Bill Clinton Watch

President Trump’s friendship with dead billionaire Jeffrey Epstein is still a matter of endless public discussion. And it’s rumored he plans to pardon convicted sex trafficker and Epstein “madam” Ghislaine Maxwell in return for “exonerating” him. Already moved to a cushier prison, Maxwell has reportedly worked on a “commutation application” to this end. Today the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution opposing such a pardon.

Introduced by Senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat of Nevada, the resolution states that Maxwell “should not be granted a Presidential pardon or any form of clemency for her crimes with Jeffrey Epstein relating to the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors”.

Although Senate resolutions like these are non-binding and symbolic, Rosen’s office noted in a news release in February when she introduced the measure that the resolution was “designed to put the Senate on record opposing the prospect” of Donald Trump of granting a pardon or clemency to Maxwell.

Maxwell, the well-connected daughter of late media mogul Robert Maxwell, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. Epstein himself died in prison awaiting trial in 2019; he was briefly incarcerated after an earlier conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution, which did not cost him many of his famous friends.

Rep. Madeleine Dean tore apart the unconscionable number of redacted files in the Epstein files. She proved that Trump lied about being on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane while sycophant acting AG Todd Blanche looked on.

DEAN: When will you comply with the law and release all of the files?

TODD: As I said to you when we spoke before, we have complied with the law.

DEAN: There are 3 million more documents, and you know what you said to me? They’re all duplicative, and they include another guy named Epstein.

Blanche Dubois claimed he never said it, but you know he did.

After the Chairman interrupted, Dean let Blanche have it.

What is true is that the president has lied about being on Epstein’s plane, and the unredacted files prove that.

There’s a lot in here. I am shocked at this.

There’s also this set of files in the file. This is investigation into the potential co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein. I almost used up all the blank ink in the hallway, because it’s all covered up. It’s all covered up.

The American people are not stupid.

They know that when members of Congress have to go in and actually unredact, try to find the truth for these victims, something is corrupt.

Something is corrosive. You were paid $10 million to represent the president. You hang a 30-foot banner of the president’s menacing face over the entrance to the Department of Justice.

You said that if you were terminated or not moved forward as attorney general, you would say to the president, I love you, sir.

So I have one question for you.

Is your obligation to the victims and survivors of Epstein’s heinous crimes and all his perpetrators, or is your first obligation to the president of the United States?

In 2002, journalist Vicky Ward—then a writer for Vanity Fair magazine—was assigned to investigate a mysterious New York City financier named Jeffrey Epstein. During her reporting, she stumbled upon sexual abuse allegations against Epstein by Maria and Annie Farmer, whose account was ultimately cut from Ward’s piece, titled “The Talented Mr. Epstein.” That decision sparked recriminations between Ward and then–Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter that have continued for more than a decade.

In previous interviews, Carter has claimed that Ward’s reporting didn’t meet Vanity Fair’s editorial standards and that the allegations came too late in the editing process. But Ward says the magazine left out the Farmer sisters’ account after Epstein personally pressured Carter to remove it.

“I’ve since been asked if Tina Brown or any other woman had been an editor at Vanity Fair at the time, do I think the Farmer sisters’ allegations would have run?” Ward tells More To The Story host Al Letson. “The answer to that is absolutely yes.”

Shortly after she was fired as attorney general, Pam Bondi refused to appear before the House Oversight Committee to testify about her mishandling of the Epstein files, saying that since she was subpoenaed in her official capacity and was no longer in her job, she wouldn’t show up.

Now that she’s agreed to appear in her private capacity, however, she seems to be getting official representation from a high-level attorney at the Department of Justice. There’s fairly strong evidence that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon—who is currently vying for Bondi’s old job—will somehow represent Bondi rather than Bondi hiring a private attorney.

If you’re wondering how this works, it doesn’t. Bondi is a private citizen and has insisted on being called in that capacity but somehow is also sort of still a government employee that our tax dollars should pay for representation?

A little timeline shows how Bondi and the DOJ continue to play reindeer games in an effort to protect President Donald Trump from any fallout over his longtime relationship with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.