“Don’t let this fool you.”
That was the response of Democrat members of Congress, and it tells you whether Tuesday’s release of documents relating to the case of Jeffrey Epstein will end the outcry – it won’t.
Of 33,000 pages released by the US House committee, they said 97% were already public and that, in any case, we’re talking about less than 1% of all the files.
A lot of figures they insist add up to a lot of nothing.
Our US partner network NBC News reports that so far, material released includes Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview with Todd Blanche, videos from a search warrant of Epstein’s West Palm Beach home and the jail cell where he died, and audio pertaining to Palm Beach Police’s initial investigation.
None of this is new: It was either already public, or known by NBC and other journalists.
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The partial release feeds the view that the whole truth is being covered up.
Expect to hear it from Epstein victims who will gather for a news conference on Capitol Hill later.
They are the survivors at the centre of the story, too often forgotten in its telling, coming together in a powerful spectacle.
For them, this affair is about justice, and they are angered by its politics. They smell a strategy designed to protect the guilty, and it piles insult upon injury.
When their voice is heard at the seat of power, it’ll find an echo on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill.
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Amanda Roberts – the sister-in-law of Virginia Roberts, an Epstein victim who died in April – told NBC’s Hallie Jackson ahead of the conference that “as a community, we have to stand up, and we have to say enough is enough”.
Another survivor of Epstein’s abuse, Wendy Avis, has come forward for the first time in the wake of the Department of Justice’s handling of the files.
She said: “I’m making the right choice, and that’s powerful to me, because I don’t have to second guess myself any more.”
Summer recess hasn’t diminished the desire in Congress for a full release of all the Epstein files.
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What’s the endgame?
Republicans have joined Democrats to back a petition aimed at forcing their disclosure, even if there may not be enough to push it through.
It is the legislative strand of the Epstein affair, but it is, by no means, the only one. Much of America won’t let go of this story, and much of it is the Trump MAGA base.
Their endgame is a full release of the Epstein files.
If they get their wish, how the game ends for Donald Trump would be the question to follow.
