https://x.com/i/status/1948211079001051267

The GOP chair was caught off guard and scrambled—first delaying the vote, then trying to sabotage it by adding amendments to include Biden administration communications. Democrats called their bluff and agreed.

Then the GOP chair, Rep. Higgins, lied, claiming the motion FAILED until Rep. Robert Garcia forced a full roll call vote.

Ultimately, the vote passed 8-2 after 3 Republicans DEFIED their leadership and joined all 5 Democrats to pass the motion.

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[–] 46 points 1 year ago (55 children)

Can someone explain to this non-american why the Democrats are treating this as a successful upset when they could have released the Epstein files during Biden?

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  • [–] 75 points 1 year ago (19 children)

    I don't see anyone saying this yet, but the Epstein files were sealed by a court order for Ghislaine Maxwell's trial. They weren't unsealed until January of 2025. Biden couldn't have released them without violating the court order that sealed them - and possibly giving Ghislaine's lawyers a slam dunk to get her off with a mistrial.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (17 children)

    Here is seems to be at the discretion of the Attorney General. Why didn't Merrick Garland unseal them in September 2024 after her appeal failed?

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  • [–] 25 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    Merrick Garland is a hard core libertarian centrist and Biden appreciated him for being status quo which means not rocking the boat or doing any effort to to hold anyone rich accountable as his previous bosses were BP and Amazon.

    He also refused to prosecute Matt Gaetz.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Because Merrick Garland is incredibly lazy. He spent his entire tenure sitting around doing nothing.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    This doesn't get the Biden administration off the hook for not releasing the list sooner.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Is there any U.S. administration that should be let off the hook in the last 25 years of ratfuckery? I'll just be happy if your Democrats are desperate enough to combat overt corruption that they'll accept collateral damage among theirs and their masters.

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  • [–] 35 points 1 year ago

    Because they COULDN'T release them under Biden. They were sealed by court order until January 2025.

    There is a lot of desperate "both sides" nonsense going on here but the fact remains, Democrats are voting to release them and Republicans are not. If Democrats wanted to cover them up, why would they be doing that?

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  • [–] [S] 11 points 1 year ago* (12 children)

    Politik-brained Canadian here:

    IIRC they didn't raid Epstein till 2019. In 2020 Democrats had a narrow majority in the house which they would lose in 2022.

    Than January 6, 2021 happened, and I think everyone thought that would be the legal case that brought Trump down.

    It kind of seemed inevitable that the Epstein files would get leaked or released eventually. That is until Trump officially ran again in 2023; creating the possibility that the evidence would be destroyed permanently if he won.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    just to tie on to this, theres a none zero chance some prominent democrat "old guard" are also on the list, and their positions are too valuable to be lost (to the status quo). january 6th, if it was enough, would have been a great way to protect the old guard and get rid of trump. but thats evidently not what happened.

    i dont care whos on the list, from what side, i want them all punished. anybody whos complicit in the current shit show, or is on that list, needs to be shot in the street like a rabid dog.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    We just need the files. I'm sure there's gonna be plenty of "I was just on it because he was blackmailing me" or whatever, from everyone involved, innocent or not. Unless there's something that literally has itemized "X person, 2 kids, diddled both, camera footage timestamp x:xx:xx" I really doubt much legally will come from it.

    Court of public opinion however, that's gonna cause some real shakedowns, if people actually listen.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Than January 6, 2021 happened, and I think everyone thought that would be the legal case that brought Trump down.

    And it might have been if they didn't drag their feet so much.

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  • [–] [S] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    drag their feet

    They full on chickened out!

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    creating the possibility that the evidence would be destroyed permanently

    This is sort of where I keep going back to in my mind. Like, I've seen things about supposed redacting or whatnot. So, like, what is there to be released if supporters of the Current Admins had them for so long?

    Some like original copy of something somewhere that somebody secreted away?

    And, how does something like that get proven to be...legitimate? Especially to a point of actionable repercussions?

    I honestly just don't understand how this all works. Hoping for the damn best though.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The Dems have molesters/rapists on the list themselves. The difference is that we are not cultists and will gladly watch those perverts go to jail. Apparently MAGA just barely started caring about justice as it pertains to the files.

    Why were the files not released under Biden? Hell .. Bill Clinton is on the list (shocking).

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Hell … Bill Clinton is on the list (shocking)

    Is that proven?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Everything is still in the "reportedly" quote stage, but it looks like Clinton went there for Epsteins 50th birthday party. He is on the flight logs.

    Remember that Epsteins "operation" supposedly worked by blackmail, so many people could have been invited and not taken the bait. If they went multiple times however .... like Trump.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Its a PR stunt. The democratic establishment doesn’t want them released.

    That makes no fucking sense whatsoever. Why would they overwhelmingly vote to realease them then?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    It's all performative. You vote for something you know has zero chance of passing so you can go "Look! Look! I'm good! I did the thing!" in the next election cycle even if what you really did is nothing.

    See the 50+ votes to repeal Obamacare.

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  • [+] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Who, me? look, all I'm saying is that the public at large can't grasp that not everyone who walked past Epstein on the street is a full blow child sex trafficker. They will assume every single person he knew is full guilty when that's just not how criminal conspiracy works, I wouldn't be shocked to find only Him, Maxwell, Prince Andrew, and Trump were raping children.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Biden likely would have never released it because his donors are on the list

    Biden wasn't able to release it because a judge sealed it as part on an ongoing investigation. Don't let that stop your ridiculous conspiracy theories.

    The same "donors" would likely also support the Democrats now voting to release them.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I'm saying if he was still president, not in the past. also my whole point is that the list is half or more full of innocent names, but people at large won't be able to grasp that, so it will paint otherwise innocent people as involved in a pedophile sex ring or trafficking, or as blackmail targets when they did none of those things.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I'd say the people making shit up and are unaware of the files being sealed are the ACTUAL idiots.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    The Attorney general under Biden, Merrick Garland, is a by the book liberal conservative. He assumed the treasonous actions of January 6 2021 would sink trump's political career. He also believed - correctly- that the attorney general is appointed by a president to lead the judicial branch independent of the executive branch. Merrick focused the AG office on the January 6th investigation and didn't publish the Epstein documents as they weren't part of any specific case.

    There is also the theory that high ranking establishment Democrats are on the Epstein list. We also know that there are many pictures of epstein's clients with underage girls that haven't been published. Likely because American legal culture always seeks to punish the women involved in sex work and views the "johns" as victims who need to be protected

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It makes their opponents look bad when they refuse

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