136 Comments
User's avatar
Henry Cohen's avatar

What would be the point of pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell? Who would believe her when, after, having been pardoned, she said that no Republicans, especially Trump, ever did anything wrong, but lots of Democrats did? Why doesn't someone leak the Epstein files and get this over with?

Expand full comment
Kozmo's avatar

I also keep hoping some patriotic citizen with access to EVERYTHING leaks it ALL. Transcripts, tapes, photos, the works. The victims can be redacted, but EVERYONE else should face the truth.

Expand full comment
Karen RN's avatar

And then there is this from a protest sign: We wouldn’t need the files if we just believed the women

Expand full comment
Linda Weide's avatar

I think there have been leaks, but I am not sure to whom they are going.

Expand full comment
Runfastandwin's avatar

I hope so.

Expand full comment
Linda Weide's avatar

Here is Jon Stewart discussing Trump getting Epstein Files questions in Scotland.

https://youtu.be/5Y-LofzaMRE?si=Wi7l1I_EKQtN0ja1

Expand full comment
C K Smith's avatar

Thank you for the link, Linda. Best moments of the day, and it will be all downhill for the rest of the day. But at least I have had several really good belly-laughs to start the day.

Expand full comment
Linda Weide's avatar

CK I am glad to hear it. Solidarity!✌🏽

Save this one for later when you need a lift to your day. Here is Steve Colbert talking about Trump in Scotland.

https://youtu.be/FD7TEBvnkog?si=hgSglMTMIxowZ83E

Expand full comment
C K Smith's avatar

Thank you, once again, Linda! Colbert is the perfect way to end my day with many, many laughs. ✌️and Solidarity for sure. Have a great evening!

Expand full comment
BG Pete Chiefari's avatar

Thanks Linda! I really had a good laugh!

Expand full comment
Gail Adams VA/FL's avatar

Lol, cheered me right up!

Expand full comment
Italien's avatar

Leak away!

Expand full comment
Ralph T.'s avatar

"Who would believe her". All those who need to believe her, like every maga-minded fool. The same ignorant braindead fucks who believe The Moron is a genius. That's who.

Expand full comment
daien | nyc's avatar

Ghislaine's credibility? Prosecutors decided not to charge her with perjury only because they felt they could convict her of more serious crimes.

The sentencing memorandum charged that “… the defendant has lied repeatedly about her crimes, exhibited an utter failure to accept responsibility, and demonstrated repeated disrespect for the law and the Court.” … “The defendant lies when it suits her.” (In other words, a djt soulmate.)

… When I wrote that I hadn't seen Tina Brown's new Substack on Ghislaine's believability. Explains a lot without excusing—a real must-read. https://tinabrown.substack.com/p/ghislaine-maxwells-life-of-secrets/

Expand full comment
Henry Cohen's avatar

Thank you for recommending Tina Brown's piece. It's great up until the last paragraph when she writes that Joe Biden "appalled his own party by pardoning his son Hunter." Was anybody actually appalled by Biden's protecting his son from a vicious, vengeful monster?

Expand full comment
SoTiredofWinning's avatar

I was appalled by the people who were appalled.

Anyone naive enough to believe that the Trumpers would not keep hounding Hunter Biden over imaginary “crimes“ are naïve enough to think that Trump and his disgusting lickspittles have even a nanogram of integrity.

Expand full comment
Henry Cohen's avatar

Thank you. I learned something today. A nanogram is a billionth of a gram.

Expand full comment
daien | nyc's avatar

Call me ambivalent on the Hunter pardon. I think Tina's right and so are you, Henry.

Expand full comment
Mary Roeser's avatar

She has credibility??? Who knew??

Expand full comment
daien | nyc's avatar

Look again. I wrote "credibility?".

Expand full comment
bitchybitchybitchy's avatar

Maxwell procured and trafficked underage girls to be sexually abused. I would not believe anything she would say if she was pardoned.

Expand full comment
Mary Roeser's avatar

Neither would I. As with Donnie Dementia, I would simply assume whatever she said was nothing but a bald-faced lie.

Expand full comment
SoTiredofWinning's avatar

The Base has swallowed more whoppers than the winner of a hamburger-eating contest, so I don’t have a lot of confidence they’re not gonna swallow this one whole as well.

Expand full comment
Linda Weide's avatar

Still, I am glad that it is following him to Scotland, where the EU has succumbed to his blackmail and bribed him with fossil fuel purchases from the US of $1.3 Trillion just to get tariffs that are still 5% above where they were before. He is screwing the entire planet with his tariffs, including the US citizens who now have to pay higher prices for things they want to buy, and also more will lose their jobs. Businesses are screwed because his tariffs are not anything one can make a business plan with since they are here today and gone tomorrow, and next week could be something different because they are all based on the momentary whim of a maniac.

