By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
They once shouted about transparency, about exposing corruption and protecting the innocent. Now they hide behind locked doors. Donald Trump and the Republican Party that follows him are blocking the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, the very files they demanded be made public when it suited their campaign slogans.
Trump once promised to “release all the Epstein files.” He now calls the scandal a hoax. His administration insists there is no client list and that further disclosure is not appropriate. The man who once accused Democrats of shielding pedophiles is now the one protecting those who may be exposed by the truth. Trump’s hypocrisy does not stop at secrecy. It lives in his pardons. He set free more than 1,500 people charged in the January 6 insurrection, calling them patriots and hostages. His blanket clemency wiped away convictions for men who beat police officers, sprayed them with chemicals, and carried loaded weapons into the Capitol. Those men did not find redemption. They found new victims. At least ten of Trump’s pardoned insurrectionists have been rearrested or charged for new crimes, including murder plots, sexual assaults, and possession of child sexual abuse material.
Andrew Taake of Houston assaulted officers with bear spray and a metal whip on January 6. Trump pardoned him, and weeks later, Taake was arrested for soliciting a 15-year-old girl online. John Banuelos, another Trump supporter, was accused of firing a gun at the Capitol. After his release, he was charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman. Prosecutors say he beat her and strangled her until she thought she would die. Theodore Middendorf, sentenced for his role in the riot, is also serving a separate 19-year sentence for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old child. And Sean McHugh, who screamed at police for “protecting pedophiles,” was himself a convicted sex offender, jailed for the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl. Republicans have spent years branding themselves as the party of family values and moral outrage. Yet their silence on the Epstein files and their defense of Trump’s pardons tell a different story.
Even as survivors of Epstein’s abuse plead for transparency, Trump’s Justice Department refuses to release the records. His allies in Congress echo his excuses. Speaker Mike Johnson delayed the swearing-in of Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, whose signature would have forced a vote to release the files. Johnson claimed it was a procedural issue, but it looked more like a cover-up. Meanwhile, some of Trump’s closest allies have faced accusations that reveal how hollow their moral crusades have become. Rep. Matt Gaetz was investigated for allegedly paying underage girls for sex. And fellow GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a loyal Trump ally, has accused her own party of covering up sexual harassment and assault claims. She boldly claimed that Republican leaders have used taxpayer funds to quietly pay off victims and bury the evidence.
These are the same lawmakers who call themselves defenders of children. They rant about grooming, QAnon conspiracies, and Epstein’s victims, yet they protect predators within their own ranks. They demanded justice when it scored them political points, and now call it “a distraction” when it threatens their power. Trump’s pardons were not acts of mercy. They were acts of loyalty. He freed the violent, the corrupt, and the perverse because they served his cause. He called their crimes “patriotism.” He called their punishment “an injustice.” And when they reoffended—when they committed new acts of violence, sexual assault, or child exploitation—he said nothing. This is what the GOP seemingly has become: a movement that preaches morality while protecting abusers. A movement that accuses others of trafficking children while shielding men convicted of molesting them. A movement that once vowed to expose Epstein’s secrets but now trembles at what those files might reveal.
The truth is not hidden by accident. It is hidden because it would show the hypocrisy in full light.Every survivor who has waited years for the Epstein files to be released is watching as those in power twist the narrative once again. They were promised justice, but what they got was silence. They were told predators would face the law, but the powerful chose to protect them. As one congresswoman put it, there can be no justice for the survivors until the truth is unsealed. And there can be no honor in a government that calls itself righteous while covering up the sins of men it calls patriots.
The swamp was never drained. It was pardoned, protected, and put on a pedestal.
