Documented pedophile, sex trafficker, business dealing con artist Jeffrey Epstein was found dangling in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City six years ago. He is a long dead convicted felon.
Yet, to the media and much of the public’s feeding frenzy eye, he is anything but that. In any other season, Epstein would garner maybe an occasional titillating tabloid scrawl. But no more except for one thing — Donald Trump.
The name of the game with Epstein-Trump is the desperate hunt for a scintilla of a smoking gun at Trump for some damning, maybe even criminal, wrongdoing. Bear in mind in the mountain of articles, op-eds, social media chatter, endless musings of political analysts and wild speculation by much of the public on Epstein-Trump, there is nothing remotely close to that cherished and much sought after smoking gun to nail Trump. And there won’t be.
Epstein killed himself. He was not the victim of some murky assassin hit team or a jail-house cover-up. The bulk of his illicit money grabbing, laundering, business dealings, global sex trafficking racket that implicated some big-name clients and of course his clinical pedophilia is well-documented.
The clamor for Trump to open the much debated and speculated about sealed Epstein files almost certainly will show other criminal activities heretofore not publicly disclosed. But there’s nothing to indicate that Trump had any part in those criminal activities.
Trump, in what is an extreme rarity for him, actually told the truth when he said he had no dealing with the guy in years. The record showed that most of the Trump-Epstein cavort was in the 1990s.
That was long before Trump dreamed he would or could ever land in the White House. Yes, there are the pictures of Trump partying, plane joy riding, and womanizing with Epstein. There are Trump’s alleged prurient notes, letters, and lewd sexually explicit drawings that have been endlessly shoved before the public.
The problem with that is that it doesn’t rise to the level of a criminal offense, Two, it’s Trump being what he is and doing what he does and that everyone by now well knows. He’s a virtually self-admitted serial, scummy, grifting, lying, long standing lecherous, sleaze artist.
The brutal reality is that tens of millions of voters held their noses and voted for him not once but twice for the presidency. The even more disgusting brutal reality is that more than a few of those tens of millions secretly and not so secretly saw nothing wrong with his behavior. It’s a case of a guy at the top thumbing his nose at the so-called much maligned Eastern liberal, left, radical Marxist, beltway establishment.
So, what the Epstein flap really comes down to is that it’s a cause celebre issue not just because Trump was for a time a partying, sexual perversion, business wheeler and dealer with Epstein.
It’s a chance for Democrats that have been desperately searching for something, anything to smear Trump with and allow them to even the political playing field with the crucial midterms around the corner. It’s a chance for the millions of Trump loathers to finally rock Trump back on his heels, watch him squirm and sweat over an issue that he for once can’t sleaze his way out of.
It’s a chance for the many inveterate conspiracy theorists, a big share of whom are Trumps’s MAGA backers, to have a field day concocting yet another conspiracy theory about assassins, cover ups and deep state shenanigans.
It’s a chance for the handful of Republicans that have held their noses at Trump’s political and legislative outrages to quietly get their revenge by gingerly joining the chorus of those demanding the full release of any and all documents on Epstein’s doings.
The problem again with all of this is that it all makes for enjoyable reading, fuels tons of chatter and speculation, and endless cries of cover up. But again, when the smoke clears, it does not leave in its wake smoke from a proverbial gun of hard evidence that will irrefutably condemn Trump.
In the absence of that, Epstein remains nothing more than a long dead convicted felon that Trump some years back had a partying and lecherous good time with and attempted a few dubious money grabbing business deals with. In that sense, the Epstein-Trump connect will, until further notice, remain much ado about nothing.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is “Trump for Sale” (Middle Passage Press). He also is the host of the weekly The Hutchinson Report Facebook Livestream.