Expand full comment
Janice D Stearns's avatar

Screwing the entire planet, period:

Expand full comment
bitchybitchybitchy's avatar

Trump only has the outline of a deal. The details of these deals take years to complete.

Expand full comment
Mary Roeser's avatar

He barely has a concept of a deal

Expand full comment
BG Pete Chiefari's avatar

Well said, Linda!

Expand full comment
Ellen Franzen's avatar

I understand that the trade deal with Europe is not an actual deal, just the framework of a possible deal. If I were Europe, I would develop my own small defense industries, don't buy anything from the US which doesn't build weaponry for the types of wars that Europe hopefully never have to right. They should try to make it clear that the US under t and vance is beyond the pale.

Expand full comment
Keith Kuckler's avatar

The consortium of Britain and France, that has created Airbus, shows that when it comes to tech, the Europeans, can compete with anyone. In the defense sphere, the Swedes have shown that their subs can attack and get into range of US carriers, in sophisticated war games, Saab, and Bofors, along with their German, French and British counterparts are capable of buildin world class arms systems, even the Poles and Turks are building their own tanks of high quality. And, lastly, the Ukrainains, have shown how capable they are in the area of drones and related weapons. Add the Finns to the mix, and, you see that the Europeans do not need the US, if they decide to support their own weapons manufacturers. And the Canadians are in discussions about cancelling order for F35's, and, doing a venture with Saab to build the Grippen fighters in Canada. If making Europe independent of US arms industry was Trump's goal, he may well achieve it. His plan was to force them to spend more, thinking that that spending would be in the US, but, these people are not as dumb as he is, they will start to spend the increased costs of defense in their own countries, and, put US workers out of their jobs in the process.

Expand full comment
BJ Zamora's avatar

I completely agree with you. Trump’s stupidity and mafia style threats have made the Europeans rethink their dependence on the US. That, along with a pissed off and powerful Canada, has weakened us considerably.

Expand full comment
T L Mills's avatar

The lessening of US influence and even the contraction of our economy--in the long run, might not be a bad thing. It is not a healthy situation for one country to be "the police" for half the planet...especially if the politics of said country are as volatile as ours are currently. We haven't always (if ever) used that influence for good, it must be said.

Expand full comment
BJ Zamora's avatar

I agree. It’s probably s good thing that Pax America is crumbling into dust. Perhaps most nations will work for the common benefit of the people and not just those in power.

Expand full comment
daien | nyc's avatar

Too true! The thrust of history and news is and always has been to deny that.

Expand full comment
Susan Burgess's avatar

All a country really has is its word. How about when President Trump gave orders to pull out of Northeast Syria and leave the Kurds, who we fought side-by-side with against the ISIS to hang out to dry. Just another careless, not well thought out betrayal. The US troops left under cover of darkness.

Expand full comment
BJ Zamora's avatar

Totally agree. He hasn’t ever kept his word to his wives or other nations.

Expand full comment
Susan Burgess's avatar

And because of that, there’s nothing left that we are as a nation except a threat.

Expand full comment
Bubbens20's avatar

The concept of a plan.

Expand full comment
Italien's avatar

Yess…

Expand full comment
Fred's avatar

Pardoning Maxwell will be so bad for the young women she victimized. And so shameful for our country that a human trafficker/sexual predator got away with this. Then the next question is will the Republicans pay for this in the 2026 midterms? Pardoning the J6 folks was bad enough but pardoning her. Is this the decision that puts the Dems in charge of the House and Senate? One can only hope - I know, it’s not a strategy - and articles of impeachment are voted upon immediately. Let’s see if decency prevails

Expand full comment
Glen Miller's avatar

Sure not holding my breath for decency to happen here.

Expand full comment
Ellen Franzen's avatar

That's two of us.

Expand full comment
Mary Roeser's avatar

Make it three. The GQP/MAGAT cult has not a shred of decency. If they did have decency, they wouldn't be welded to the rump of a demented predator.

Expand full comment
Vickie Berry's avatar

Pardoning her would not only be so devastating to their victims, but also to any others victims, to any who have yet to report, and to all women. It would be a message that females do not matter and are not to be believed. 💔

Expand full comment
Vickie Berry's avatar

It would also apply to boys and male victims.

Expand full comment
Susan Burgess's avatar

Seems to me that a pardon will set her free to be a more accessible target. Something like yelling “Pull” at a rifle range.

Expand full comment
David Wemett's avatar

If there never was "a list" how is it that Trump knows that Bill Clinton was on the "list" twenty eight times? Again, follow the money, Senator Ron Wyden found that Mr. Epstein used multiple Russian banks, (now sanctioned), to process payments related to sex trafficking.

Expand full comment
Deepak Puri's avatar

Oh geez... if I knew earlier there was nothing there, I wouldn't have created all these infographics about the Trump-Epstein scandal.

