It certainly seems to me like there’s a ton of wiggle room in there to interpret things however you want.
First of all it requires the release of:
Internal DOJ communications, including emails, memos, meeting notes, concerning decisions to charge, not charge, investigate, or decline to investigate Epstein or his associates.
Which, holy hell, is that NEVER actually going to happen lol.
As for redactions it just requires the DOJ to submit a list of:
All categories of records released and withheld and a summary of redactions made, including legal basis.
What does that mean exactly? Idk but it sure seems like that could be as simple as
“we redacted information from these emails/memos/voicemails or whatever because it was sensitive information to the victims or pertinent to an ongoing investigation.”
That’s a summary and the legal basis fully abiding by the bill.
I’m very very far from a government bill expert so I’d love to be wrong here but by the letter of that bill, it seems insanely easy to still redact pretty much whatever you want.
I’ll start by saying I have all the same concerms as everyone else, and don’t fundamentally disagree.
I do think we should try to look at this in a a balance of power point of view.
More legislative specificity isn’t going to stop a corrupt DOJ. Who is going to bring charges against a corrupt attorney general? Congressional impeachment is the only avenue to remove Bondi et al.
An ironclad bill would be more likely to be challenged and struck down in the supreme court. The AG’s office has all sorts of precedence on witholding files for active investigations and preserving victim/witness identity. Pushing this risks the whole thing being thrown out.
I think there’s reason to indulge in the “this time feels different” optimism. I truly believe that most of congress including republicans hate being under Trumps thumb. Congress critters are almost always power hungry creatures and all want to be top dog, so they have to have compelling motivations to fall in line. So far, the Trump brand has monopolized power on the right. Anyone who has spoken out against MAGA has ended up like Liz Cheney. So individuals can’t go against the group without getting punished. The group has been satisfied to go along with Trump because he’s a fantastic lightning rod and bully who before now was increasing their power. Congress was able to cut ACA benefits and pass tax cuts for the ultra rich and the MAGA base enthusiastically supported them for it because of Fox News OANN propaganda around Trumpism. Trump also seemed to be making huge strides in permanently securing Republican control in the House through gerrymandering. That’s something that House members can’t push for themselves because they will righlty be called out for grabbing power.
So as humiliating as it is to kow tow to Trump all the time, he was more of an asset than a liability. The recent elections showed that the political calculus has changed. Trump is now a big liability that turns out opposition voters in large numbers and if he’s not on the ballot he won’t turn out the MAGA faithful in sufficient numbers to counter the opposition. This didn’t show up in just a couple places, but all over the country. Add in Trump’s obvious mental decline, and the GOP needs an exit plan.
Congress still can’t just discard Trump though. His rabid base is still needed if they ever want a chance at winning another election. So the GOP is stuck between needing move on from Trump and still needing his loyal devotees. Here’s where the epstein files come in. Q’anon was a huge part of converting evangelicals into devoted fanatics. Conspiracy theorists turned voting for a gross con man into a moral imperative. So what better way to try to peel off supporters than to keep reminding them that Trump at the least knew about the pedophile class and chose to associate with them anyway. The true belivers will cry that Trump was an informant, but even heavily doctored Epstein files will greatly discredit that narrative.
Not even congress can directly go for the king. The dems don’t have the votes, and republican dissenters get punished and lack the moral fortitude to do it out of principle despite the personal cost. So any strategy has to be at a party wide level. Hence this taking so long and the near unanimous votes.
The american people view this bill as beung about pursuing justice, but for congress that’s at the bottom of their list of goals. Primarily, they don’t want Q’anon anger turned toward themselves. Voting for this is a pretty good cover. But the bigger play is to start giving congress more leverage again. This whole year, evryone on the left has been asking why congress has stood by and ceded so much of their power to the corrupt executive. I think it’s because most of what Trump was doing seemed to entrench GOP power, and they assumed they could just take back control at any time.
This bill lays the groundwork for congress to start taking back power. It gives Bondi and Patel enough rope to hang themselves, and congress would have the backing of both the left AND Q’Anon to impeach DOJ members who collude in a cover up. So to congress, trying to make a more ironclad bill doesn’t make impeachment easier, it doesn’t stop a corrupt DOJ, and it makes Supreme Court challenges more likely.
I see this as putting the Trump loyalists embedded throughout the judiciary and executive branches on notice that congress is considering taking the wheel back. They are sending the message that protecting Trump is no longer the safe play, and the careers of loyalists can be ended if they don’t work with congress instead.
Where this goes from here is anyone’s guess. We are now fully reliant on congress to achieve any measure of justice because the DOJ is fully compromised. I hope that this bill gives congress both the motivation and political backing to start cleaning up the DOJ, but that’s a delusionally optimistic take at this point.
