I think there is a likelihood that more has been going on [View all]

regarding Maxwell and the conduct of Blanche and the DOJ. Remember that he interviewed her for many hours and in order to have questions to ask her he must have reviewed the Epstein files prior to figuring out what he wanted to ask about. So he knew going in the answers he wanted and how to shape his questioning in order to get responses from her that would allow him to come out and claim she had given Crumb The 1st the "all clear".

Remember that he did come out and do exactly that. He made the "announcement". But I think the behind the scenes action at DOJ may not have stopped there. It may well be that Blanche and Bondi used the denials by Maxwell as "justification" to pull and destroy material from the files. So if there was a reference to Crumb The 1st, or someone else, and Maxwell said it didn't happen then they may have yanked that from the file and if asked they will say it was "investigated" and found not credible. They have already made all kinds of noise about 'credibility" of accusations and not releasing "unsubstantiated" accusations about people involved.

Pulling material and making it "disappear" without raising a huge, obvious stink inside DOJ would have to be done selectively over several months, which it has been since the Blanche "interviews", by pulling just parts here and there over time. So if the "files" do get released there may be many parts "missing" that were treated this way. There is also something else to keep in mind. Weasel words and administrative definitions.

The number one mistake that people can make when requesting information from the government, no matter whether it is state, federal or local, is to simply ask for "the file" about the subject of interest. Agencies have administrative definitions for things like what is "the file". It usually means the "official record" and one would, using common sense, think that means all documents and records within the agency/department on the subject of the records request. But that is not at all how it goes. Informal notes, preliminary reports, working documents/proposals etc. are not necessarily included in the "official file" because agencies etc. feel that these types of documents are not "concluded" etc. and so are just the equivalent of working documents that may not reflect an "official" stance of the agency. So they view the "file" as something that should only contain the material the agency feels reflects it's official stance, proceedings and materials to back that up.

So you don't necessarily get records of phone contacts, conversations, informal notes etc. and what materials may be considered to be "deliberative" in the official "file". That's why experienced investigators using FOIA requests will not say they want the "file" by itself. They will always get quite thorough in their description of the types of documents and records they seek. It would surprise people to know the relaity if you walked into your state environmental agency and asked to see the "file" about an environmental event or site. You might get sat in a room with a couple of big folders of material and review it all and think you now have the story. But what you didn't see is everything that didn't make it or hasn't made it into the file. There may be failed environmental tests that are still under discussion and debate within the department about how to further proceed. But because there is no "official" determination yet you leave the building not even knowing about this very critical information.

So the long and the short is that to think that the crookedest people we've ever had in government wouldn't play games and destroy information is to ignore the long history of files destruction perpetrated under far less corrupt administrations. Watergate, Iran-Contra, CIA torture records etc. all spring to mind as the most obvious and well known. Just imagine the ones we don't know about and how many times a day across the country through thousands of departments/agencies this sort of thing goes on.

Could Bondi and Blanche get it all removed? That's a difficult task but they have been playing for time there is no doubt about that. You can be sure that if those files were chocked full of names, accusations and pictures/video of nothing but Democrats etc. those would have been released on Day One by Crumb the 1st. The fact that they are fighting so hard and digging in their heels so hard tells us that it is really, really bad. Their excuse about wanting to "protect the victims" is laughable as their supposed caring about the victims of sexual abuse is actually revealed as phony by the number of pardons etc. doled out to people with sexual misconduct in their background/cases and the soft treatment of Maxwell.

But hope springs eternal that someone in DOJ will come forward publicly or will get documents out to the media. But I have a fear that some things have been destroyed already. History gives us good reason for that fear.