Inside Pam Bondi's creative 'ploy' to save her job as she's backed into corner between Trump and MAGA over Epstein
Trump's former special counsel dishes on the administration's 'fig leaf' strategy
The Trump administration is scrambling to save face in the wake of the botched Epstein files release.
President Donald Trump's latest idea to make up ground with his base was to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to get the grand jury testimony from the case unsealed by the Southern District of New York.
But legal experts were quick to point out issues in the strategy.
The first being that the testimony is unlikely to be unsealed. The second being that even if it is released it's unlikely to yield any new or bombshell information from the Jeffrey Epstein case.
'Frankly, I think this is a ploy to find a judge they can blame for preventing disclosure,' Ty Cobb, who served under Trump in his first term, told the Daily Mail, adding that 'the grand jury materials will just be skeletal.'
Asked what would come from the revelations, Cobb said it would not be anything that 'MAGA is interested in.'
'MAGA wants the identities, documents, videos, photographs, flight logs and financial records. MAGA wants the list Bondi said was on her desk,' he explained, suggesting that anything found in the documents would not be that.
Trump on Thursday night posted to Truth Social his instructions for Bondi to 'produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.'
President Donald Trump s latest idea to make up ground with his base was to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to get the grand jury testimony from the Jeffrey Epstein case unsealed by the Southern District of New York
The president admitted that the move was in response to the 'ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein' and his desiree to end the 'scam.'
Bondi started that process on Friday by filing with the SDNY to unseal the highly-secretive grand jury court documents.
It comes as the AG was taking most of the heat for the failures of the DOJ to produce the so-called 'client list.'
Trump repeatedly defended Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino as supporters directed their anger at his top federal law enforcement officials.
The president pleaded for his base to move on from what he now calls the 'Jeffrey Epstein hoax,' and claimed conspiracies over the case were stoked by Democrats in a bid to cause a civil war in the Republican Party.
Although the filing for more information is submitted, that doesn't mean the materials will see the light of day anytime soon.
The grand jury information is only a piece of a large puzzle of evidence that makes up the so-called Epstein files.
Trump's order to Bondi on Thursday suggests his AG was not already authorized to ask the court to unseal the grand jury materials. If done from the jump, the process could have been in motion months ago rather than just starting.
What it really means is that Americans may have to wait months or even years to get more answers – if they get them at all.
Legal experts warn that the request for unsealing the materials could be denied and, if approved, would likely not yield any bombshell information from the case
Unsealing grand jury testimony is particularly challenging, as strict secrecy rules make courts reluctant to release this type of information.
'No idea why they went with this fig leaf, but I suspect it was to buy time,' Cobb explained to the Daily Mail. 'Heavy lift to get a federal judge to release grand jury materials ... Still there is some precedent that might support release but it is by no means certain.'
There must be a good legal argument for the release of additional documents in an already closed court case. And Trump's very public acknowledgement that the request is in response to media and political pressure might not bode well for the DOJ's filing.
'This move seems to me to be 'delay and divert' merely to take some heat off the moment,' he said.
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