by Stefano Vaccara
NEW YORK (USA) (ITALPRESS) – The Department of Justice has published over three million pages of documents, along with about 180 thousand images and more than two thousand videos related to the investigations on Jeffrey Epstein. This is the largest release so far, six weeks after the expiry provided by the law that imposed the full publication of materials.
During the press conference, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the work of the Department, claiming that the administration acted as a sign of maximum transparency. “We have not protected President Trump, we have not protected or chose not to protect anyone,” he said, but adding that the “fame of information” of public opinion will probably not be satisfied. Blanche also insisted that the White House had no role in revising materials: “The White House had nothing to do with this review, it had no control over the process.” And yet, just as the Department tried to bring attention to documents, journalists kept asking questions about Minneapolis and federal investigations related to anti-immigration.
But while media attention focuses on the maxi-publishing of the so-called Epstein files, a question circulates more and more openly among those analysts who comment at this time in the newspapers and TVs: if for months we talked about “flood the zone”, that is to flood the public debate with crisis and continuous news to move attention, from what should distract this time the mountain of documents just released? The result is almost paradoxical: the most anticipated news for months fails to cover the political crisis that for weeks shakes Minnesota.
I note that the problem for the administration of Donald Trump is no longer a single controversy, but a growing distrust towards the way and times with which the government intervenes. Also because Blanche himself admitted that millions of pages identified during the revision were not made public, while respecting the exceptions provided by the law, while Attorney General Pam Bondi remains under political pressure to manage the dossier.
The reaction of Ro Khanna, California’s Democrat MP among the first to ask for the complete publication of Epstein materials is also strengthened. Interviewed today on MSNOW, Khanna explained that the real point will be to check whether the so-called FBI 302 modules are present in the published material, the reports in which the victims indicate the names of their alleged aggressors.
If those documents were missing, it would be incomplete. Khanna also explained that he had not received collaboration from the Department of Justice in the search for key documents, letting emerge a fundamental attitude summarized in a formula: verify everything and continue not to trust until you see everything.
In this climate the arrest of journalist Don Lemon, former face of Cnn and today independent reporter, stopped by federal agents for his role in a protest occurred on January 18 in a church of St. Paul against Ice operations. Lemon claims to have entered the building exclusively to document what was happening, thus carrying out journalistic activities.
Your attorney speaks openly of attack on the First Amendment. The case is likely to turn into a new judicial front on the border between the right of news and repression of protests.
Meanwhile, on another crucial front, Trump appointed Kevin Warsh as the next president of the Federal Reserve. The choice rekindles the debate on the independence of the central bank, a very delicate theme for markets and investors, already nervous about the political pressure on the current governance of the Fed. Even here, while a forehead seems to close, another opens immediately.
In the background, foreign policy remains. Ship movements and increasingly harsh declarations towards Iran make fear of a possible increase in military tensions. In the trumpian dynamics, international crises often intertwine with internal ones, cyclically shifting the focus of attention. So, while Epstein files finally arrive online after months of wait, the question is no longer what they contain, but why come right now and why.
-Photo IPA Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
