Trump, Epstein, and the Art of the Lie

By now, it would be hard to find an American who doesn’t know the name “Epstein”, and most understand exactly what it means for President Trump. But despite the President’s best efforts to label the investigation around Epstein as a hoax, claims even his own party has refuted, or deflect attention by targeting late-night hosts and football teams, the American public is not falling for the misdirection. Even some of his most ardent supporters are calling foul.

In my experience as an attorney, when someone is innocent, they rush to prove their innocence. You know what they don’t do? Deflect, delay, deny, dismiss, and discredit. Trump has done it all, contorting narratives and pointing fingers elsewhere instead of simply putting forth the pieces of evidence, in his direct control, no less, that would exonerate him of his involvement.

After all, if a reasonable person is implicated in a case involving the sex trafficking of minors, and that person has evidence that definitively proves their innocence, wouldn’t they do everything in their power to emphatically prove their innocence with that evidence? That would make more sense than what Trump has done, claiming the evidence is all fake and edited by the opposition after already claiming that it didn’t exist in the first place.

For Trump, proving that he is free from any wrongdoing is as simple as allowing transparency to reign supreme. But that is asking a lot of a man with 34 felony convictions for fraud.  NY District Attorney Alvin Bragg described Trump after the NY trial as, “guilty of repeatedly and fraudulently falsifying business records in a scheme to conceal damaging information from American voters[…] Mr. Trump went to illegal lengths to lie repeatedly in order to protect himself and his campaign.” Sound familiar?

In that case, very much like the Epstein debacle, Donald Trump also claims innocence by simply dismissing the evidence, though ultimately no amount of delaying or deflecting could prevent the conviction.

Make no mistake, Trump is no stranger to litigation or the concealment of information; this is a man with over 4,000 lawsuits to his name, and he has played the role of defendant in over 1,900 of them. The Epstein investigation is no different, and no matter how much he denies the fact, Trump’s relationship with Epstein is visible and known.

Even with some GOP lawmakers breaking ranks and standing up to Trump, the overall candor of the party is still in lockstep with the President. To all but the most entrenched MAGA believers, the folly of Trump and the moral rot of the party of “law and order” is plain for all to see. From continually blocking efforts to vote on releasing the files to shutting down the House of Representatives for the summer to prevent further attempted votes on the matter, the GOP’s actions are a continued slap in the face of the American public.

Frankly, with this level of waste and abuse of government resources, someone should call DOGE and let them know: American taxpayers are now footing the bill for Republicans to sit on their hands so they can attempt to shield and conceal Donald Trump’s ties to a known pedophile and sex trafficker.

It’s hard to see how Trump’s handling of the Epstein files is making America great again.

And it’s hard to be content with a Congress and presidential administration that diminishes the concerns of the public while expecting us to tolerate the kind of behavior and leadership we’re seeing from our President. Is this conduct worthy of the office that was once held by Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower?

The silver lining is that for the first time in a long while, there is a developing nonpartisan and unified answer: no, we demand more from those who lead us.

Mr. President, the easiest thing you could do is to go public with everything. Put it to rest. Show us your innocence. Leave no stone unturned. Prove that your ties to Epstein are nothing more than a red herring. If you have clean hands in all of this, then show us. If you really have nothing to hide, then there is no reason to spend this much energy keeping the truth buried. The longer you stall, the louder the suspicion grows, and silence, at some point, starts to sound like confession.

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