and issued an injunction. The reasoning was that the executive order was a violation of the appropriations clause (congress controls purse strings, executive spends the money). Also, demonstrable harm to litigants, the non-profits who brought the suit. Trump admin predictably sued, and the appeals court reversed. It made ABSOLUTE sense to me, what the lower courts determined. But in reviewing the appeals court ruling, I had to acknowledge that they had a point. They focused on procedural - the non-profit agencies lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. They also cited deference to the executive branch with a very high (and meticulously outlined) bar for “demonstrably clear illegality”. They focused on Trump’s executive order that directed agencies to “act consistent with applicable law.” I was horrified that this was overturned. I’m not even arguing that the appeals court got it right - only that I could see the logic in their ruling. I didn’t see partisan spin.
My point is more that the 3 branches are meant to be a triad, all equal. Power rests with legislative to determine that Trump is unfit for office. They aren’t going to exercise that authority, even as Trump is blatantly WEAKENING their power with pocket recissions, bombing suspected drug lords to pieces in International waters where international laws apply, withholding funds that they appropriated in multiple areas, firing people that only they have the constitutional authority to let go.
SCOTUS is compromised. Sadly, I do believe that. I have spent days reviewing their decision on the 14th amendment case in which they banned nationwide injunctions (this has legal precedence, from what I read) yet failed to weigh in at all on the actual merits of birthright citizenship constitutionality. They did the same thing with Trump v. Boyle. I won’t highlight here because this is already a novel, but wanted to mention the case for anyone interested in reading about it. I do see your overall point, and I am equally concerned.
I believe all of it, although I genuinely don’t know what to make of the girl who sued Epstein and Trump. I read about the inconsistencies in her testimony. Sadly, it very well could be that her trauma made her recall murky. I am not saying that she lied. I am saying, there were inconsistencies related to impossible dates and times. It is plausible she withdrew out of fear of retribution. It is also plausible that her attorney advised her to withdraw, seeing difficulties with a trial.
I believe he raped Carroll, and so did a jury. The judge added for the record that what he did was substantively rape, but that the law for the civil trial made it impossible to label it a criminal act. I believe that he has probably raped or at minimum assaulted many other women.
But I also believe in what our criminal justice system used to be, pre-Trump. Allegations are not proof of crimes - convictions are.
My personal feelings? Trump likes them very young, and he has no boundaries. No difficulty with believing that he has crossed many lines. But my personal feelings are not facts.
I do believe what he has been convicted of should have been sufficient to incarcerate him and bar him from becoming president again. Unfortunately, a larger percentage than me of people who voted did re-elect him. And here we are - a full-on authoritarian regime. We aren’t “becoming” - we are here at this place. The only stopgap we have is with the judiciary - and they are under attack. Trump loses case after case in court, and MAGA never stops to consider that perhaps this is because he is breaking the law. He immediately appeals, and much of the time, his conservative appointees overturn the lower court findings. Hence, full-on authoritarian rule.
I want to be deliberate with my language. I loathe the man and his administration. But the reality is that our judicial system was never the mechanism by which to remove him from office. As much as I loathe their rulings, most of the time after reading the rulings (which I always do) and the laws cited … there is room to understand why they rule as they do. They aren’t the broken system. They are bound to rule on how they interpret constitutional law and cannot consider the man in office - they have to consider the executive function as it is. The existing mechanism to remove him lies with the legislative branch - and they are shamefully complicit.
Rump Is bad and dangerous - that there’s a tendency to avoid dealing with how catastrophic is.
It’s just too scary.
I think there’s a fundamental issue with the court system that can address two of the point you mentioned above . A rape survivor expected to remember exact dates and times.
As well as a partisan court quote, interpreting the law based on “their” understanding.
And that is the court of the rule has gone from a place seeking justice and truth.
To a place of intellectual fabrication. As long as they can prove how their interpretation technically makes sense it goes.
So we all know he raped this girl. But if they can prove that it logically has flaws. Then crime can go and accounted for.
The same goes for the judicial branch of the Supreme Court.
Trumps greatest damage to American democracy was the exploitation of the partisanship in the courts.
I don’t even know if we’ll ever recover from this.
What Rump realized was that so many red lines we draw on the sand, our moral red lines.
There’s a basic sense of shame and decency that we all have.
By exploiting these institutions, we no longer have a place to uphold law and justice.
Chauntae Davies was 21 years old and training as a massage therapist in Los Angeles when she first treated Ghislaine Maxwell at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills
How is this trafficking? I don’t get it. 21 and she chose to go on luxury vacations and private planes. Who was 14?
