ArcaMax

AMSTERDAM — There’s a reason certain realities are buried by those powerful enough to do so. It’s because they’re radioactive. And as long as no one opens the container, most people live blissfully alongside it. This one is labeled “Jeffrey Epstein.”

Nope, nothing to see here. That’s the message that was recently conveyed, loud and insultingly clear, by officials heading up U.S. President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. And it goes straight to the heart of the very forces of corruption he swore to root out.

Despite making a big song and dance earlier this year on Fox News about sorting through mountains of “sick” evidence of “hundreds of victims” and “tens of thousands of videos” linked to convicted sex trafficker and deeply elite-linked businessman Jeffrey Epstein, Attorney General Pam Bondi joined forces with FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino to announce that their “review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”

They did, however, confirm that “Epstein harmed over one thousand victims.” One thousand. The FBI and DOJ, of all people, should know there’s a big difference between a guy growing a single marijuana plant and someone operating a massive hydroponic jungle. You’d think they might apply that same logic here: Epstein’s whole setup wasn’t just that of a sleazy pervert — it was industrial.

No explanation has been offered for the sheer number of victims. Or the massive volume of recordings. Or why Epstein, facing serious prison time, seemed bizarrely committed to preserving a digital mountain of evidence that could ultimately bring him down. Who, or what, was he saving it for that he deemed more important than his own future — or perhaps even critical to safeguarding it?

And if there’s no “client list,” then why is Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell— the daughter of British media magnate Robert Maxwell, who famously fell off his yacht and was buried in Israel — serving a 20-year prison sentence for sexually trafficking minors?

Apparently she was trafficking to absolutely no one.

Epstein clearly had a full-time gig going with all this. And yet he still had time to break away from it, but only to hobnob with the most rich, powerful and influential people in every important sector of American life: politics, economics, tech, academia, entertainment. He also partnered with a former Israeli p rime minister, whom he met dozens of times, according to the Wall Street Journal, to invest in and promote Israeli technology inside the United States. That tech just happened to be founded by veterans of Israeli intelligence.

That same prime minister, Ehud Barak, had direct oversight of Israel’s entire intelligence apparatus while serving as Defense Minister from 1999 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2013, covering foreign, domestic and military intelligence branches. In the 1970s, he even commanded Israel’s elite black-ops unit, Sayeret Matkal. After that, he became chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces. An interesting resume for someone who was hobnobbing with a guy now being rebranded by Team Trump as just an overenthusiastic pervert.

Even back in 2019, questions were swirling. The Daily Beast reported that former U.S. Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, who had approved Epstein’s sweetheart 2008 plea deal as U.S. Attorney in Miami, told Trump’s transition hiring team: “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone.”

Epstein’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, rejected that idea, saying he would’ve used it to help his client if it were true. Except that’s exactly what happened. Epstein got a plea deal. Then he just kept going like it was a mere speed bump on his private runway.

Now Dershowitz says that he knows the client list exists. And that he’s seen it.

Meanwhile, Trump, who loudly promised to release the Epstein files during his 2024 campaign, has since pivoted hard.

Now, he’s telling supporters to forget the whole thing. He posted on his own online platform, Truth Social, that it was Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who created the Epstein files. Did Hillary put her own husband, former President Bill Clinton, on the list of Epstein associates while she was at it?

Come on.

Trump asked why they didn’t release them if they really contained something damaging to him or MAGA.

But that’s not the point. The real issue is determining whether Epstein was someone’s puppet, and if so, who or what was yanking his strings?

Cross-referencing names on any legitimate client list with shared patterns, whether they be policy, business, connections or geopolitical alignments, might shed some light on whether this whole thing was part of something far more orchestrated.

A growing number of Americans have woken up to the fact that Washington operates on hidden interests, often to the detriment of national ones that benefit the average citizen. That’s why so many decisions that politicians make often appear to have no connection to “America First,” regardless of which party is in charge.

Trump literally just bombed Iran on behalf of Israel, despite campaigning on staying out of foreign entanglements except to foster peace. He sanctioned personnel of the International Criminal Court for targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

He also pressured American universities to suppress campus criticism of Israeli government policies. So much for free speech. And he even lashed out online at Israeli prosecutors, vowing that he “won’t stand for it” as they pursue Netanyahu in an ongoing corruption trial.

That doesn’t sound much like “America First," but rather like something else entirely. Who or what is Trump discreetly prioritizing? And for Trump supporters still trying to make sense of this whiplash — from “lock them up” to “let it go” — maybe it’s time to wonder less about the files he promised to release, and more about who talked him out of it. Because apparently the only thing more classified than the Epstein client list is whatever convinced Trump to stop talking about it.