I have noticed supposed left organizations considering the Epstein files their secret weapon and naively pouring energy into advocating release. It is a doomed strategy.

Is it insightful that Trump has not already released the Epstein Files? Of course it is, partially because it indicates the state is probably hiding something, but more so because it means the state can get away with hiding things regardless of the obvious public interest. Does this mean the answer is to demand release of the files and focus on that as a way to discredit Trump? No, that will get you nowhere because the state is extremely experienced in hiding records even when they hand some to the public, and the Epstein files would not stop Trump even if they did prove he is a sexual predator (which everyone who lives in reality already knows). Believing the Epstein files are Trump’s Achilles heel or some silver bullet to stop him is a delusional fantasy and the mother of all distractions.

I filed probably well over a hundred public records requests to state entities between 2022 and 2024. The state routinely used a myriad of evasion strategies, some of which were impressively dirty, such that I can hardly remember any responses that appeared to be legally compliant. Moreover, there was nothing I could do about it unless I was willing to sue the state at personal expense as I explain here, and that promised me no proportional benefits. Violating public records laws was the rule, not the exception, which was already undermining transparency, legal cases, and journalists’ jobs, helping ensure that the public was vastly under-informed about the widespread corruption that I believe is an essential prerequisite for fascism. Poynter, a journalism and media literacy nonprofit, covers the problem of the normalization of lack of transparency. The Press Freedom Tracker, Propublica, Nieman Reports and surely many others talk about records suppression too.

Journalistic outlets all over the country, unable to cover the actual scandals anymore, developed public records denial reporting over the last several years. So, civil society and journalists, as in all authoritarian countries, carefully and indirectly imply a scandal by the lack of transparency rather than reporting the details of the scandal with the documents they could not obtain from the state. This is the kind of hard for the general public to interpret, desperate last vestige of public accountability you see in authoritarian regimes where journalists have to creatively report misconduct. It reflects the normalization of transparency law violations by the state and impunity for the state such that it cannot be compelled to follow the law and chooses not to regularly. Body cameras are a great example of a supposed accountability solution that never lived up to promises and is now not even pretending to, meanwhile there are attempts brewing to criminalize videotaping ICE.

In spite of the state’s long-standing record of transparency law violations and playbook for accomplishing them, organizations like Indivisible waste their efforts and resources calling for release of the Epstein files. This is a gift to Trump because it will tell us nothing we do not already know, sway no one who is not already on our side, and keep everyone focused on a symbolic demand the state can easily undermine the value of while it consolidates power in far more dangerous ways. Do they really think the state is above fraud, fabrication, “losing” and disappearing evidence, and editing documents? Look at examples like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as I explain here, to see what the state can do when it comes to documents and evidence.

All people are doing by demanding the Epstein files is setting themselves up for disappointment, either in the form of getting nothing or getting a performative false release the state will spin as proof of its innocence and transparency. Look, here is conservative propaganda casting the release of Epstein files that are no doubt harmless to Trump as proof of transparency exactly as I anticipated. You know that quote, “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land amongst the stars”? Well, idiots shoot for the moon by demanding the Epstein files to somehow magically get Trump, and their “landing amongst the stars” is successfully incriminating other Epstein associates like the Clintons instead. Careful what you wish for. Any files released that included Trump would only amount to implying association not demonstrating guilt, which we do not need because everyone knows who Epstein’s friends were without the files. The survivor testimony is far better than any guest list, and those survivors are saying the files have been redacted to protect Trump. We know what we need to know, and there is still nothing we can do about it.

People who are still relying on U.S. democratic institutions (which are essentially destroyed, and now exist as a facade, a conclusion I came to two years ago and Ted Starmer echoes in this video at minute 4:00), are using obsolete institutional or legal mechanisms and getting rewarded with meaningless breadcrumbs. Examples: Canceling Kimmel before reinstating him to make people feel like they won, the passport provision removed from H.R. 5300 when the state does not need it to accomplish the same thing, stopping alligator Alcatraz only to have it approved again with even more funding, etc. Corrupt actors manipulate the public on purpose, and I have seen it many times. They make people feel good by giving out cheap tokens and image candy, while still doing the same dirty things in a more covert way, or they simply wait until public attention shifts to do something much, much worse.

Focusing naively on the Epstein files while the U.S. government transforms into a dictatorship is about as ridiculous as focusing gleefully on Trump’s escalator trouble while Trump prepares to dismantle the United Nations. While the mainstream media is celebrating and exaggerating fake victories, entertaining us with a distracting p.r. campaign wrestling match with Gavin Newsom, stoking wishful thinking about divisions and infighting, and pumping out propaganda falsely casting Trump as being in a weak position or quaking in his boots, Trump is taking over the military. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism maintains an excellent Project 2025 tracker, and Project 2025 is being implemented even faster than expected.

The lack of Epstein file transparency did not stand in Trump’s way before, and there is nothing suggesting it will now. Everything Trump is getting away with should tell you that evidence of sexual crimes would do nothing to him. As he said in 2016, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Blatant acts of authoritarian oppression such as we now see daily, including official narratives fully representative of that, are not evidence of fear but the total lack thereof. I will probably get accused of being a “doomer” for denouncing the delusional belief in Epstein file kryptonite, but there is no silver bullet for American fascism and people need to stop looking for one. Believing in fake silver bullets only ensures real monsters advance unperturbed, and we are doomed if we are left defenseless when they arrive.

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