[This article first appeared at Common Dreams on August 27, 2025.]

A Timeline of Trump’s Futile Epstein Diversions

by Steven J. Harper

Drip, drip, drip…

For months, Trump has tried to divert public attention from the Jeffrey Epstein/Ghislane Maxwell files. But he can’t shake the story, and it keeps getting worse.

The Reversal

Trump campaigned for the presidency on the promise to release all of the files relating to Epstein’s sex trafficking in minors. To supercharge his MAGA base, he fueled conspiracy theories that the files contained something sinister involving prominent Democrats.

February 2025: Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, told a Fox News interviewer that Epstein’s client list was sitting on her desk, awaiting her review before its release.

May: Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche informed Trump that his name appeared in the Epstein files, The New York Times later reported.

July 7: FBI Director Kash Patel – who had also pushed conspiracy theories about the files during Trump’s campaign – issued a two-page memo stating that there was no Epstein client list and that the Justice Department would not release any additional materials relating to the matter.

July 16: Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Maurene Comey was fired. Comey was a lead prosecutor in the investigation and prosecution of Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislane Maxwell. She was also the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and chief of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit. The memo gave no reason for Comey’s abrupt termination.

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