Protectionism – January 29, 2026

Some background, as protectionism can mean just about anything. For this conversation the challenge before us is what it means to exert authority of really any kind to ensure an outcome for what would be matters before criminal and/or civil courts.

Initial question, why are the Epstein Files still not released? 

On November 18, 2025 the House of Representatives passed The Epstein Transparency Act by a vote of 427 to 1, agreed with you, very uncommon for such an overwhelming vote of anywhere in Congress these days. To top that, the very next day the Senate passed it by unanimous consent. Even more rare, but it does happen. 

The lone holdout was Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA 3rd District,) with the primary reasons being privacy and procedural concerns. The irony, for the purposes of this conversation, was his statement on the bill as written would “reveal and injure thousands of innocent people.” Keep that in mind for a moment, the reveal part especially.

President Trump signed the Act later that evening on November 19, 2025. 

A few things of note before moving onto other questions. Two key areas of the Act supplement the rest of this conversation. 

One, there was a deadline of 30 days from the point of passing for the Department of Justice to release all unclassified files in a searchable format. It is now late January, as of the authoring of this conversation most searches on this returns that less than 1% of the total documents related to the Epstein Case have been released. 

Two, the Act as passed allows for the redaction of victim’s identities but prohibits redaction, or holding of files, for “political sensitivity” or “reputable harm” (presumably to whomever is in all these files.)

What was always the case with things like this, however rare it may be, was redaction capability by the DOJ to protect “ongoing investigations” of really whoever and for however long. Call it existing policy, kind of. The DOJ claims it needs more time, “several months” even. 

So why is it that the Epstein Files are still being “reviewed?” 

That answer is going to vary radically based on who you ask, and there is an obvious reason for that sentiment.

It is entirely unknown how many files, pages of information and whatever else, are in the total volume of things collected to date regarding this case. It is also entirely unknown how many doing the reviewing today have ever seen them before, and under what instruction from DOJ leadership as well as The White House we can assume is chiming in.

What has been released is 12,285 documents or 125,575 pages (several sources confirm these numbers.) And, of course, heavily redacted. 

What remains is unclear how many documents or other items there really are. Some reports suggest it is 2 million, give or take, with other reports suggesting more like over 5 million. That is a wide range, too much so perhaps.

No one knows, and what we also do not know is how long it will take. “In the near term” is about all we get from Trump’s DOJ and they all flat refuses to provide both any kind of timeline for batch released or a specific date to be in complete compliance with law.

Who are these “friends” that might get hurt? 

Perhaps one of the most staunch supporters of Trump and the MAGA movement within the Republican Party, before the first term into the second term, suddenly stopped being so supportive and thus resigned from Congress just this month. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA 14th District) went from “future star” and “real winner” even “brilliant and smart” according to Trump’s love of TruthSocial to “she’s lost her way” and ultimately Trump calling her “a low IQ traitor.” 

In no time Greene was on everything from CNN to ABC’s The View talking about Trump’s unwillingness to agree to the Act, he ultimately signed anyway, but also prioritizing foreign policy over domestic issues. The fallout made headlines and is the reason that Greene went from a common fixture at arguably Republican benefitting conferences across the nation to her own son literally being threatened (presumably by some other Trump faithful but we do not know.) What we do know is just like that, Greene’s need to protect herself and her son fell on deaf ears up on the hill… mostly.

Now, to any two people not married this would be a surprising flip in attitude between two people. What was once solid loyalty to a President with a voting record to match, to no longer in Congress. Georgia has a special election in a month or so to fill the seat. 

According to some, New York Times and a few others, at some point there was a conversation that became very heated about the Epstein Files and at some point Greene’s pressure pushing for full release, including her own intentions to read lists on the floor of Congress, Trump reportedly said “my friends will get hurt.” 

A few things of note. We do not know what all was said throughout the whole call, nor do we know for certain that Trump actually said that just like that. What is suspected is at the time Greene was referring to outing those possible “conspirators” and Trump responded with the quote. Suggesting he most certainly does know who they are. May have, or still is, friends with some of them. And it further suggests, he has seen enough of the critical files you and I likely never will unredacted.

Regardless, it became the final straw and suddenly Greene fell from Trump’s good graces all the way down to threats against her son. Totally unacceptable behavior to threaten someone’s life of course.

How all this played out, putting things together from multiple sources and commentary, suggests an important moment happened and it very well may be solid confirmation there is a group of people out there being protected seemingly from their own actions.

Assuming for a moment all of this did happen as reported, as Greene stipulated and as others have given commentary on to date, we have a bone-chilling realization. What is happening is the ultimate form of protectionism from arguably the most powerful person in the nation, a sitting President that happens to have known Epstein. 

