July 28, 2025

In their never-ending crusade to stop the bleeding over Donald Trump’s refusal to release the full Epstein Files, Republicans have seized on a new qualifier for what should be released: “credible.”

Trump first used the adjective to suggest that Attorney General Pam Bondi should release “whatever she thinks is credible” from the files. When pressed by House Democrats for subpoenas released to Epstein, Republicans tried, but failed to limit them to only information deemed “credible.”

Then over the weekend, Speaker Mike Johnson tried to offer a more fulsome and articulate defense of the limitation:

“I agree with President Trump, with the Department of Justice, with the FBI that you need all credible evidence and information out there. That word credible is important and why because you have to protect innocent people’s names and reputations whose names might be intertwined into all these files.”

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Let me be clear: the only truly innocent people in this situation are the women and young girls who were trafficked by Epstein and others in his circle. But that is obviously not who Johnson or the Republicans have in mind. After all, the reason to protect the women has nothing to do with credibility. It is because they were victims.

Instead, Trump, Johnson and others are scheming to protect a different class of “innocent people.” The men — yes almost certainly all men — whose names arise in connection with the trafficking of the underage girls. While not all of these men might be legally guilty of crimes, they are hardly “innocent” in the colloquial meaning of the word. And we already know from published reports that Trump is, in fact, one of those non-innocent men.

Which brings us back to the word “credible.” The core idea of something being credible is that it is to be believed or trusted. Credible evidence is evidence worth trusting. A witness is deemed credible if their testimony is believable.

Donald Trump and his sycophants are using the word credible because they want to dismiss the evidence — lists, documents, spreadsheets — on which his name may appear as not credible — fakes, forgeries, misinterpretations. They want any statements from witnesses that implicate him, including from trafficked girls, to be discredited as the product of haters, liars and mistaken recollection. Once deemed by Bondi or others as not credible, the evidence of his involvement can be withheld or perhaps even destroyed.

Those who want justice for Epstein’s victims or simply want the truth about the powerful men behind him must insist that all the evidence be revealed — except for the personal information of the girls who were trafficked. Anything less will simply be incredible.

The Weekend’s Top Line

Republicans continue to escalate their multifront attack on democracy. They are engaged in reckless gerrymandering, spouting lies to protect Trump and misleading voters about the content of their signature legislation. But over the weekend, they also continued to normalize a new criminal investigation of Barack Obama and his administration’s handling of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

While many on the left think this is all theater to distract from Epstein, there is a growing chorus of elected officials on the right clamoring for a special counsel. This weekend, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham slithered into formation to support this position.

This is exactly what Donald Trump promised several weeks ago and what Steve Bannon then predicted would happen. It is time for Democrats and those in the pro-democracy movement to treat this as the serious threat to rule of law that it is.

Fools and Cowards of the Weekend

Once again, this weekend, Republican elected officials took to the airwaves to lie about Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Some, like Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, lie about facts that are easily proven. On Sunday, he insisted that Epstein’s plea agreement was signed under Obama, when it fact it had been inked under the presidency of George W. Bush. No matter how many times he was corrected, he refused to yield to the truth.

We’ve become far too used to Republicans lying and they’ve gotten away with spreading far too many conspiracies. 

The question remains: once they are lied to once, why do Sunday hosts continue to book these guests? Republicans may be cowards for refusing to tell the truth, but the legacy media are fools for continuing to book them as guests.

The Weekend’s Siren 🚨

After using the Federal Communications Commission as a battering ram against CBS to force a bogus settlement, Trump has only grown more emboldened. This weekend, he posted on social media: “Networks aren't allowed to be political pawns for the Democrat Party. It has become so outrageous that, in my opinion, their licenses could, and should, be revoked! MAGA”

As we begin a new political season, we should take these threats seriously and literally. Television stations and their ownership groups have enormous power to decide what political stories they cover and how. They also sell advertisements to political actors and — in some instances — can refuse to air some ads.

With Donald Trump already beginning his intimidation campaign, we need to be on the lookout for this type of malfeasance and interference in the electoral process.

Overlooked This Weekend 👀

Trump regularly boasts about his golfing prowess. Yet, this weekend, his caddie was caught on video dropping his boss’s ball on the fairway after it appears Trump hit into the tall rough. Just another example of Trump cheating.

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