GUEST COLUMN, J. Basil Dannebohm
In Aug. 2017, author Michael Wolff was conducting research for his book, “Fire and Fury.” He spoke at considerable length with Jeffrey Epstein. On August 10th, 2019, the notorious sexual predator was found deceased in his prison cell. His death was ruled a suicide. In November 2024, Wolff released the audio files of his interview with Epstein. The deceased pedophile made frequent references to his friendship with Donald Trump and their escapades as they pursued women on the streets of New York and Atlantic City. He accused Trump of being serially unfaithful.
On Feb. 27, 2025, a group of 15 MAGA “influencers” were provided with binders labeled “Epstein Files” and Trump-branded hats during a visit to the White House.
On July 6, 2025, in a blatant contradiction of previous statements, the Justice Department and FBI released a joint memo in which they claimed there was absolutely no evidence that Jeffrey Epstein kept a “client list” or that he was murdered. It’s worth noting that back when they were MAGA “influencers” themselves, Kash Patel (now the FBI’s director) and Dan Bongino (now deputy director) were among the most vocal proponents of the existence of an Epstein client list and skeptics of the way he died.
Since early July, in a strange show of bipartisan unity, the fallout from the joint memo has infuriated and intrigued the left and the right alike. This is likely due in large part to the fact that the narrative surrounding the scandal changes almost daily. As journalist Brian Tyler Cohen quipped, “The Epstein files are on Pam Bondi’s desk right now but also they do not exist but also they do exist and were written by Obama and Hillary when Epstein died in 2019 when the president was Donald Trump.”
The fact that the public is still fixated on the Epstein scandal has caused Trump to come unhinged. He referred to the case as “bullshit” and accused some of his supporters of being “weaklings” given their desire for answers. He resorted to his typical schtick of blaming his enemies, alleging that his name was added to the infamous list (that supposedly doesn’t exist) by former FBI Director James Comey or former Attorney General Merrick Garland. At Trump’s behest, Maurene Comey, a prosecutor in the cases of Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sean Combs (who Trump plans to pardon) was terminated by the Justice Department. During a recent trip to Scotland, the President played golf and his usual game of deflection by attempting to sway his base’s attention with unsubstantiated claims against blacks, including former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Beyonce Knowles, and Oprah Winfrey.
In late July, Mr. Trump sent his personal attorney turned Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, to Florida to meet with incarcerated former Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. There was a time when this would be considered witness tampering, but under Trump, the rule of law doesn’t apply depending on the circumstances and the person.
Some members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, who said the GOP needs to “provide Trump cover,” have relentlessly tried to thwart attempts at getting to the bottom of the Epstein saga. But others, such as Representatives Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Ro Khanna, refuse to back down in their quest for transparency.
According to her legal team, Ghislaine Maxwell is willing to testify before Congress, provided she is granted immunity and several other concessions. However, Maxwell is a serial liar. In fact, she was charged with perjury in 2020 by the Trump administration. This begs the question: Why are the DOJ and Congress suddenly so eager to speak with her? Maxwell forced Virginia Giuffre, a16 year-old Mar-a-Lago spa employee, to be sexually abused by Epstein’s clients.
“She trained me as a sex slave”, Giuffre is quoted as saying during a May 2016 deposition. “She’s the one that procured me, told me what to do, trained me as a sex slave, abused me physically, abused me mentally,” Giuffre, who was found dead on April 25, 2025, testified.
An authentic quest for the truth would involve reaching out to Epstein’s victims. Instead, what we’re witnessing is nothing more than uniparty political theatre. There are, undoubtedly, prominent people, Democrats and Republicans alike, who were associated with Jeffrey Epstein. In Washington, the establishment on both sides of the aisle claim they want justice, but that comes with a caveat: The truth must benefit “their side.”
That’s not justice. That’s a coverup.
J. Basil Dannebohm is a writer, speaker, consultant, former Kansas legislator and intelligencer. His website is www.dannebohm.com. Mr. Dannebohm is a member of the Virginia Press Association and the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He writes from the Washington DC metro in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Notice how not one QANON, MAGA voter is agreeing with this opinion piece? I wonder why. Maybe it’s because they know their cult leader is implicated in the Epstein files.
I thought that these voters were the best, most moral people out there. I thought they were the only ones who cared about kids.
Well I guess we know what is really important to them.
Before you say, “What about Clinton?’ I will say, he has been subpoenaed and if he is guilty, then he should be punished. Anyone found arranging to have sex with a child should be punished, ANYONE.