Epstein Files: We Won’t Know What Bondi Won’t Show

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Friday. So last week when I recorded this piece, and usually we record late Wednesdays or maybe Thursdays, I said to you something like it wouldn't surprise me if by the time you hear this on Friday, meaning last Friday. DOJ has made another effort to reindict either Letitia James or Jim Comey. And then I talked about why the Comey case in particular would be such a problem. Well, it turned out DOJ did try to reindict one of those cases, but it was the Letitia James case.

And it turned out the grand jury rejected. The indictment. I've written about this. We've talked about it on this podcast. I think both of these cases are doomed. And you all know I'm not sympathetic to either Letitia James or Jim Comey. I think they have been. I know they have been thrown out already. because of problems with the way Lindsay Halligan was appointed. The grand jury just rejected the Letitia James case, which tells me either the evidence.

is ridiculously thin and or the grand jury is just rejecting this. They're nullifying. They understand that it's politically driven, even if. DOJ somehow manages to re-reindict Letitia James or to somehow bring the Comey case back on track. They've got a million problems. Factual, legal, political. Donald Trump ought to just give this up. I mean, I don't think there's really...

any winning for him here. I don't even think his supporters think this is a good idea anymore. I talked to a couple of conservative friends at CNN the other day in the green room and they both were just like, he needs that. This is not serving anyone. This is not helping anyone. We'll see.

We'll see if he can come to his senses and hopefully put an end to this sad chapter in DOJ history. Okay, on with this week's podcast. As always, do love to hear your thoughts, questions, and comments. Keep them coming to lettersatcafe.com.

The document's official title didn't exactly pop. Communication from Kenneth W. Starr, Independent Counsel, transmitting a referral to the United States House of Representatives, filed in conformity with the requirements of Title 28, United States Code, Section 595C. But immediately upon its September 11th, 1998 release, it was universally rebranded The Star Report and became a runaway bestseller. Publishers panic rushed at least 1.5 million copies.

to bookstores because the report was a government document. Anybody could reprint and sell it without having to pay for licensing or intellectual property rights. The Star Report doubled first day sales of Tom Clancy's wildly popular novel Rainbow Six, and it spurred a collateral spike in demand for Leaves of Grass, the Walt Whitman poetry book that President Bill Clinton had gifted to his White House. intern Monica Lewinsky.

Public interest in the Star report pushed the outer capacity of the then nascent Internet. The Chicago Tribune noted that while some official government websites, quote, virtually seized up and, quote, private commercial sites generally fared better in. unquote, one of the biggest

tests yet of the global electronic network, end quote. The Wall Street Journal marked the occasion as both a political and technological landmark, quote. Star Report makes history and marks Web's emergence as Wired magazine. put it, quote, for the first time, if you didn't have the net, you were missing history, end quote. Anyone who is near my age will remember the experience. Download error message. Download. Crash. Download. Nothing. And then eventually, download. And holy shit.

It was all there in lurid, bodice ripping nuance. Everything about the president's relationship with Lewinsky and far more than could ever be legally relevant. Saul Weisenberg, a senior prosecutor on Starz team, conceded to me. in a 2025 interview, that some of the prurient detail, quote, may have been more than we needed, end quote.

Indeed. If you're expecting a similarly revelatory moment of transparency when the Jeffrey Epstein files become public next week, another collective I remember exactly where I was type experience, then prepare for disappointment. Now, last month, Congress passed and the president signed the misleadingly titled, quote, Epstein Files Transparency Act, end quote. A more accurate title, as we'll discuss in a moment, would have been the Epstein Files Will Produce Whatever We Want Act. not as catchy.

admittedly. The law passed after a prolonged display of shameless political hypocrisy by both parties. Democrats careened from indifference to a sudden self-righteous crusade to release the same files they could have made public at any time from 2020. to early 2023, when they controlled the White House, Senate and House, and then until January 2025, when they still held the executive branch, including DOJ.

Republicans, meanwhile, lurched mindlessly between extremes based on shifting political vibes and the fickle whims of President Donald Trump. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel rode into office full of bluster about how they. They blow the lid off the Epstein files for all to see. But after Bondi's much hyped February 2025 release of Phase One.

a dud comprised almost entirely of materials that were already public. She slammed it into reverse in July 2025 with a memo that decreed, quote, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no for. End quote. After that conclusion spurred near universal condemnation, Bondi reverted right back to play acting as a crusader for transparency. Meanwhile.

Trump went from furiously lobbying congressional Republicans against release of the files to disingenuously calling for full disclosure once he saw that his suppressive effort was doomed. House Republicans played right along. They initially refused nearly unanimously to sign a discharge petition calling for release of the files, but days later voted 216 to one. for disclosure upon getting the green light from the boss. The Senate fell in line with a fully unanimous vote.

The official White House statement upon Trump's signing of the bill claims that the new law, quote, requires the attorney general to release all documents and records in possession of the Department of Justice relating to Jeffrey Epstein.

end quote. But all, all documents and records, that's not even close. In fact, the law contains two major exceptions that effectively allow the government to hold back whatever the heck it wants. First, The law allows DOJ to withhold materials that, quote, would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary. Consider the timeline. July 2025, Bondi and the.

FBI formally declare that upon a full review of all Epstein-related materials, no evidence exists, quote, that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties, end quote. Case closed. But fast forward. A few months to November 14th, 2025 at 1035 a.m., Trump posts on Truth Social, quote, I will be asking A.G. Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein's involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton.

Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, JPMorgan Chase, and many other people and institutions. And finally... That same day, November 14th, 2025, about three and change hours later at 2.12 p.m., Bondi replies publicly to Trump's post, quote, Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for what? And notes that she has assigned the new investigations to the Southern District of New York. Case reopened.

When asked to explain her reversal, Bondi stammered. And I wrote this down. I transcribed this exactly. You can find this clip out there. Information that has come. information. Um, there's information that new information, additional information, end quote. This folks is the nation's top prosecutor.

So now that DOJ apparently has opened some new criminal investigation into somebody or something, they'll have the power under the new law to withhold any Epstein-related documents that might touch on those probes. Yet we don't know exactly who is under investigation. or how broadly those inquiries might span. Anyone outside of DOJ, therefore, will be essentially blind and unable to push back. We won't know what we won't know, and we'll all just have to take Pam Bondi's word for it.

But surely the Justice Department, this Justice Department, isn't investigating Trump himself. So any documents about his relationship with Epstein would not be covered by the criminal investigations clause. And that brings us. To the second exception, the law permits the Justice Department to withhold or redact any information that could compromise national defense or foreign policy or the national security of the United States. Well, one might reasonably wonder how could information about.

Trump and Epstein going club hopping and female ogling in the 1990s possibly put the country's safety at risk now? The answer, again. lies with Bondi alone. And couldn't our servile attorney general conclude that any materials that might embarrass the president, our commander in chief? our chief foreign diplomat? Couldn't that harm his standing with other nations, thereby undermining our foreign policy? Roll your eyes if you will. I'm with you. But that decision, again,

will be Bondi's alone. And again, neither you nor I nor Congress nor the victims nor anyone else in any position to object will know what documents Bondi has chosen to withheld and why. All she needs is a hook and the new law provides. her with enough of those to do essentially whatever she wants. We'll see the Epstein files or some portion of them next week. We can reasonably expect to learn new details about Epstein's criminal ring and about bad conduct by prominent men. But the new law...

by its broad exemptions ensures that we won't get the most important answers, especially when Pam Bondi is the one who gets to decide. Thanks for listening, everyone. Stay safe and stay informed. Support for this show comes from Odoo. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odoo. It's the only business software you'll ever need.

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