by
Win
McNamee/Getty
Images)
If
you
have
been
online
at
all
over
the
course
of
the
past
several
weeks,
you
know
a
little
something
about
the
raging
MAGA
civil
war.
It
is
impossible
to
follow
all
the
daily
twists
and
turns,
even
for
those
of
us
whose
job
it
is
to
stay
informed.
The
broad,
general
concept
is
that
conspiracy-minded
Donald
Trump
supporters
had
long
been
calling
for
Trump’s
Department
of
Justice
to
release
the
Jeffrey
Epstein
client
list
of
prominent
people
the
deceased
financier
had
supposedly
procured
underage
women
for
(thinking
and
hoping
that
the
list
would
be
populated
by
all
of
the
Democrats
they
hate).
It
seemed
like
this
might
be
close
to
happening
when
in
February
Trump’s
attorney
general
Pam
Bondi
said
it
was
“sitting
on
my
desk
right
now
to
review”
when
asked
about
the
Epstein
client
list
by
FOX
News.
Fast
forward
a
few
months,
and
the
official
stance
of
the
DOJ
has
changed
to
the
assertion
that
no
Epstein
client
list
exists.
Meanwhile,
Trump
has
been
viciously
berating
his
own
supporters
who
won’t
move
on
from
their
questions
about
Epstein’s
associates.
Naturally,
all
of
this
has
brought
a
lot
more
attention
to
Trump’s
previous
relationship
with
Epstein.
Although,
according
to
Trump,
the
two
had
a
falling
out
in
later
years,
it
is
no
secret
that
they
were
pretty
good
pals
for
quite
a
long
time.
We
know
Trump
flew
on
Epstein’s
private
jet
between
Palm
Beach
and
New
York
at
least
seven
times
during
the
15
years
or
so
when
they
seemed
to
be
friends.
Photographs
and
even
videos
exist
of
the
two
men
partying
together
over
the
years.
Then
there
is
how
the
two
once
talked
about
one
another.
There
was
a
time
when
Epstein
said
he
was
Trump’s
“closest
friend.”
As
to
how
Trump
felt
about
Jeffrey
Epstein,
Trump
said
to
New
York
magazine
in
2002,
“I’ve
known
Jeff
for
15
years.
Terrific
guy.
He’s
a
lot
of
fun
to
be
with.
It
is
even
said
that
he
likes
beautiful
women
as
much
as
I
do,
and
many
of
them
are
on
the
younger
side.”
Trump
has
gotten
away
with
brazen
lie
after
brazen
lie
in
his
political
career
with
no
apparent
loss
of
support
among
his
hardcore
base.
So,
perhaps
he
thought
he
could
do
it
yet
again
when
it
came
to
denying
the
extent
of
his
relationship
with
Epstein
and
defending
the
dramatic
flip
flops
on
the
Epstein
files
by
his
own
Justice
Department.
This
time,
it
seems
Trump’s
strategy
is
backfiring
spectacularly,
only
drawing
more
oxygen
to
the
flames.
I’ll
emphasize
again
that
there
is
just
too
much
for
any
one
person
to
fully
keep
track
of,
from
an
Epstein
accuser
allegedly
having
urged
the
FBI
to
investigate
Trump
decades
ago
to
Trump’s
recent
gambit
that
releasing
utilitarian
grand
jury
testimony
will
somehow
satiate
his
critics
(reminiscent
of
the
time
during
his
first
term
when
he
thought
rebranding
his
“border
wall”
as
“steel
slats”
would
somehow
settle
the
controversy).
To
focus
on
one
small
sliver
here,
the
way
the
president
has
chosen
to
target
his
legal
fight
over
the
Epstein
files
scandal
is
particularly
baffling.
On
July
18,
Trump
filed
a
$10
billion
defamation
suit
against
The
Wall
Street
Journal,
as
well
as
its
owner
Rupert
Murdoch,
over
new
reporting
from
the
legendary
financial
newspaper
that
Trump
had
contributed
a
sexually
suggestive
letter
with
a
crude
drawing
of
a
nude
woman
to
a
book
of
“bawdy
letters”
made
to
commemorate
Epstein’s
50th
birthday
in
2003.
Trump
defended
himself
on
his
social
media
platform
against
the
reporting
on
this
“FAKE
letter”
in
part
by
claiming,
“I
don’t
draw
pictures.”
And
that,
like
…
what?
“I
don’t
draw
pictures”?
I
mean,
forget
about
for
a
moment
the
fact
that
Trump
has
given
multiple
handmade
drawings
of
his
to
charities
over
the
years
and
that
the
naked
woman
drawing
in
question
has
a
similar
style
and
similar
signature
to
many
of
those.
Instead,
ask
yourself
whether
there’s
anyone
anywhere
on
earth
who
can
truthfully
claim,
“I
don’t
draw
pictures.”
Not
even
as
a
child?
You’ve
never
doodled
in
the
margins
of
a
notebook?
Never
sketched
out
a
rudimentary
map
in
the
roadside
gravel?
I
am
about
the
least
artistic
person
available
when
confronted
with
Pictionary,
yet
even
as
I
write
these
words
there
is
a
journal
sitting
right
in
front
of
me
on
my
coffee
table
with
a
bad
depiction
of
my
dog
scribbled
in
on
the
very
first
page
from
back
in
2020.
These
are
veterans
reporters.
The
Wall
Street
Journal
is
a
not
a
publication
to
put
something
out
that
they
know
they
could
be
sued
over
without
having
every
corner
of
the
story
locked
down
tightly
in
advance.
Remember,
it
was
The
Wall
Street
Journal
that
took
down
Theranos
and
its
notoriously
litigious
CEO
Elizabeth
Holmes.
Trump’s
lawsuit
against
The
Wall
Street
Journal
is
likely
to
only
bring
even
more
attention
to
his
Epstein
connections.
In
discovery,
it
is
likely
that
even
more
damaging
information
about
his
interventions
in
the
Epstein
case
will
come
out.
On
the
other
hand,
in
Trump’s
defense,
we’ve
got
“I
don’t
draw
pictures”
(he
has
doubled
down
on
that
claim
too,
saying,
a
bit
more
productively
“I
don’t
draw
pictures
of
women”
in
one
instance,
while
also
oddly
phrasing
the
claim
as
“I
never
wrote
a
picture
in
my
life”).
When
Trump
was
caught
saying,
in
the
infamous
Access
Hollywood
tape
from
2005,
how
he
kissed
women
and
groped
their
genitals,
he
defended
his
statements
with
a
memorable
characterization
of
them:
“this
was
locker
room
talk.”
Although
he
did
later
imply
that
the
video
had
somehow
been
altered,
when
the
recording
was
released
weeks
before
the
2016
presidential
election,
Trump
at
first
simply
acknowledged
its
content,
apologized,
and
went
on
to
win.
It
wouldn’t
have
been
that
hard
for
Trump
to
say,
when
confronted
with
the
old
drawing
he
allegedly
made
for
Epstein’s
50th
birthday,
something
along
the
lines
of,
“It’s
been
well
documented
that
Epstein
and
I
were
friends
a
very
long
time
ago
before
anyone
came
to
know
about
his
horrible
criminal
life,
I
had
no
idea
that
he
was
a
pedophile,
and
it
was
not
unusual
for
middle-aged
men
to
send
each
other
‘locker
room
drawings’
during
that
time
for
a
milestone
birthday.”
Instead,
Trump
comes
out
with,
“I
don’t
draw
pictures.”
Which
would
be
a
bit
like
denying
the
validity
of
the
Access
Hollywood
tape
by
saying,
“I
don’t
speak
in
parking
lots.”
Well,
Epstein
files
rabbit
holes
was
not
what
I
expected
to
finally
bring
the
MAGA
base
to
its
senses.
But
we’ll
see
what
happens,
and
I’ll
certainly
accept
the
unforced
error
on
Trump’s
part.
Good
luck
with
the
lawsuit,
bro.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].
