this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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Also, every single name that gets released is a name that Trump was ok with releasing. From my pov, it just turns it into a more effective blackmail tool. He's not afraid of what's in the files. If it was going to ruin him, it would have already done so.
Instead it just shows others who know they are in the files that a) he's one of them (if they didn't already know), b) that he can protect them, c) he isn't protecting everyone in the files just because of point a.
Hate to be realizing this, but I think everyone who thought the release of the Epstein files would help anything got played. Just like everyone who thought the Mueller investigation would threaten his first term or result in making a second term impossible.
This release of the files always was going to be like this sure. That doesn't mean a release of the files wouldn't help. If they were released to a consortium of news organizations to do the redacting honestly to protect victims, and ongoing investigations is a moot point, it would free all of those people from the weight of blackmail.
At this point they are getting blackmailed from several directions simultaneously, not just Israel, the president's people, and whomever else. Releasing the files honestly would free them, putting the organization controlled by the chief villains in charge of redacting information about themselves was never going to work.
The release of the Epstein files wasn't about Trump. It was about getting closure for the victims.