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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIt's all a "hoax"...
Uh-huh.
Did I just hear a bomb go off?
I do not believe that Johnson had any intention of ever opening the government so long as the Epstein files were a threat to Trump.
But now, an email has been leaked from the Oversight Committee that Trump spent hours with one of the victims at Epstein's pad in Palm Beach. The email was from Epstein to Maxwell. It is not a "hoax".
Now, who is going to ask Trump to resign?
What diversion or distraction can make this story disappear?
johnnyfins
(3,235 posts)efhmc
(15,926 posts)FoxNewsSucks
(11,447 posts)so the tRumphumpers have no idea.
The rest of the media will probably go back to covering a Kardassian or some other crap in a day or two.
kentuck
(114,915 posts)...and the question will then be, do they still want to pursue the matter? I think enough will want to pursue it that the ones that want to continue the cover-up will not be able to do so.
OLDMDDEM
(2,910 posts)usonian
(22,371 posts)
johnnyfins
(3,235 posts)The only distraction big enough to drown out Epstein would be war. I don't even think that would totally kill the story. Epstein is NOT going away.
hadEnuf
(3,457 posts)Remember, the movie that the right screeched that Clinton was imitating?
AZJonnie
(2,243 posts)It would probably require the victim to testify in some manner (behind closed doors to Congress presumably) and tell them that a) sex occurred with Trump, and b) Trump knew they were not 18. Just because, well, he's Trump and he fucking gets away with everything.
There is an angle he can use to weasel out here: While Guiffre has said that when she was "told to give someone a massage, that meant sex", it is also true that at the time she met her husband, she was in Thailand, on Epstein's dime, attending an actual professional massage seminar, like something on the up-and-up, legit massage training. She wanted to become a professional masseuse, and Epstein was paying for her to become one.
This fact suggests that there could, in fact, have been actual, regular massages going on at his estate, along with the happy ending kind. And IIRC, some other (then) girls have since said they "started out" just giving massages, without the sex part. Ergo, that will probably be "the angle" is that Trump got a massage, but it was just a massage, he didn't ask "the woman" for her identification.
Then there's also the angle that the DoJ had this information while Garland was in charge of the DoJ, and yet they "never said anything", which Trump will leverage to say "If they thought I did something illegal, they would've come after me!" and a LOT of people will come to that same conclusion when he says it, even though, in reality, they probably didn't "say anything" because they couldn't corroborate it with any victim's actual testimony, or other additional records, and the DoJ were actually a professionally-run organization at the time.
This is why I say that while it will look bad for him that he was "with an Epstein victim for an hour", the woman will need to tell Congress that Trump had sex with her, she was under 18, and Trump knew it, in order for there to be (maybe) something more serious happening to him than just embarrassment. And even then, we'll get at least some GQP creeps in attendance claiming "we didn't find her testimony credible", I mean, you could bet the farm that would happen in that instance.
MHO, fwiw.
dflprincess
(29,080 posts)Trump's underage victims did not "have sex" with him, they were raped by him.
AZJonnie
(2,243 posts)I have altered the post to read "sex occurred with Trump", as I was going for a more clinical tone there.
In the state of Florida if the victim was under 18, and sex occurred, then at minimum, statutory rape occurred. If, in your book, statutory rape and rape are the same thing, even though in the former case, the victim said "yes" and in the latter, the victim said "no", then that's your prerogative. I don't subscribe to that thinking because I want the word "rape" to maintain a certain level of impact in discussion, and in law. I feel it should be reserved for when someone is literally forced, because that is SOOO mentally traumatic, *always*, so I prefer not to blur that line with this particular word. But to each their own, friend.
Bottom-line, depending on what Trump knew at the time, it would've been either statutory rape, or rape. If he knew she was being trafficked, then yes, clear rape.
johnnyfins
(3,235 posts)I mean, over this latest evidence? He can't sue anybody for this revelation and he has zero impulse control.
Will we see hoax hoax hoax? Or "the emails were fabricated by democrats"?
This doesn't look good for Ghislaine, either. Im sure she would say she doesnt remember responding to Epstein and saying she was thinking about the fact that TSF hasnt talked.
Kid Berwyn
(22,262 posts)Donald Trump, then 45, with contestants in the 1991 Look of the Year competition, the year he was a judge
In the early 90s, Donald Trump judged the worlds biggest modelling competition - since hit by allegations of abuse. This is how the people who were there remember it
By Lucy Osborne, Harry Davies and Stephanie
The Guardian, 14 March 2020
Excerpt...
Patty Owen, an Elle and Cosmopolitan cover star, recalls seeing Trump at Elite parties as far back as 1982. He would always be at the bar. Thats where he would stay and thats where all the new models would hang out, she says. Whenever I saw him, I was always like: why does John have to invite him? Barbara Pilling, also then an Elite model, told us Trump asked her out for dinner in the summer of 1989 at an industry soiree. She recalls Trump asking how old she was. I said 17 and he said, Thats just great youre not too old, not too young.
Continues
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/14/teen-models-powerful-men-when-donald-trump-hosted-look-of-the-year
twodogsbarking
(16,654 posts)Scrivener7
(57,768 posts)kentuck
(114,915 posts)Or Mexico?
durablend
(8,757 posts)liberalgunwilltravel
(993 posts)Has already stated that it was a hoax. So that is the story theyll stick with.
hadEnuf
(3,457 posts)n/t
Warpy
(114,186 posts)He will have to be removed from office by his cabinet because he has become too imparied to continue in office (fat chance, they'll just try to prop him up for another 3 years) or he will have to be impeached over his misuse of extraordinary emergency powers and he won't resign then because he's survived 2 other attempts to remove him from office.
I still say we should have lashed him to a refrigeraator dolly in ;2021 and wheeled him toff to a waiting chopper to take him to AF for a flight to Russia. The emergency chute could be deployed, he'd be rolled down onto the tarmac, the chute would be cut off and the door sealed, the plane returning to the US. Putin wanted the asshole so bad, Putin should have gotten him as a present.
"lashed to a refrigerator dolly"...
brings this scene to mind from "My Favorite Year" w/ Peter O'Toole, Mark Linn-Baker +
Tony DiBenedetto as Alfie Bumbacelli... A classic...
bluestarone
(20,756 posts)He owns the supreme court!!
creeksneakers2
(7,886 posts)Track here down and see what she has to say.
kentuck
(114,915 posts)Virginia.
creeksneakers2
(7,886 posts)She was named by the Republicans. I'm not convinced yet.
Emile
(39,083 posts)kimbutgar
(26,471 posts)I would not put it past this insane madman to harm the American people. Just look what ICE is doing in blue states!
relayerbob
(7,320 posts)At least, that's likely what the story will be.
Or was they "preying", I get those mixed up these days,
Response to relayerbob (Reply #21)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Emile
(39,083 posts)is a fully clothed adult. Why post this?
relayerbob
(7,320 posts)I didnt see it, it was apparently challenged and removed pretty quickly
11 Bravo
(24,244 posts)Enjoy your stay.
Emile
(39,083 posts)bronxiteforever
(10,952 posts)
11 Bravo
(24,244 posts)Johonny
(25,053 posts)January 6th, his civil lawsuits . . . The only thing that is real is the fake gold in the White House.