
Originally Posted by
Tellafriend
that's it? seriously?
that's why you think he has sunk his reputation and support of so many? that's why he's put all this effort, lied openly about the reasons why he's not releasing them, many times, had his staff lie, had the fbi spend thousands of hours scouring the files to remove reference to him, etc.?
come on dd, you are far smarter and more intuitive than that.
Anyone smart and intuitive will look at what those emails from Epstein DON'T say, and you can infer from there.
If Epstein felt he really had something on Trump beyond "he knew about it", he'd have said so in those emails. He didn't. Instead he focused on utilizing the fact that Trump knew in order to get favors later.
The rule about blackmail and implied blackmail is that you always use your strongest stuff. If you helped me murder someone and bury the body, my leverage on you is NOT "He knew I killed someone and said nothing".
Note that Trump originally promised to release the Epstein files. He wouldn't have done this if he knew he'd go back on it, because he knew that would backfire. At the time, I think he figured he'd be a hero for releasing them, even if he took a little bit of a hit for knowing about Epstein's crimes and staying quiet. He then probably had fellow Republicans come to him who claimed they'd be loyal to him if he did NOT release the files, and that was too good of an offer to refuse. At the same time, he probably realized that he might not escape it as unscathed as he first thought. How does he explain to the American people that he stayed friends with a pedo and underage girl trafficker, despite being fully aware of what was going on?
In the end, it was safer for him just to push away the Epstein matter, even though it angered some of his base.