
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Democrats are extraordinarily successful in creating mendacious political narratives that gain altitude just like a balloon – from nothing more than hot air. I credit their ability to launch such narratives to a compliant news media that reports Democrat propaganda as if it were factual.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You will recall the “Russian Hoax” that was reported as a conspiracy between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. A twoâyear, $35-million special counsel investigation totally debunked the narrative – concluding that no American was involved in Russia’s interference in the election. ; Regardless, leftâwing media still promotes that false narrative as if it were true.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Then there is that Capitol Hill riot – not as damaging or deadly as many others. It was inflated into a fullâblown coup attempt and an ongoing insurrection – dragged on in the public square by biased congressional hearings conducted by a kangaroo committee.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Another was the highly incriminating Hunter Biden laptop that was fraudulently sold as a Russian dirty trick by the White House. It prevailed in the media long enough to get past the 2020 presidential election – after which even some of the leftâwing media admitted the White House cover story was totally bogus and the laptop was Hunter Biden’s.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And perhaps the granddaddy of them all – that President Biden is a super senior &#8212; fit in every way – in the last half of his term. That was until he defeated himself in the presidential debate. ; The effort to conceal his declining physical and mental conditions turned the Democrats’ narrative into a scandal.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In each case, the narrative – as phony as it was – was pumped up to a perceived reality by a biased and corrupt news media. ; And now we have the Jeffrey Epstein case as the latest cudgel to wield against Trump and the GOP.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It is true that Epstein was a degenerate power broker who ran an exclusive brothel – often trafficking in underage girls. While he got away with his depraved business practices for far too long, justice did finally prevail for him and his partner and cohort, Ghislaine Maxwell. Once he was arrested and incarcerated, he took his own life. (I know the conspiracy theorists are not buying it, but the facts appear well established.) Maxwell is currently in prison for her part in the pedophilia enterprise.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Since President Trump took office for the second time, there has been a constant demand that the soâcalled “Epstein File” be released to the public in its entirety. Not only is it a relatively meaningless idea, but it also cannot be accomplished. ; It is physically impossible.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">First of all, there are all sorts of limitations on revealing information related to ongoing or even past investigations, grand jury testimony, salacious material, exposing victims or uninvolved individuals, and national security information. That is why so much of the material had to be redacted. ; ; ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">While recent legislation called for the files to be released by a specific date, it set up a timetable impossible to meet. Even with maximum effort, it would be impossible to examine and release the millions of documents, emails, text messages, videos, and photographs that constitute “the entire file” in time to meet the deadline.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The greater question is whether there is any public benefit in the release of so much minutiae – other than satisfying political interests or salacious curiosity. Would the files reveal the names and culpability of others in the Epstein sex enterprise?  ;Would it satisfy the concerns of victims by revealing information about others who might have been criminally involved – especially Trump or Clinton? ; I believe the answers to those questions are all “no.”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Rather, the excessive reporting about the Epstein files is nothing more than political efforts by Democrats to make Trump appear to be one of the culprits in the court of public opinion.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The government has had more than 30 years to bring Epstein and potential comrades to justice – starting in the 1990s, when the first victims brought his sex trafficking of underage girls to the attention of authorities. The response from law enforcement was underwhelming.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In 2008, Epstein was arrested and convicted, but even then, the charges were nominal. He was getting off easy. He was not incarcerated – and allowed to carry on his depraved business as usual. ; Epstein was finally brought to trial by the Trump administration in 2019 &#8212; and convicted along with Maxwell.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Are there others against whom charges can still be brought? I doubt it. The Justice Departments of two different administrations have studied the Epstein files and brought no charges. In fact, the current Justice Department has confirmed that there are no other cases to be brought. ; Associating with Epstein – or even engaging in sexual trysts – is not illegal as long as the ladies are adults.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A few of the survivors do not agree. They are demanding that the files be made public – claiming that there are many others yet to be named and arrested. One of the survivors said there are at least 20 more individuals who could be charged. But none of the survivors &#8230; not one &#8230; have been willing to name those “others.”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Why not? The easiest way to ferret out any more culprits – and attain justice and satisfaction – would be to give their names and descriptions of the events to law enforcement. Why they have not has never been explained.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Of the “hundreds” of theoretical “survivors, not all are pushing to have the files released. ; Rather than closure, many see it as scraping the scab off the wound. ; Many are fearful of being publicly identified as one of “Jeffrey’s girls.” It is a side of the narrative that does not get as much media attention as it should.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The Hot Air Machine at Work</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">What we are witnessing is not a pursuit of justice. It is the latest installment in a longârunning political theater series titled “Democrats Inflate Another Anti-Trump Narrative.” The plot never changes. The characters never change. Only the props change.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Epstein files have become the newest political hot air balloon. The media huffs, the politicians puff, and suddenly the public is told that the sky is darkened by a massive conspiracy of unnamed, unseen, and apparently unchargeable villains.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Through innuendo and guilt by association, the left sees Trump as a potential Epstein playmate. ; Photographs that mean nothing are publicized as evidence. ; No prosecutor in three decades – from both Republican and Democrat administrations &#8212; has found sufficient evidence to involve Trump (or Clinton) or indict any other individuals. Regardless, the narrative prevails &#8212; even without the benefit of evidence.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Democrats and their media allies have mastered the art of narrative inflation. They take a kernel of truth – Epstein was a criminal who has been photographed with lots of people – and expand it into a sprawling political morality play. The goal is not justice. The goal is political leverage. The Epstein story is simply too tempting a tool to leave unused and unspun. It allows the left to imply that there are powerful conservatives lurking in the shadows of criminality, protected by a vast rightâwing shield of secrecy. ; Information that would not survive the first dismissal in a court of law is seen as hard evidence in the corruptible court of public opinion.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Never mind that the only individuals ever charged or convicted in the Epstein saga were not conservatives. Never mind that the Justice Department under two administrations – one Democrat, one Republican – found no additional prosecutable cases. Never mind that the survivors themselves, who claim to know the identities of these unrevealed offenders, refuse to provide a single name. ; The dubious narrative survives – facts be damned.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><strong>The Myth of the File Dump</strong></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The idea that a massive document dump will suddenly reveal a list of highâprofile offenders is somewhere between fantasy and wishful thinking, in my judgment. If such evidence existed, prosecutors would have acted long ago.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When CNN’s Michael Smerconish asked viewers whether they believed the release of the Epstein files would lead to additional criminal cases. ; More than 70 percent said “no”. ; It appears that the public is smarter than those creating false narratives.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Epstein files are a mountain of redundant, repetitive, and often irrelevant material. They contain years of emails, travel logs, financial records, and personal correspondence that indicate nothing. ; Most of it is irrelevant to the case. Some of it may be embarrassing, but very little – if any &#8212; of it will be evidence of criminal behavior. ; The relevant material has already been seen and used. ; It has already been adjudicated. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Epstein saga is tragic. The crimes were real. The victims are real. Past failures of law enforcement are real. But the idea that there is yet a vast untapped reservoir of criminal charges waiting to be unleashed is wishful thinking and political hot air. ; It is a distraction from much more important stories – Ukraine, Gaza, healthcare, narco-terrorists, Venezuela, immigration and more.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The myth of additional culprits only persists because it serves the left’s obsessive political purposes – to get Trump. ; They keep the balloon inflated with more hot air.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, there ‘tis.</p>

Epstein: Another Democrat Hot Air Narrative
