Schrödinger’s Epstein files
Trump wants his minions fighting...each other
The boxes of case files at the Justice Department regarding the sordid life and traumatic death of Jeffrey Epstein are surely tagged on their labels “Schrödinger’s Files,” because inside there’s a list of clients…or there isn’t. Attorney General Pam Bondi has played both outcomes, but proving the absence of something you first claimed exists is a tough sell. Much of MAGA world is not buying it.
But let’s not get tied up in things like facts. President Donald Trump has never bet on facts. Not once. And this time, he’s happy to let the non-existence of something that may yet exist keep his MAGA minions busy arguing over. And to boot, it makes the Justice Department more and more Trump’s personal playground.
Pam Bondi was picked as Attorney General after the worst possible choice of people who haven’t already been disbarred, Matt Gaetz, imploded. Bondi, who was Florida’s Attorney General, in my opinion, is technically qualified for the job, if only marginally. Looking at Bondi’s history favorably, she’s a Florida Girl, through and through: born and raised in Tampa, a Gator alumni with a criminal justice degree, and she was immediately accepted to Stetson Law School in Gulfport, which boasts a very competitive 41 percent acceptance rate. Stetson is rated 99th of 195 by Best Law Schools, putting it solidly in the peloton of non-elite schools, but far above the University of American Samoa.
Stetson is just the kind of place county DAs recruit pup prosecutors to work B&E and domestic violence cases. And the Hillsborough County DA’s office is just the place to settle in if you aren’t setting your sights too high, or perhaps biding your time for other ambitions. The best political decision Bondi made was ditching the Democratic Party in 2000.
With a telegenic appearance and friends like Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity, Bondi splashed onto the state scene in 2010, winning the Attorney General race on her first try. That’s the only elected office Bondi has ever run for, and won. She served her two terms, then made bank as a registered foreign agent of the Embassy of the State of Qatar, as a partner Ballard Partners, a top lobbying firm, whose website is graced with the logos of Amazon, Major League Baseball, the NFL, New York Yankees, the NBA, Nationwide Insurance, and the flags of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Turkey, and the Dominican Republic, to name a few.
She was hired in 2019 as a Trump attorney during his first term, in his first impeachment and trial in the Senate. In particular, she offered allegations regarding Hunter Biden and Ukraine corruption conspiracy as justification for Trump’s actions toward Ukraine. She wasn’t completely wrong on that. Bondi became a reliable mouthpiece for Trump conspiracies until her selection as Attorney General this year. Bondi’s no jurist like Merrick Garland, but she’s not Saul Goodman either (or Fani Willis, for that matter).
But to Trump, Bondi is disposable, and he’s making no secret about that. Trump has his guys Kash Patel and Dan Bongino watching over Bondi’s shoulder, as she pried open Schrödinger’s Epstein Files, and found nothing to see there. Now, facts would dictate that there was likely little to see there in the first place, but that doesn’t stop people who promote the conspiracy (like Bondi herself did once) from claiming she’s part of the cover-up.
Just because Trump is now taking Bondi’s side right now, as the New York Times reported, doesn’t mean there’s not some implicit threat behind the scenes.
“I don’t understand why they would be so interested,” Mr. Trump said to reporters on Tuesday. “He’s dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is, I really don’t.”
The Trump team has fired federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of James Comey, of Crossfire Hurricane fame, who as a U.S. attorney working in the Southern District of New York was on the Epstein case, as well as the dismissed case against Mayor Eric Adams, and Sean “Diddy” Combs. Comey had argued against release of Epstein records, citing privacy for Epstein’s and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell’s victims, many of them underage at the time.
Setting Comey free from her responsibilities could be fodder to keep Epstein, and the ghost of his conspiracy, alive. That means Trump’s MAGA minions can keep arguing over it, which means Bondi, as well as Bongino and Patel, are kept in line, due to the tension between them. It gives Trump more political control when his people have things to defend in public. And getting rid of the daughter of his former enemy James Comey has to be a balm to Trump’s wrinkled, “called by God,” soul.
Trump loves to be the guy pulling strings to make his people dance. In his first term, he never quite got the marionettes he wanted, and the strings got all tangled in each other. This term, things look much less a ball of knots, which means Trump gets more of what he wants. And make no mistake, a purge is happening. Each scandal, each big headline in the press, is cover for another purge.
The president doesn’t really care if his supporters are outraged that there’s no Epstein client list. He doesn’t care if Epstein hung himself or was killed. What’s important is that, while the conspiracy is useful to him, that the conspiracy lives on. So Bondi claiming the Schrödinger’s Epstein Files contains nothing to see, while MAGA, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, rail for full disclosure of that nothing, serves Trump’s purpose.
Because meanwhile, Trump now has full permission, legally, and by Senate action, to dismantle the Department of Education, NPR, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for funding for foreign health programs. The purge will continue.
Soon all that will be left is a room full of Schrödinger’s boxes filled with conspiracies that may or may not have happened. Or tariffs that may or may not go into effect. The box marked “Epstein” is just one of many more to come.
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This argument seems a bit convoluted. You may be right, but next time just write, "Trump is a manipulative slimeball, as are all of his minions, and his supporters are benighted assholes. I hate everything happening right now." That might be a bit more forthright.
I think there’s more to this than you ascribe, but you do make some interesting observations. Ultimately, Bondi, Patel and Bongino were always expendable. Just as Mattis, Tillerson, Kelly and Sessions were in his first term. I’d give you that Bondi stands more to gain from keeping her job.