To try to even answer the question on who they all are, we can likely conclude we will not know… protectionism.

Does anyone care about the victims?

We can likely answer quickly, seems to be a solid no. 

A sidebar question, that has every potential to become quite the mess for this conversation, but if this matter was so important, with such calls for transparency from so many that we hear from today, then what took Democrats so long to get onboard and make this the political fiasco that shook up the Republican Party happen? Any number of years ago is up for consideration.  

One could argue that during Biden’s Presidency he did not have a favorable Congress but we could counter that and say if so important then push anyway.

One could also argue that during Trump’s first term that both Congresses were also Republican majority suggesting very little Democrats pushed for would see the light of day on the floor of either chamber. Same counter, if important the noise could have been made. 

A small blackeye on the Democratic Party is worth at least exploring from an exclusive perspective that the actual victims have had to wait way too damn long.

So is the recent uproar about these victims or about who is President? (Loaded question of course, but worth at least a bit of conversation.)

We could go further back, to even Epstein being arrested for the first time in Palm Beach, Florida for soliciting prostitution. At the time under investigation based on a complaint by a stepmother of a 14 year old girl and a report that Epstein molested this girl at his mansion. The whole thing ended up swept under the rug with a “non-prosecution agreement” resulting in little punishment. That was done by Alexander Acosta, in 2008. At the time the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. The victims did not even know about the contents of this deal, and at the time the President was George W Bush.

We are way back in time now.  And it gives us another supplemental question, more food for thought on this whole mess, if we really wanted to stop predators, people of wealth and power preying on younger girls that are entirely unwise to the world around them, what in the absolute hell was everyone waiting for? 

We’ve answered one or more of the questions so far with that.

Took all the way to July 6, 2019 for Epstein to be arrested for sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Right in the middle of Trump’s first term. Ultimately Epstein was denied bail, supposedly “suicide by hanging” with multiple jail protocols missed, a rush to protect whatever was going to be used a trial, and yet his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted for sex trafficking a minor, five counts, sentenced to 20 years, and somehow ended up at a minimum security facility in Texas. 

All with none of us learning very much about how large this conspiracy was nor who all was involved. Hush, and more hush.

Much later it came out that as many as 29 individuals, including 4 other co-conspirators, reached “secret settlements” to avoid public indictments. No one knows if that is right, no one knows entirely why that came out, but appears to be associated to an argument by Maxwell defense looking to have a different outcome for her conviction.

Amplifies the point that we do not know who all is in those unredacted files, nor why they are listed in them.

But one thing is becoming clear, we have every reason to question any legitimate interest by those in power in the quest for justice for however many victims there really are from this very coordinated, long-term, literal conspiracy for wealthy and powerful people to enjoy taking advantage of underage and very inexperienced girls entirely unknowing to what was going to happen to them.

But hey, at least there are a few defenders left, like Megyn Kelly splitting hairs over what is a “true pedophile” because the victims were primarily teenagers. There were some qualifiers to that conversation she was having but pretty dangerous to go there, would you not agree? 

So, what is next? 

Who the hell knows…

Not only do we not know when all the Epstein Files will be released, but we also do not know how much will be redacted for whatever reason. If using the first batch as a gauge against the rest then we can conclude we may not learn all that much. 

With co-conspirators enjoying secret settlements to avoid prosecution (we think,) arguably while the closest conspirator enjoys a minimum security resort (as opposed to what most convicted of sex trafficking a minor see,) victim after victim begging for the release of all this, all the public outrage over what appears to be protectionism, a shake up within the Republican Party taking down one of Trump’s biggest supporters over “my friends will get hurt” because of this quagmire, how can we possibly assume a good outcome? In any regard.

Ultimately the concern for us all to walk away with, something to ponder as we continue to see all sorts of other stories dominate the new, that some call intentional “distractions,” is why a sitting President seemingly already beyond the confines of the Constitution and our System of Laws, arguably very protected by Congress and enabled by the Supreme Court, usually finds himself in the middle of the Epstein conversation anytime this subject comes up.

Evaluate on your own and keep in mind being associated with Epstein is not guilty of Epstein’s crimes because of that association. The conversation is about the question the protectionism. The President himself, others, some combination of the two, no one knows.

And in that context, consider all of those that do not get any sort of protection, or even mild consideration, from the Trump Administration DOJ, FBI, DHS, the list goes on. Those on the “retribution” tour list is what we are talking about.

A last question…

With all of the, arguably, investigations in search of a crime presumably committed by political opposition to Trump, the whole “retribution” tour that is well underway, why is there such delay and severe redactions of the information on crimes we know happened? 

We likely do not even have to question if protectionism is happening, more question why it seems to be running full tilt.