Ok, Bob. Google non-consensual sex, coercive control, sex trafficking or stop playing dumb. Not all survivors who have come forward were minors at the time. Some were and they have spoken. Again, google is your friend.
It is inconceivable to me that Trump is an innocent bystander in the Epstein files. The cover up is gigantuan and makes Water Gate seem like a walk in the park. We need to remember that Trump is a narcissistic sociopath and as such doesn't care about or empathize with anyone. He is not capable of these kinds of emotions and coupled with him being the center of his own world suggests that he is is not covering anyone's back but his own. His mental pathology is being ignored in relation to this aspect of the Epstein saga and I think it plays a crucial role in understanding the cover up.
At this juncture, the only real overarching concern that Drumpf appears to have is getting into Heaven when he dies. It’s a topic that he apparently is hyper fixated on.
IDK. I’m not convinced trump had sex with underage girls, but he is definitely keeping the files away from the public. There are people in the file with a lot of power that might be expecting trump to keep the lid on it. Lots of pressure from the Oligarchs who don’t want their names out.
I thought I noticed on Substack that one of its writers had said something to the effect that calling something of this nature at this stage a 'hoax' constitutes a form of defamation. I am not a lawyer, but it seems plausible. Would it be possible for you Vicky to confirm whether or not this is true? Thank you.
Assuming the files are still around. And not destroyed. For all we know, the files were destroyed some time ago but Trump is in a panic because this thing is not going away, as he expected it to. But he had no files to provide. But the victims do.
I don’t think Drumpf is worried about sex crimes. He’s worried about the financial crimes, money laundering, bank fraud, etc.
This!
He’s compromised by foreign governments who are using their intelligence regarding his acceptance and laundering of money through his businesses. Epstein was the cog in that wheel. There may have been awful acts against young girls and women who were on foreign land and he felt safe but there is definitely a ledger and evidence that contains enough information to prove he’s given aid and comfort to enemies because he’s compromised
I believe this is hitting close to home right now .. before he could talk about it thinking it wouldn’t become more than just talk .. because he’s involved in all this .. and he doesn’t want someone pinning him involved in sexual acts .. It came to his front door…scared little boy he is
He’s acting like a cornered rat. His instincts have always been reptilian. Mixing the animal metaphors.
Trump is in the files. Katie Johnson already discussed what he did to her. Doesnt matter that none of those survivors implicated him. He's doesn't want it to come out he was involved. It makes perfect sense that he says it's a hoax
Entrapment of wealthy and important men for the purpose of blackmail, when you step away, sounds like the kind of thing two jerks from NY would dream up as a way to assuage their deep feelings of insecurity, except for the Russian involvement which makes it impossible to ignore and endangers us all.
tRumpy owes Maxwell a pardon in exchange for her silence (he’s already moved her to club fed). Anouska stating that a pardon for Maxwell would make a mockery of justice makes it more difficult to deliver what he owes. That’s why he’s crashing out.
“If Ghislaine Maxwell were pardoned, it would undermine all the sacrifices I made to testify and make a mockery of mine and all survivors’ suffering,”
Let's be very clear, Trumpy was an active participant in every aspect of Jeff Epstein's escapades. He loved hanging out with children because he repulsed adult women and none of them wanted anything to do with him. This was his way of getting laid. Simple, primal and obvious. So many photo of Trumpy hanging out with young girls, literally buying a beauty pageant so he could 'walk into the dressing room to inspect the girls'. This is not normal on any level. But he is every bit the monster Epstein was. Maybe not as prolific, but he knows what he did.
Thank you, Vicky, for your ongoing coverage. In this, and in so many ways today, the mainstream press utterly has fallen down on the job. I'm not as generous as you: I don't believe Trump will lift a finger to help. The man is a thorough louse, a criminal and a grifter. He has no honor, no morals, no scruples. His only interest is in enriching himself. What precisely is he protecting: More will be revealed.
Trump was very protective of the girls who worked at Maralago. I think he provided girls to Maxwell and Epstein and their men. I think Trump was well aware of their trafficking girls and their abuse of girls. I think his nefarious actions are included in the files. Otherwise, he’d release them.
I question why he was hiring sixteen year old to massage older male guests?
Right, there is much more to uncover and it sits idle. Idk how we get after the truth or as much as we can.