Stay informed with the expanding Trump-Epstein scandal with these interactive maps and infographics. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

Mar-a-Lago Crime Scene

https://thedemlabs.org/2025/07/23/mar-a-lago-crime-scene/

Follow the money and billionaires behind Epstein and Trump with this interactive map

https://thedemlabs.org/2025/07/22/follow-the-money-and-billionaires-behind-epstein-and-trump-with-this-interactive-map/

Expand full comment
Ellen Franzen's avatar

Of course, Deepak!

Expand full comment
Italien's avatar

Thanks!

Expand full comment
David Wemett's avatar

Excellent work here Deepak Puri! A veritable "Who's Who" of sex trafficking of underage girls and their billionaire johns and panderers.

Expand full comment
Linda Hopper's avatar

Excellent analysis, Lucian. When I saw the title my mind went immediately to — his two choices are Shit or Go Blind. And he should hope his base loses their hearing. All other choices are really ugly.

Expand full comment
irene jarosewich's avatar

If he pardons GM, then the victims should create a "class" and under the Palermo Protocol, to which the US is a signatory, GM can be prosecuted under international law, an option available to victims when their national governments to do not comply with international standards for punishing sex trafficking of minors. is it a long shot, yes, but so help me, if some attorneys/organization goes down that path, that is where my contributions will go and not to any candidate running for congress.

Expand full comment
Paula B.'s avatar

Great idea!

Expand full comment
Italien's avatar

I’ll take the long shot!

Expand full comment
Terry's avatar

Then there is what the women in India did when a serial rapist went free...the beat him to death in court!

Expand full comment
L Bowen's avatar

If he pardons Maxwell he will dishonor every victim of a pedophile or sex trafficker that was ever abused in this manner. There is no going back from this. It will prove that the rule of law is meaningless.

Expand full comment
L P Inness's avatar

It has been proven meaningless in many t***p courts, SCOTUS and white shoe law firms who have caved. A convicted sex abuser pardoning another...what glorious irony.

Expand full comment
Carol-Ann Dearnaley's avatar

Yes, it is a swill of lies and fabrications and perverted fantasies. But

One word has just tipped the scale, "privilege." Privilege as in " I never had the privilege to visit the island." And that, boys and girls, is the whopper that should unravel the whole sordid mess. Why, why, the adjudicated rapist considers it a "privilege" to go to a place where the main past time seems to have been sexually assaulting young girls? Yes, he was there, yes he participated, yes, he is guilty.

And immediately implicating Bill Clinton and Larry Summers? How did he "know" those two were there IF, IF, as he says, he's never seen any documents dealing with either Epstein, his black book, or the flight logs or visitors to the island? How many lies can this embarrassment to the human race spin in one day?

Privilege in deed. Never thought of raping as a privilege - funny, The Felon does.

Expand full comment
Christina Johnson's avatar

We can only hope that Trumpworld comes crashing down. Maxwell cannot be pardoned. The victims cannot be forgotten. I have to rinse my mouth out with soap now, due to the atrocious language I spew every time I see, hear or just think of Trump.

Expand full comment
Joseph Smith's avatar

Well, like they say “Presidents are temporary- Wu Tang is forever.”

Expand full comment
Charles Austin's avatar

Rat in a trap. Pardoning that evil woman would be akin to chewing his own leg off. I've said before that she's a dead woman walking. Donnie is rattled. The pressure is cracking him. Narcissistic collapse coming up!

Expand full comment
Tom Twain's avatar

Poor Demented Donny. First he denies today that he's following the Epstein saga or knows anything about it, but then immediately starts talking all about it, claiming that Bill Clinton visited the island "38 times." Then realizing that this might make Clinton look more important than him, your favorite president, he hastens to add that he turned down this "privilege" although he was, of course, invited, as what's a party without The Donald. He then denies that anyone has spoken to him about a pardon, but backtracks again to assure us that he has the power to do it if he wants. Oh what a tangled weave even a practiced liar can manage to weave. Keep up the questions and who knows what will come out.

Expand full comment
Pat Goudey OBrien's avatar

I think HE thinks he can truly get away with it. If he DOES, I’m going to listen closely for that Twilight Zone music, because this cannot possibly be real.

Expand full comment
Paula B.'s avatar

I think the problem is that his supporters don't care about the victims--only the guilty Democrats. That really worries me.

Expand full comment
Ally House (Oregon)'s avatar

Exactly so.

Expand full comment
Joe Todd's avatar

I am astounded that the best and brightest minds at Harvard, West Point, the Congress of the United States, the biggest corporations and tech companies, and the geniuses and common sense folks in this great nation

are being out smarted and out maneuvered by this blithering buffoon and his nerdy twerp of a bald headed

Rasputin.

Expand full comment
Runfastandwin's avatar

I hope you are right. It certainly seems like something that could stick. But, we've been down this road before. otoh it's a single drop of water that breaks the dam.

Expand full comment