Trump Talks About Anything but Epstein on His Social Media Account

New York Times

6 days ago

Dogged for weeks over his administration's refusal to release the Epstein files, President Trump spent the weekend posting on social media about, well, anything else.
On Sunday, the president railed against Senator Adam Schiff, Democrat of California, long a prime target. He attacked Samantha Power, the former administrator of U.S.A.I.D. He posted a fake video of former President Barack Obama being arrested and a fake photo of Mr. Obama and members of his administration in prison garb. He threatened to derail a deal for a new football stadium for the Washington Commanders if the team did not take back its old name, the Redskins.
Mr. Trump even at one point posted a video compilation of 25 wacky and incredible stunts, such as a fake video of a woman catching a cobra midstrike with her bare hand.
'One year ago our Country was DEAD, with almost no hope of revival,' he wrote on his Truth Social site on Sunday, the six month anniversary of his second term. 'Today the USA is the 'hottest' and most respected Country anywhere in the World. Happy Anniversary!!!'
If the scattered posts, which continued into Monday, were an attempt to distract from the outcry over his administration's handling of the files, it did not appear to be working. Lawmakers continued to clamor for the release of more information.
'79% of Americans support releasing the Epstein files, but only 16 members of Congress have sponsored the legislation to do so,' Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, wrote Sunday on X. 'After 7 legislative days, I'll be able to collect signatures to force a vote on my bill to release all the files.'
Mr. Trump was friendly for at least 15 years with Jeffrey Epstein, the multimillionaire financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Their relationship is now under scrutiny after the Trump administration reversed its promise to release files tied to the sex trafficking investigation into Mr. Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Ms. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Mr. Epstein to sexually exploit and abuse underage girls.
Mr. Epstein had many connections to rich and powerful people that both the right and the left suspect of being involved in the financier's criminality. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi released some materials, including flight logs from Mr. Epstein's private jets, but she held back others, including what officials described as child sexual abuse material.
On Friday, facing increased political pressure, the Justice Department followed a directive from Mr. Trump, asking a federal judge in Manhattan to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution of Mr. Epstein.
But judges rarely agree to make such materials public, and the unsealing effort could take months. Even if the testimony becomes public, the materials being sought are most likely only a small part of the evidence collected in the investigation and may not satisfy his critics.