I loathe Trump, and I believe your theory. But as to why … it’s not at all puzzling. He is protecting enormously rich and powerful men … just like himself. I don’t know if Trump was into teenage girls. I do know that no credible evidence of it exists. Peeking in on young women at beauty pageants is creepy AF, not evidence of criminality. One girl accusing him and then dropping the case after numerous inconsistencies were discovered - not proof, even as many people would find this concerning. The other crimes he did commit (and oh yes, I believe he did commit them, and was found civilly liable for one of them) are evidence of moral corruption, not pedophilia.
I just don’t think it matters to Trump. He’s sociopathic - a higher than average percentage of oligarchs are. He acts in his own self-interest. The people he hangs with are transactional. They likely have as much dirt on him as he has on them. They’ll circle the wagons, always. They don’t view average people like us as human.
Is everyone forgetting that he is the adjudicated rapist of E. Jean Carroll?
I’m a constitutional purist and an amateur scholar. Or at least, I once was. I am now paddling in the murky depths of uncertainty along with everyone else who has a working conscience. My degree is in Speech Communication, which I mention because it highlights how I craft language - and also, that I am not a constitutional expert. I wish I was, because I often struggle to make sense of what is happening to us, and why. I’ve spent the past 8 years diving down rabbit holes of judicial opinions, political publications (including those written by people who were “In The Room Where It Happened” - and no, I didn’t read that particular book, because I don’t trust the complicit author). I’ve come away with an understanding that to make sense of any of this, I’d need a PhD level understanding across multiple areas - law, sociology, history, political science, to name a few. So I work with what I have. Common sense, and a working understanding of what the constitution is, and is not.
Broadly, I believe that our fracture lies with the executive branch’s massive overreach, and the legislative failure - outright refusal - to check it. My heart remains with the strained Judicial. They are doing their utmost to remain loyal to what they are tasked with - interpretation of our laws. I am not naive enough to believe that there isn’t partisan creep. But on a large scale, what I see is decisions that can be interpreted logically - even when I don’t agree. An example: Trump’s cuts to USAID. Lower courts ruled that ruled that this was unlawful, and issued an injunction. The reasoning was that the executive order was a violation of the appropriations clause (congress controls purse strings, executive spends the money). Also, demonstrable harm to litigants, the non-profits who brought the suit. Trump admin predictably sued, and the appeals court reversed. It made ABSOLUTE sense to me, what the lower courts determined. But in reviewing the appeals court ruling, I had to acknowledge that they had a point. They focused on procedural - the non-profit agencies lacked standing to bring the lawsuit. They also cited deference to the executive branch with a very high (and meticulously outlined) bar for “demonstrably clear illegality”. They focused on Trump’s executive order that directed agencies to “act consistent with applicable law.” I was horrified that this was overturned. I’m not even arguing that the appeals court got it right - only that I could see the logic in their ruling. I didn’t see partisan spin.
My point is more that the 3 branches are meant to be a triad, all equal. Power rests with legislative to determine that Trump is unfit for office. They aren’t going to exercise that authority, even as Trump is blatantly WEAKENING their power with pocket recissions, bombing suspected drug lords to pieces in International waters where international laws apply, withholding funds that they appropriated in multiple areas, firing people that only they have the constitutional authority to let go.
SCOTUS is compromised. Sadly, I do believe that. I have spent days reviewing their decision on the 14th amendment case in which they banned nationwide injunctions (this has legal precedence, from what I read) yet failed to weigh in at all on the actual merits of birthright citizenship constitutionality. They did the same thing with Trump v. Boyle. I won’t highlight here because this is already a novel, but wanted to mention the case for anyone interested in reading about it. I do see your overall point, and I am equally concerned.
The dude has 26+ people accusing him of sexual assault.
Katie Johnson retracted her actuations - after her rapist was the republican nominee, and she was facing death threat.
The Epstein files are everything to do with Rump and his best friend.
It’s very hard to admit that we have been duped by one of the greatest pedophiles ever, giving him the title of president twice .
But what’s better burying our head in the sand?!
I believe all of it, although I genuinely don’t know what to make of the girl who sued Epstein and Trump. I read about the inconsistencies in her testimony. Sadly, it very well could be that her trauma made her recall murky. I am not saying that she lied. I am saying, there were inconsistencies related to impossible dates and times. It is plausible she withdrew out of fear of retribution. It is also plausible that her attorney advised her to withdraw, seeing difficulties with a trial.
I believe he raped Carroll, and so did a jury. The judge added for the record that what he did was substantively rape, but that the law for the civil trial made it impossible to label it a criminal act. I believe that he has probably raped or at minimum assaulted many other women.
