For years and years, during my decades of newspaper experience, I was frustrated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s iron clad policy of not commenting on “on-going” investigations.
That stance trickled down to the local police departments. News reporters were left with no way to get to the facts. News outlets had to go to the courts, at times, to get access to “incident reports” which are court-settled public documents.
Newspapers, for generations, held sacred their obligation to tell the community what crimes were being committed. The public needs to know what’s happening so citizens can make a decision whether to avoid a neighborhood for safety reasons or to lock down their property if there are frequent burglaries.
Too often reporters would hear about a crime, but there was no paperwork available on it at the police station. Often there would be an excuse such as, “Oh, the investigating officer didn’t finish his report and it’s locked up in his locker until he’s back from his days off.” Later, in some cases, we would find out that the delay was an attempt to protect someone or to just make that incident disappear on the public record.
I’ve even witnessed police refusing to name people who have been arrested and jailed. I always opposed that because this is America. We just don’t let the police make people disappear like they do in communist countries. Reporters often had to check jail intake records and try to piece together who was arrested for certain crimes, because the police were playing a game of keep-away.
In my career, which started in the 1960s, we went from police wanting the public to know that they were doing their job, to the police wanting to keep the public in the dark. Some mayors urged the police to keep the “bad” news away from the public to protect the city’s image. Police protected school districts by not making public reports of violence in schools. Then when something big happened at the school, we found that similar events had occurred before. Occasionally a parent would call the newspaper to ask why a school incident hadn’t been reported.
The FBI literally became the secret police — keeper of the secrets. Example: The FBI withholding the fact that the Hunter Biden laptop was real and not Russian disinformation, as all of those intelligence officials claimed. They knew betteer for months and months before coming clean. Some contend the withholding of that information changed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Maybe they are right.
I have watched FBI press conferences where the spokesman would say he can’t release any details about the investigation, but “if anyone has any information call us at 1-800-give-us-a tip.” To the FBI, information was a one-way street.
The FBI’s dirty laundry went on display when Peter Strzok’s and Lisa Page’s pillow talk went public. The FBI, led by James Comey, was secretly plotting against Donald Trump and working to prevent his election to the country’s highest office — which incidentally has oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Comey’s brazen efforts made public the Steele Dossier which was a political hack piece accusing Donald Trump of unspeakable acts in Russia and attempting to paint him as a Russian sympathizer. We now know the dossier was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and it led to four years of daily opposition to the first Trump presidency.
We also now know that FBI agents lied to get the FISA court to allow wiretapping in the “investigation” into the dossier’s allegations.
No one has paid any price for this blatant abuse of power by the FBI leadership.
Maybe that has changed.
News broke this week that Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan may be under investigation for potential wronging in the Trump-Russia probe.
Can FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi really make this happen?
Our Constitution provides for the government to serve the people, not for it to control us by withholding information from us or by lying to us.
America does not need a secret police force on any level. The cleansing power of sunlight must shine on every corner of our government. Openness is the only way to prevent unlawful power grabs like Comey and Brennan have brought on us.
Let’s Go Forward
Can we please just move on from the Epstein episodes?
There’s too many good things that need the attention of our government at this time. This Epstein stuff is just political theater. His reign as a purveyor of young girls to wealthy, important people is over. No evidence has proven anything other than Jeffrey Epstein took his own life in that jail cell.
Federal prosecutors had Epstein jailed in 2019 but he had been under fire from victims and the courts for fourteen years. It all started in 2005 when the family of a 14-year girl accused Epstein of being responsible for her being molested at his mansion. Many underage girls would subsequently tell police that Epstein had hired them to give sexual massages.
In 2006 he was charged with multiple counts of sex with a minor. He was indicted on a single count of soliciting prostitution. The kid-glove handling of the case led to the FBI beginning an investigation. In 2007 Epstein, a money manager for some rich and famous people, was given a plea agreement to avoid federal prosecution. The plea agreement was offered by U.S. Attorney in Miami, Alexander Acosta.
In 2008 he pleaded guilty to state charges, one count of soliciting prostitution an one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under age 18. The U.S. Attorney’s office agreed to not prosecute Epstein for federal crimes and he did most of his sentence in a work-release program which allowed him to leave jail during the day and go to his office, then return at night, according to the Associated Press’ timeline of Epstein events.
In November 2018, the Miami Herald did a series of stories focusing on the role of Acosta, who at this point was Labor Secretary in the Trump Administration, in arranging the unusual plea deal.
In 2019 federal prosecutors in New York conclude they did not have to abide by the terms of the earlier non-prosecution deal. Acosta resigned his cabinet post.
Epstein was jailed on sex trafficking charges on July 6, 2019. Thirty-five days later, he was found dead in his cell in a federal jail in New York City.
In 2021, Joe Biden became president and for four years, they produced no lists of Epstein customers, now the Democrats are trying to divide the MAGA nation over the decision by the Trump Justice Department to move on from the issue.
It has turned into a political hot mess. And the timing is sucking all the oxygen out of the incredible story that has been written in the first six months of the second Trump presidency.
It’s difficult to make any sense of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s about face on releasing “the list” of Epstein associates and participants in the unseemly exploitation of young girls.
The victims of the crimes have won large settlements in court, but, as we know, that will never erase the torment they have suffered.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York in the Royal Family of the United Kingdom, seems to be the only rich and famous person to suffer the humiliation of being an Epstein buddy.
American’s are stunned, confused and many have had their MAGA faith shattered. They had the hope of exposing all of their political opponents outed and scourged.
That’s clearly not going to happen, so let’s move on to better and greater things.
Let’s get back to downsizing our bloated governments. Let’s get back rebuilding manufacturing in this country. Let’s get back to removing the worst of the worst of the illegal aliens. Let’s get back to re-arming our military. Let’s get back to rebuilding our Federal Bureau of Investigation, making it the people’s elite police force, not the government’s political police force. Let’s get back to fulfilling the promise of getting transgender men our of women’s locker rooms, bathrooms and women’s sports at all levels. Let’s get back to MAGA being a united force against the crazy liberal left wing Democrats. Let’s get back to helping the flood and fire ravaged areas of our country. Let’s get back to the task of making America great again.
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Thank you, Charles, for an excellent article.
John Kennedy, in the moon speech said " and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” All the things, the activities you talk about continuing to do we should do. We should also get to the bottom of the questions about Epstein. He was a pervert, guaranteed. Was he CIA, Mossad, some other spy agency? There were an awful lot of people who had to know what he was and still chose to travel with him. Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Kevin Spacey, Alan Dershowitz among others. Were all of these people perverts and child rapists too? I doubt it, so we shouldn't paint with a broad brush. If the US isn't powerful enough and brave enough to find out about Epstein and the other things, we've oversold ourselves to ourselves.
The US is making a great comeback under DJT, we've enforced laws that were ignored by the Biden administration. Sunlight should shine everywhere, not just where it makes us look good.
Great report-now 'FAUX PAS-O-RAMA! Pam Bondi recently claimed the increasingly apocryphal "Epstein's list" was on her desk awaiting her perusal. She later said this list doesn't exist, and she meant to say she had Epstein's "files," causing the internet "op dudes" to believe she has been compromised. P.S.: An "op dude" is anyone who thinks everything is a "psy op" meant to confuse people.’hey're dividing MA GA. don't let 'em: