In a Functional Democracy, the Epstein Files Would Already Be Public
On paper, this should be simple: The government has files tied to a notorious sex trafficker, the public has a right to see them, and survivors deserve more than platitudes. The fact that we have to assemble a coalition just to pry open documents already sitting in government hands says more about the state of our politics than it does about any legal hurdle. You could see that plainly when survivors stood with two members of Congress to demand daylight. There was nothing theoretical about their ask. It was not a branding exercise. It was a statement that concealment is how the powerful turn justice into a scavenger hunt.
Congressman Ro Khanna’s presence in that moment didn’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention. He treats transparency like a duty, not a prop, and he doesn’t need to take a poll before saying the public should know what the public already owns.
What’s more unusual is his current partner in the push. Thomas Massie is a libertarian who lives off-grid and sends out Christmas cards featuring his family grinning with an arsenal of guns. And yet, even in that contradiction, Massie has at least been willing to tell his own party “no” when it comes to transparency. Jasmine Crockett — who owes him nothing, and has happily scorched Trump’s enablers in hearing after hearing — even gave him credit on the Joy Reid Show. That’s what makes this moment so strange: “Release the files” should be a clerical matter, not some act of bipartisan rebellion.
Nancy Mace is the clearest single-person example of that tension, and she’s someone I’ve criticized before for staying too quiet when accountability actually mattered. When she first came to Congress, she looked like a fairly standard suburban Republican — a status-quo sorority-girl type, the kind I went to high school with. After January 6 she briefly flashed a little independence, suggesting she might stand up to Trump, but when she saw her party was moving in the opposite direction she rebranded herself overnight into a full MAGA loyalist.
https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/in-a-functional-democracy-the-epstein
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They believe it's their "property" and they see no reason why any information should be shared with the American people.
