Behind the Trump team's effort to mislead the public over Epstein: analysis

24 August

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to the media, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno/File Photo/File Photo

The Trump administration’s push to unseal grand jury transcripts related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation suffered a high-profile defeat this month. Courts in both Florida and New York rejected the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) requests.

According to Politico Playbook, the effort has “flopped."

This controversy began more than six weeks ago, when an unsigned, two-page DOJ-FBI memo was released, asserting that Epstein’s death was confirmed as a suicide and that no “client list” exists. This was despite repeated assurances from President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel.

The memo’s blunt conclusions provoked widespread dissatisfaction among constituents and lawmakers alike. Politico Playbook framed it as a pivotal moment gone awry.

"If you put it all together, an unfortunate verdict emerges: The public has learned pretty much nothing new from the government about the Epstein investigation since this controversy kicked off," the Politico article said.

Since the memo’s release, insiders say the White House and its congressional allies have mounted sporadic efforts to control the narrative, but with limited success.

Most recently, the House Oversight Committee received the first tranche of DOJ documents in response to its subpoena, signaling more activity, and likely more scrutiny, when lawmakers reconvene after the August recess.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Judge Robin Rosenberg swiftly rejected the DOJ’s motion to unseal federal grand jury transcripts from the original Epstein investigation, calling the public-interest argument insufficient to override long-standing secrecy rules.

In New York, Judge Richard Berman joined the chorus, dismissing the DOJ’s motion as a diversion from the tens of thousands of pages of existing investigative records, and noting the potential risk to victim privacy.

Politico Playbook paraphrased the judges as saying the administration “misled the public” and that the request was part of "political diversionary tactics."

The article also pointed out that the DOJ retains discretion over which documents to release, and when.

On Saturday, Rep. Robert Garcia (D‑Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, criticized the latest production, noting that the vast majority of the more than 30,000 pages delivered on Friday were already publicly available.

"In fact, to answer the most pressing Epstein-related questions, the people you would want to speak with would probably include — in no particular order — Trump himself, Bondi, Patel, Blanche, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Alex Acosta, who negotiated the sweetheart 2007 plea deal with Epstein while serving as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida," the article said.

"You might even call these bizarro investigations. They do not appear to be asking the right questions or talking to the right people to address the things that the average American might actually want to know."

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