Same thing that happened with the Panama Papers
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The cynic in me says this.
And everyone just goes “welp” about all their bosses being sexual predators.
oh so the journalist that breaks the story gets obliterated by a car bomb? ok yeah makes sense
That's the most likely thing to happen.
Had this same exchange with a friend and their response was “what’s that?” So yeah 

If everything (really just full email archives and a list of individuals and what they could be charged with and the evidence) gets released and people lose plausible deniability, I'd expect most of the fallout to be concentrated in the MIT Media Lab and the whole Chomsky, Hawking and RMS sphere. That's really the only place where Epstein associated with people who weren't above the law. His finance connections are too rich to face consequences, politicians are non-starters, but academia is comprised of people who don't have such privileges.
The rule of law doesn't apply to the rich and powerful so it doesn't matter what happens with the actual files because there will never be any actual consequences
I think we are all just really curious to see how far the corrupted US elite ruling class can push that blatant corruption in our faces before the populists start agitating enough to get shot in large numbers in the streets by the goon squads.
As I understand it, there's no such thing as "the epstein files" because everything that could be called that was already released. This is just the next in a long line of magical tricks that will finally get that dastardly drumpf for real this time!
But like, even if "the epstein files" is like a thousand hours of explicit videos of Trump sexually abusing children with his buddy Epstein, and even if the democrats successfully brought that into the light, nothing would happen. Trump would say "fake news" and the democrats would say "damn it he got away with it again" and life would go on.
It’s a depressing thought that nothing should happen but I think you’re right. I think if something would happen, just the suspicion of it would have already changed things.


We will find out that both parties, on all levels of government, are made up of the most prolific sex criminals against children in the history of the world, and then... nothing will happen.
His supporter will say he's not a pedo. The rest of us already knew he was a pedo. Nothing will happen
Nothing.
- Nothing. They'll never be released.
-or-
- They'll be released but ~75% will be redacted and Trump's name won't even appear once. Libs will yell and scream. DC democrats will do nothing. Trump will repeat bumper sticker-like slogans such as "Nothing important is missing." GOP media will repeat the slogans ad nauseam and provide "explainers". They'll claim it's proof of a witch hunt. Some GOP voters will be very angry for a while. But eventually they'll get right back on the Trump Train.
Or they'll be 100% released, Trump is all over it, to the point that he's basically #3 in the whole operation, after Epstein and Maxwell, but absolutely nothing will happen after that.
And then the Democrats get crushed in the midterms due to their 100% inaction and 100% unwillingness to do anything. All the while TPB (TrumpPedoBear) merch sells like hotcakes.
pirate bay merch would go hard
I think it would be funny if the files revealed he was more more of a #1 or #2
they'll continue to be used as a threat to keep powerful pedophiles in line
I think a bunch of stuff actually will get released. And it will stand as a monument to Americans’ ability to believe whatever the fuck they want about reality. There could be video evidence of Trump doing the most evil shit and at least one third of this country will truly believe it’s fake.
Years of whatever
Look I'm not saying it's gonna happen......but how incredible would it be if this is what finally destroys global capitalism?
Maybe I'm a cynic but probably nothing more than what's already happened. Some British nonce loses his titles but none of the privilege, not much beyond that unless footage gets published and even then. People will claim it's AI, it's deepfake, it's whatever, and the world moves on.
I really thought that it would cause something back when he was arrested for the second time and subsequently killed but I've been proven wrong time and time again.
Contrarian take: if the deep state/intelligence/whoever finally decides that Trump is more trouble than he's worth, this would be a good way to get rid of him. If the files were just leaked randomly, sure, not much would come of it, like so many other leaks. But as an organized limited hangout, with a lot of media support, they could selectively bring down Trump and a few other inconvenient people this way, and then consider the issue resolved. I mean if the whole point was blackmail, presumably they've had contingency plans along those lines for a long time.
Just one possibility, but feasible I think.
They won't be released and they'll become Russian propaganda once the democrats are back in charge in 2029.
Haven't made up my mind between "very little" or "nothing" because that's what's gonna happen.
Ladies choice as to which but my money is on one of those two being the end result of it all.
They will get released, but no one will care after a couple weeks
Ol' Donny will continue to wiggle.
After trump dies they will be released, blamed on him, and things will move forward largely unchanged.
That is largely the smart money I think. It will be like all the CIA stuff that drops that people don't care about because it is old news
Imagine there were hours of irrefutable video evidence of Trump doing unspeakable things to young girls. Do you really think reactionaries would care? I’m talking common everyday reactionaries in our offices and neighbors and churches. The same people who blame clothing choice for women and girls experiencing sexual abuse. Who fetishized and/or vilify queerness. These people reprimand young girls for not being modest while encouraging young boys to treat girls as objects of sexual conquest and flatted any other gender into the binary.
