The ghost from Xmas past ...

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios.
Photos: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg, Patrick McMullan, and John Moore via Getty Images

Can't help but channel A Christmas Carol where the ghost of Xmas past, on the behest of Jacob Marley, pays a visit to The Donald to recount tails of betrayal, sleaze and debauchery of a different kind. Without question, Trump and his administration will go down in history as the worst ever as this atrocity is a dumpster fire of epic proportions. 

Ebenezer Scrooge encounters the ghost of Jacob Marley in Dickens's novella,
A Christmas Carol – illustration by John Leech (1843)

Four months ago, President Trump blocked the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Wednesday's disclosure of thousands of Epstein emails showed why.

Why it matters: The emails contained no real smoking gun. But they shed new light on the relationship between the two men, with gossipy, unflattering descriptions of Trump by Epstein.

Trump has started calling the recent attacks "the Epstein hoax." He sued The Wall Street Journal for publishing a story in July about a racy drawing and poem he allegedly wrote to Epstein for his birthday in 2003. Trump said the drawing and message weren't his.

"The minute he thinks it's unfair to him and it's a personal attack, he just goes into fight mode," said one confidant. "No one wants to ask him what's going on here [with Epstein] because he just gets angry."

In these emails, Epstein indicated he was at Trump Tower in New York after Trump won his first election in 2016, suggesting the falling out between the two had been patched up.

In other correspondence, he called Trump "dirty," "demented," "borderline insane" and "f**king crazy," or said Trump had "early dementia" and was photographed "with girls in bikinis in my kitchen."

However, none of the emails was between Trump and Epstein. Trump wasn't known to use email.

What they're saying: "When we passed my motion to subpoena the Epstein files, we knew we'd find damning information," Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) said Wednesday on X. "Today we learned Trump is alleged to have personal knowledge of Epstein's crimes & spent hours with victims."

Lee's post referred to an email in which Democrats redacted the name of the Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre, who Epstein had said had spent "hours" with Trump at Epstein's Florida home.

A tiny shred of "decency"

But Giuffre, who committed suicide in April, had never accused Trump of wrongdoing, testified she knew of no accusations against him and was supportive of his 2024 presidential campaign.

The Spirit of Christmas Past meets Scrooge - illustration by Sol Eytinge Jr. (1868).

So the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness: being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the very wonder of this, it would be itself again; distinct and clear as ever. [8]

And this ...

“Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever,” Epstein wrote in a 2019 email to Michael Wolff, an apparent plea from the president for Epstein to leave Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club. “[O]f course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”

Epstein also wrote in an email in 2011 to Maxwell that Trump was a “dog that hasn’t barked” — what appeared to mean that Trump had not disclosed details about Epstein’s activities. Epstein added that a victim, whose name was redacted, spent hours with Trump.

Also in the emails flagged by Oversight Democrats on Wednesday, Wolff wrote in a 2015 message to Epstein that he heard Trump — then a presidential candidate — would be asked by CNN about the convicted sex offender. Epstein asked Wolff what he thought an ideal response from Trump would be.

“I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff responded. “If [Trump] says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency.

“You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you,” Wolff continued, “or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”

This is akin to shanking hands with a slime and checking to see if you still had all of your fingers ...

In closing, there is about 300 GB of content seized in Epstein's penthouse and there were cameras everywhere, both there and in the facilities on his island. All of this data is classified so the betting pool on getting this content out by this government is nil but enterprising hackers with consummate skill to get the data in question out is another matter altogether. This is red pill stuff, Epstein's op was very deep with alleged connects to intel, both foreign and domestic, along with links to foreign governments and banks as expressed by others far better versed than yours truly with the intricate operations of this very sophisticated enterprise from hell.

One last bon bon. 

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman announces charges against Jeffery Epstein on July 8, 2019 in New York City. Epstein will be charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

Other emails include exchanges Epstein had during Trump's first term in office. 

A few days after Trump's first inauguration, on Feb. 8, 2017, Epstein, in conversation with Larry Summers, who was the treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and former president of Harvard University said, "Recall ive told you,, -- i have met some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.. so yes- dangerous." 

Any questions?