Trump Gives Himself An Enormous Out On the Epstein Files

A lot has happened. Here are some of the things. This is the TPM Morning Memo.

Epstein’s political shift on the Hill

President Trump’s absurd effort to avoid the appearance of defeat by suddenly supporting today’s expected vote in the House to force the Justice Department to turn over the Epstein files — which Trump already has the authority to release — has changed the political calculus on the Hill, particularly on the Senate side.

Not only did Trump’s decision make it acceptable for GOP members of the House of Representatives to vote yes on releasing the files, but new reports suggest that Senate Republicans will no longer entertain legislation aimed at protecting Trump.

“Now, a growing number of Republican senators are willing to put the bill up for a vote,” Politico reports, “and some are wondering whether it could simply be sent to Trump’s desk by unanimous consent.”

Punchbowl issued a similar report: “Many Republican senators now believe the bill will eventually pass. The question is how – and whether – senators will be forced to take a roll-call vote.”

Trump himself even said yesterday that he would sign the measure if it reached his desk. Believe it at your own risk.

But here’s the thing: Even if Trump is forced to sign it to maintain the appearance of having avoided a crushing defeat, there is no reason to think the Justice Department will release anything damaging to Trump.

In the short term, there is no enforcement mechanism that would incentivize Justice Department officials or the Trump White House to comply with Congressional demands. Trump’s DOJ certainly won’t prosecute anyone for defying Congress. It’s unclear whether the GOP-controlled Congress itself can enforce his request, either legally or politically. In practice, Congress has no real way of knowing whether the Trump administration is burying damaging documents or records.

Trump and the White House also appear to be leaving themselves a big gap. In his social media post, suddenly declaring that he did not care whether the House Oversight Committee obtained the Epstein files, Trump warned that they “can have everything they are legally entitled to.”

“Legally Right To” does a lot of work there. The Trump White House and its DOJ will make this decision and can use it to throw a broad protective blanket over any evidence damaging to Trump.

This language was echoed to Politico by an anonymous White House official: “This idea that the federal government has documents that it can legally turn over regarding Jeffrey Epstein, and that we are hiding them from the public is a fallacy, it is not true. »

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) defends the White House using similar language: “the Department of Justice has returned what it is legally authorized to return.”

All of this suggests managing expectations in this new lawless world where accountability and enforcement mechanisms have been removed. No need to throw up your hands and surrender, but the Epstein files scandal probably won’t have the outcome we’re conditioned to expect, not as long as the Justice Department is sidelined and Republicans control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Quote of the day

There is no small amount of schadenfreude in watching the Trump White House, hoisted on the firecracker of its own conspiracy propaganda, worrying that even releasing all of Epstein’s files won’t silence the mob it has whipped up:

“Will people ever be satisfied? No, because people in this country sincerely believe that the federal government has a list of pedophiles who work with Jeffrey Epstein. And that’s simply not true.”anonymous White House official

I sense a trend here…

• TPM’s Josh Marshall: Trump looks like the weak horse; People act accordingly
• WaPo: Trump faces a divided GOP – and rare dissent from his party
• Politico: 7 signs that Trump is losing his rhythm
• WSJ: Trump’s hold on Republicans shows first signs of slipping
• Michelle Goldberg: The MAGA crisis may finally be here

Trump uses DOJ to control damage caused by Epstein

The New York Times, on the 217 minutes between President Trump’s demand Friday that the Justice Department investigate Democrats for their ties to Jeffrey Epstein and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s public acquiescence:

Ms. Bondi’s statement was an unequivocal demonstration of Mr. Trump’s near-total success in subordinating the independence of the Justice Department to his will after Watergate. Friday was something of a milestone. The department was deployed, in effect, as a branch of the president’s rapid response operation to help him weather a damaging information cycle, current and former officials said.

Retribution: Jim Comey Edition

James Comey’s prosecution took several torpedoes below the waterline yesterday when a magistrate judge found an extraordinary number of examples of potential misconduct by investigators and prosecutors, both in the current case against Comey and in an adjacent but different investigation during the Trump I presidency.

At issue was whether Comey should have access to grand jury recordings and transcripts in his case. Comey completely succeeded in reaching the high bar he had to clear when the trial judge concluded 11 independent bases for Comey to have access to grand jury material.

Comey based his request for information primarily on what he claimed were potential attorney-client privilege violations, but the judge found surprising incidents of alleged errors by acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, the insurance lawyer who previously represented Trump personally and who had no prosecutorial experience when she was installed as a devoted loyalist after Trump ousted his predecessor for failing to file charges against Comey.

I have the full recap of the judge’s remarkable decision here.

Only the best people

Miami U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones — who is spearheading Trump’s larger retaliation program to “investigate investigators” — got such poor marks when he was a junior prosecutor in the same office that when he was named to the top spot in March, two of his former supervisors “quickly quit, fearing their new boss would force them out,” WaPo reports.

…Crickets…

Georgetown Law Professor Steve Vladeck reflects on Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s “war on judges” speech to the Federalist Society earlier this month:

Not only is this rhetoric and conduct unworthy of anyone in the employ of the Department of Justice, not to mention its two highest officials, but this will surely lead to an increase in the two (1) very real threats that these lower court judges already face; and (2) the erosion of public trust, at least among those who take Bondi and Blanche seriously, in the lower federal courts. It would be one thing if their accusations were true, but they are not. And yet, it would be difficult to find conservative groups, center-right law professors, or other right-wing commentators publicly criticizing these remarks or the broader attacks on the lower federal courts coming from this administration. I don’t say this lightly, but it brings their deep (and growing) discredit.

Corruption: NEH edition

What’s left of the National Endowment for the Humanities — after Trump’s layoffs, layoffs and grant cancellations — is being used to funnel funds to hand-picked grantees, many of whom have ties to conservative or religious institutions, the New York Times reports.

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