Lincoln would have been horrified that declared anti-Jewish and anti-Black Americans have found comfortable places in the Trump administration. (Photo: Reuters)
Within the trove of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents released on December 19, several redactions have taken place. Indeed, there are weighty reasons for some of those redactions, but given the immensity of the Epstein scandal, none of them count more than the overall public interest. Barring the deletion of expletives used during the conversations in the Oval Office between President Nixon and his discussants, all Watergate-related files were released by President Richard Milhouse Nixon. He declined even to issue a full and unconditional Presidential pardon to himself and key accomplices in the Watergate coverup such as H.R. Haldeman and J.D. Ehrichman, the “German shepherds” as they were termed, of President Nixon. Although Nixon himself escaped as a consequence of the pardon given by his successor Gerald R. Ford, several of his accomplices, including Haldeman, Ehrlichman, former Attorney General Mitchell and Egil Krogh faced prosecution and often prison terms. After White House aide Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of the secret taping system in the Oval Office that was installed on the orders of Nixon, the President was advised by some aides to burn all recordings but declined, to his cost. To the credit of Nixon, he took his loss of confidence within the US Congress sportingly, stoic, although visibly upset. Trump can give a pardon to himself and his close friends before resigning, in case there is incriminating material on him in the Epstein files. In any advent, willingly or otherwise, the public mood within the Republican support base will result in a law being passed by the US House and Senate with veto-proof majorities in the Senate. Better now than later, in greater disgrace, in case Trump has something to hide.
Even more, much more, than the Watergate tapes, the nature of the Epstein saga makes the public interest case so convincingly that releasing the entirety of the Epstein files has become essential. Jeffrey Epstein “committed suicide” in a highsecurity cell regularly policed and where lighting was unceasing. A victim of his who wrote a tellsomething book about her association with Epstein, Virginia Giuffre, “committed suicide” just days after she replied “I am not suicidal” when asked if powerful US politicians had been named in her (then forthcoming) book on life with Epstein. Now the accomplice in procuring underage women for exploitation by Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, is in prison in Florida. She should be asked to testify in a public hearing in the US Congress, with immunity for her testimony and a commitment that the US Senate would pass a veto-proof vote directing President Trump to give her a full pardon and the security of a change in identity and assurance of a comfortable life in a secret location, cut off from all her old contacts, including her family. Only action by a sufficient number of Republican Senators added to the Democrats can make this happen. After all, the Republican Party was once the party of President Abraham Lincoln, who left a legacy they need to live up to. Lincoln would have been horrified that declared anti-Jewish and anti-Black Americans have found comfortable places in the Trump administration. Lincoln believed in equality for all rather than in discrimination on the basis of faith or colour. As for the Democrats, this is the party of Lyndon Baines Johnson, who established through his Great Society and Civil Rights legislation equality for all US citizens irrespective of colour. Johnson established the pillars of the Welfare State that Trump is seeking to tear down. The poor are not inferior to those better off, and will prove so if given a “fair shake”, as the saying goes. Going to church or other houses of worship does not make an individual worthy of the grace of the Divine, action does. And that action is for the US Congress to ensure a complete release of the Epstein files. US democracy is on test, and for the public good, must deliver on the right to transparency of the entire Epstein files. Of course, with expletives deleted but facts retained.
