this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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politics

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Must’ve finished scrubbing his name from them.

Edit: Maybe it's a "I'd release them if I could, but the investigations prevent me" situation.

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[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 93 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Whatever they'll release, it won't be the original files.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 22 hours ago

I've been saying this since the start. The Trump administration will never release anything damaging to Trump.

They'll just release some fairytale. They've had months to get it in order.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 55 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Someone just told him they finished destroying the evidence that implicates him.

I think it's more a case of him thinking that he'll just veto it anyway.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 42 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because now they're going to try and claim they "can't due to an ongoing investigation". This will be like pulling teeth.

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

His cult will believe it.

[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

So what exactly is preventing them from releasing not just redacted but heavily edited "Epstein files" where they removed any hint of Trump and added a few additional democrat names for good measure? They've certainly had enough time to create something like that.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

My biggest worry is what if they release doctored documents

[–] bluemellophone@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

To play the devil’s advocate, it’s certainly possible Trump publicly supports the House voting to release the original documents because he either 1) has ironclad assurance that it’ll die in the Senate, or 2) will just pocket veto the bill. There was substantial political downside to them opposing their release, and many many ways for them to kill this whole thing in the future.

Trump doesn’t want the files released, but their Legislative Affairs and Communications Director finally woke up to a strategy that wasn’t political suicide.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 22 hours ago

What do you mean "what if"? Of course thats what they're going to do.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

The discharge petition itself contains the word "unclassified" which means all Bondi has to do is classify anything with Trump and friends names before the release.

[–] zd9@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago

Just like releasing his tax returns because "they were in an audit"

[–] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago

'DOJ still investigating the Dem names in the files..., sorry lol!'

[–] Samuelwankenobi@sh.itjust.works 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Alright we are probably going to get two versions of the Epstein files the one edited by trump that will probably be released first and the real one that will be released later when Trump is dead or out of office in some way

[–] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 days ago

I'm hoping the second one is released when the people named in the files released by the government go, "Oh no, we're not going down in this alone," and put out their emergency backups.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

My own theory on the flip-flop back to his original stance:

  1. The DOJ/FBI have finished sanitizing the entire document to clear Trump and Republican loyalists, so releasing it now will only help them.

  2. The worst of the damning information (about Trump knowing about the girls and not stopping it) has already been made public so there's no point in hiding it anymore. Republicans have already spun the narrative as "not that bad" and Trump survived, so why not win some brownie points and release the official document in it's entirety?

I can't see any other reason for why he suddenly wants them to go public again. Trump only ever does things that serve his own self interests, so him blocking it for so long was beneficial to him in some way, and now continuing to block it doesn't benefit him.

[–] Catma@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Option 3 I think is most likely.

DOJ just started new investigations into Clinton, JP Morgan, and others at Trumps behest. Once vote happens to release files DOJ says "Oops no can do with an ongoing investigation." Repubs look like they care and nothong goes public.

Its an easy win win for them

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Or someone finally explained that the discharge petition only allows for unclassified releases... Meaning Bondi can decide what should be released or not.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

True, I did not think of that. Trump's new favorite tactic seems to be doing (or saying that he will do) the thing that everybody wants, but then complaining that his hands are tied by the courts or the law, even though neither of those things prevent him from breaking the law when it suits him. "Oops, sorry, we so badly wanted to release the full unredacted Epstein files but the law says we can't gosh golly darnit, what a bummer, you saw that I supported it, but it's these activist judges that are preventing the truth from getting out!"

Bondi is 100% running cover for him if they do get released.

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Remind me what "the document" is, again? There have been thousands released this week.

You can also remind me when he survived any information already released in an actual court of law, since obviously anything else would be entirely irrelevant to anything.

[–] plz1@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

Edit: Maybe it’s a “I’d release them if I could, but the investigations prevent me” situation.

That, or a "I know they don't have the votes in the Senate, so it's moot" situation.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

The fix is in then.

[–] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 6 points 2 days ago

Both valid theories I'd say.

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So, either he just realized how guilty he's been making himself look... or, he's playing 4D chess with us, and just broke out the "reverse psychology" card. (wink, wink...nudge, nudge)

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well, Megan Kelly just tried to sell that not all pedophilia is bad. So, it's probably a gas-lighting plan. It'll probably work too. His base are all gullible fools.

[–] _chris@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

And pedophiles too. Don’t forget his entire base are pedophiles, even if only by proxy.