I do expect to see candidates in both parties start to run on a reform/anticorruption platform going into the midterms.
It certainly seems to me like there’s a ton of wiggle room in there to interpret things however you want.
First of all it requires the release of:
Which, holy hell, is that NEVER actually going to happen lol.
As for redactions it just requires the DOJ to submit a list of:
What does that mean exactly? Idk but it sure seems like that could be as simple as “we redacted information from these emails/memos/voicemails or whatever because it was sensitive information to the victims or pertinent to an ongoing investigation.” That’s a summary and the legal basis fully abiding by the bill.
I’m very very far from a government bill expert so I’d love to be wrong here but by the letter of that bill, it seems insanely easy to still redact pretty much whatever you want.
I’ll start by saying I have all the same concerms as everyone else, and don’t fundamentally disagree.
I do think we should try to look at this in a a balance of power point of view.
More legislative specificity isn’t going to stop a corrupt DOJ. Who is going to bring charges against a corrupt attorney general? Congressional impeachment is the only avenue to remove Bondi et al.
An ironclad bill would be more likely to be challenged and struck down in the supreme court. The AG’s office has all sorts of precedence on witholding files for active investigations and preserving victim/witness identity. Pushing this risks the whole thing being thrown out.
I think there’s reason to indulge in the “this time feels different” optimism. I truly believe that most of congress including republicans hate being under Trumps thumb. Congress critters are almost always power hungry creatures and all want to be top dog, so they have to have compelling motivations to fall in line. So far, the Trump brand has monopolized power on the right. Anyone who has spoken out against MAGA has ended up like Liz Cheney. So individuals can’t go against the group without getting punished. The group has been satisfied to go along with Trump because he’s a fantastic lightning rod and bully who before now was increasing their power. Congress was able to cut ACA benefits and pass tax cuts for the ultra rich and the MAGA base enthusiastically supported them for it because of Fox News OANN propaganda around Trumpism. Trump also seemed to be making huge strides in permanently securing Republican control in the House through gerrymandering. That’s something that House members can’t push for themselves because they will righlty be called out for grabbing power.
So as humiliating as it is to kow tow to Trump all the time, he was more of an asset than a liability. The recent elections showed that the political calculus has changed. Trump is now a big liability that turns out opposition voters in large numbers and if he’s not on the ballot he won’t turn out the MAGA faithful in sufficient numbers to counter the opposition. This didn’t show up in just a couple places, but all over the country. Add in Trump’s obvious mental decline, and the GOP needs an exit plan.
Congress still can’t just discard Trump though. His rabid base is still needed if they ever want a chance at winning another election. So the GOP is stuck between needing move on from Trump and still needing his loyal devotees. Here’s where the epstein files come in. Q’anon was a huge part of converting evangelicals into devoted fanatics. Conspiracy theorists turned voting for a gross con man into a moral imperative. So what better way to try to peel off supporters than to keep reminding them that Trump at the least knew about the pedophile class and chose to associate with them anyway. The true belivers will cry that Trump was an informant, but even heavily doctored Epstein files will greatly discredit that narrative.
Not even congress can directly go for the king. The dems don’t have the votes, and republican dissenters get punished and lack the moral fortitude to do it out of principle despite the personal cost. So any strategy has to be at a party wide level. Hence this taking so long and the near unanimous votes.
The american people view this bill as beung about pursuing justice, but for congress that’s at the bottom of their list of goals. Primarily, they don’t want Q’anon anger turned toward themselves. Voting for this is a pretty good cover. But the bigger play is to start giving congress more leverage again. This whole year, evryone on the left has been asking why congress has stood by and ceded so much of their power to the corrupt executive. I think it’s because most of what Trump was doing seemed to entrench GOP power, and they assumed they could just take back control at any time.
This bill lays the groundwork for congress to start taking back power. It gives Bondi and Patel enough rope to hang themselves, and congress would have the backing of both the left AND Q’Anon to impeach DOJ members who collude in a cover up. So to congress, trying to make a more ironclad bill doesn’t make impeachment easier, it doesn’t stop a corrupt DOJ, and it makes Supreme Court challenges more likely.
I see this as putting the Trump loyalists embedded throughout the judiciary and executive branches on notice that congress is considering taking the wheel back. They are sending the message that protecting Trump is no longer the safe play, and the careers of loyalists can be ended if they don’t work with congress instead.
Where this goes from here is anyone’s guess. We are now fully reliant on congress to achieve any measure of justice because the DOJ is fully compromised. I hope that this bill gives congress both the motivation and political backing to start cleaning up the DOJ, but that’s a delusionally optimistic take at this point.
I do expect to see candidates in both parties start to run on a reform/anticorruption platform going into the midterms.