Given all of the conspiratorial noise about the Jeffrey Epstein story, we understand why some Americans are tempted to look away at this point. Still, it deserves attention because it has become a case study in the ways that President Trump and his aides manipulate the public and abuse power. Even if the Epstein files that the Justice Department must release by Dec. 19 contain no significant revelations about Mr. Trump, the president is already guilty of acting with contempt for the public at nearly every turn in this saga.

If Mr. Trump were any other American president, his personal relationship with Mr. Epstein would be a major scandal on its own. The two were once friends and enjoyed joking about their reputations for chasing women. “He’s a lot of fun to be with,” Mr. Trump said about Mr. Epstein in a 2002 magazine profile. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

In a crude birthday note to Mr. Epstein in 2003, Mr. Trump apparently signed his name in the place of pubic hair inside a sketch of a naked woman’s body. The note includes the line “may every day be another wonderful secret.” The two men had a falling out, for unclear reasons, before Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to charges that involved sexual behavior with a 16-year-old girl. In 2019, as Mr. Epstein’s world was collapsing, he wrote in an email about Mr. Trump, “Of course he knew about the girls.”

By Mr. Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign the Epstein case had become a MAGA obsession, related to Mr. Epstein’s associations with powerful people, some of them Democrats. And Mr. Trump’s campaign was happy to use the speculation for political advantage. He indicated in interviews that he would release the files, and his allies went further, encouraging conspiracy theories.

JD Vance, Mr. Trump’s vice presidential nominee, said that releasing the files was “important.” Donald Trump Jr. speculated that his father’s opponents were “trying to protect those pedophiles.” Elon Musk declared: “Part of why Kamala is getting so much support is that, if Trump wins, that Epstein client list is going to become public. And some of those billionaires behind Kamala are terrified of that outcome.”

Once Mr. Trump returned to the presidency, he had the power to do as he had indicated he would and order a broad release of the files. He did not. Instead, his subordinates tried to make it seem as though they were champions of transparency while avoiding the release of new information.

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