But I also believe in what our criminal justice system used to be, pre-Trump. Allegations are not proof of crimes - convictions are.
My personal feelings? Trump likes them very young, and he has no boundaries. No difficulty with believing that he has crossed many lines. But my personal feelings are not facts.
I do believe what he has been convicted of should have been sufficient to incarcerate him and bar him from becoming president again. Unfortunately, a larger percentage than me of people who voted did re-elect him. And here we are - a full-on authoritarian regime. We aren’t “becoming” - we are here at this place. The only stopgap we have is with the judiciary - and they are under attack. Trump loses case after case in court, and MAGA never stops to consider that perhaps this is because he is breaking the law. He immediately appeals, and much of the time, his conservative appointees overturn the lower court findings. Hence, full-on authoritarian rule.
I want to be deliberate with my language. I loathe the man and his administration. But the reality is that our judicial system was never the mechanism by which to remove him from office. As much as I loathe their rulings, most of the time after reading the rulings (which I always do) and the laws cited … there is room to understand why they rule as they do. They aren’t the broken system. They are bound to rule on how they interpret constitutional law and cannot consider the man in office - they have to consider the executive function as it is. The existing mechanism to remove him lies with the legislative branch - and they are shamefully complicit.
OK. You got me worried over there.
Rump Is bad and dangerous - that there’s a tendency to avoid dealing with how catastrophic is.
It’s just too scary.
I think there’s a fundamental issue with the court system that can address two of the point you mentioned above . A rape survivor expected to remember exact dates and times.
As well as a partisan court quote, interpreting the law based on “their” understanding.
And that is the court of the rule has gone from a place seeking justice and truth.
To a place of intellectual fabrication. As long as they can prove how their interpretation technically makes sense it goes.
So we all know he raped this girl. But if they can prove that it logically has flaws. Then crime can go and accounted for.
The same goes for the judicial branch of the Supreme Court.
Trumps greatest damage to American democracy was the exploitation of the partisanship in the courts.
I don’t even know if we’ll ever recover from this.
What Rump realized was that so many red lines we draw on the sand, our moral red lines.
There’s a basic sense of shame and decency that we all have.
By exploiting these institutions, we no longer have a place to uphold law and justice.
17? And in Europe. Was she raped? Was she forced? Every person that comes out is older. I thought this was about 12,13 year old children.
Watch the press conference. 14 and 15 year olds.
Chauntae Davies was 21 years old and training as a massage therapist in Los Angeles when she first treated Ghislaine Maxwell at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills
How is this trafficking? I don’t get it. 21 and she chose to go on luxury vacations and private planes. Who was 14?
Ok, Bob. Google non-consensual sex, coercive control, sex trafficking or stop playing dumb. Not all survivors who have come forward were minors at the time. Some were and they have spoken. Again, google is your friend.
It is inconceivable to me that Trump is an innocent bystander in the Epstein files. The cover up is gigantuan and makes Water Gate seem like a walk in the park. We need to remember that Trump is a narcissistic sociopath and as such doesn't care about or empathize with anyone. He is not capable of these kinds of emotions and coupled with him being the center of his own world suggests that he is is not covering anyone's back but his own. His mental pathology is being ignored in relation to this aspect of the Epstein saga and I think it plays a crucial role in understanding the cover up.
At this juncture, the only real overarching concern that Drumpf appears to have is getting into Heaven when he dies. It’s a topic that he apparently is hyper fixated on.
IDK. I’m not convinced trump had sex with underage girls, but he is definitely keeping the files away from the public. There are people in the file with a lot of power that might be expecting trump to keep the lid on it. Lots of pressure from the Oligarchs who don’t want their names out.
Dersowitz?
Putin’s Apprentice has openly stated that he shared Epstein’s taste for young girls.
That doesn’t implicate him but granted he is one sick dude.
I thought I noticed on Substack that one of its writers had said something to the effect that calling something of this nature at this stage a 'hoax' constitutes a form of defamation. I am not a lawyer, but it seems plausible. Would it be possible for you Vicky to confirm whether or not this is true? Thank you.
I don't think we will have the files released until Trump is out of office, and when, (and I pray) the Democrats are back in power.
Assuming the files are still around. And not destroyed. For all we know, the files were destroyed some time ago but Trump is in a panic because this thing is not going away, as he expected it to. But he had no files to provide. But the victims do.
You and Zev have covered this so bravely and accurately. Grateful to Maddie and MTG