This is a land of rape culture. It is endemic. It is one of our foundational cultural modalities, like anti-intellectualism and rugged individualism. I honestly believe that such footage wouldn’t be outright dismissed but rather justified. Victims’ appearances and behaviors would be analyses endlessly, used to rationalize the actions of the abuser. You need not look further than the countless of similar cases where men are made into the victims of the abuse they perpetuate because their victims didn’t say no.
I wouldn’t say most people hold attitudes that uphold rape culture. But there are enough to propagate it indefinitely. Their jokes and comments and justifications worm their way into common parlance and corrode concepts like bodily autonomy and consent. For years I worked in child sexual abuse prevention education. At least once a day I would contend with children and adults who held beliefs that perpetuate rape culture.
To me, it’s laughable to think some files, however damning, would result in anything more than our collective despair.
Edit: I’m probably being too cynical. I’m fighting demons over here in my head so don’t let me damage any optimism you have.
No you're definitely right among the Evangelicals. These are people who would and do make a young teenage girl apologize to grown man for "seducing HIM" because he groomed her and SA'ed her but it's her fault for "tempting" him and not "just saying no". They go on and on about how men are both dumb brutish beasts who cannot resist the sight of a bare thigh on a 14 year old girl (and are sent into a lust-frenzy as a result for some reason) but also the intellectual and moral leaders of society who must be in control of women who are too emotional to be rational or leadership material.
Among the non-religious and less affiliated I think there would be some amount of outrage but the thing about reactionaries is they are very much about in-groups and out-groups and those in the group generally can be excused of anything if they're male patriarchs, especially if doing so can be used to shift blame onto women/girls who can be put into the out group. Any victimization of the in-group by the out-group is inflated wildly into persecution and victimization narratives while any victimization of the out-group by the in-group is downplayed as JUST, natural, the ordained order, caused by the behavior of the out-group, or at worst a temporary excusable lapse in judgement or character which you cannot use to define the rest of their life by, etc, etc.
While this is scandalous and revolting enough that I think if undeniable proof emerged some portion of his base would be disgusted by him I don't think it would be a large part and I think even of those who do they'd say he's a horrible man, did evil things, BUT they like and support his politics so will continue to support him carrying out THEIR political will of racism, reactionary culture war revanchism, etc and just want him kept away from teen girls from now on as some sort of compromise.
I think we can look to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal where Democrats, liberal feminists, etc closed ranks and did 180s on positions to make excuses for why this was okay by their guy as instructive. I'm just not sure anything can overcome that tendency to see this as a political attack because it is the Democrats doing it for cynical political reasons after dismissing it when they were in power. You'd need to have Republicans be the ones leading the charge on doing this for their base to accept it and not treat it as an external cynical politically motivated attack meant to derail implementation of the Republican political program and put them on the defensive. In that sense they're right because it's not about justice, some liberals may have illusions that Trump will be jailed but we all know that isn't going to happen and that Dems have no interest in actually exposing the entire depth of the Epstein operation including the likely ties to "israel", academia, etc.
If congress votes to release the DOJ files then we might see stalling or a court battle. If then the files are released, it won't really be a smoking gun. We will get some more insight into how wide this is, like we did through the email release yesterday. It will allow people to construct a speculative story but nothing concrete. Then it's over. Maybe down the road we get a Warren Commission when it's safe and the government needs a distraction. I think Trump and all will get away with it just like people have gotten away with other deep events. The same group who is trying to use this as political leverage against Trump will turn and be making fun of you for believing it 10 years from now. Just like with 9/11 truthers or JFK people. Jon Stewart and Colbert will be like "Epstein files? Um, okay? Let me guess, you also think the moon landing was a hoax too, right?" The only reason we're getting as much as we are is because it's politically convenient for libs.
some patriot will leak them
(but fr, they have so many fried brains running around, i'm kinda surprised they didn't already)
There's no way they haven't explicitly threatened everyone with access with the execution of them and their families.
In ten or twenty years a gritty true crime podcast can come out to shock us all at the way things are. Of course now things are different
Nothing Ever Happens
dem politician assassinated by a hog, followed by nothing.
don't make me tap the sign
(the sign says nothing ever happens)
nothing of any consequence. maybe a couple of people will be made scape goats to be tossed to the qanon weirdos but that's about it
In the long run (perhaps after Trump's death) whatever comes of the Epstein saga will be used by the far right (Fucker KKKarlson, KKKlandace Owens and their ilk) to foment antisemitism.
‘Accidentally’ dumped into an incinerator.
Chuck Schumer runs up to reporters to say "There will be hell to pay! We will get to the bottom of this! We will leave no stone unturned! We will..." But - of course - nothing ever happens.
Later that day Trump says "Files finished. Witch hunt over." And then he complains for literally two minutes about toilets, "windmills", and for some reason orcas which he pronounces as "or-CAZZ".
NothinG^∞^