CNN reports:

For weeks, the Trump administration has made a series of rather curious moves related to the Jeffrey Epstein files.

It has gone back on its promises of extensive disclosure. It has misled about the situation. It has strained to avoid acknowledging President Donald Trump’s ties to Epstein. It has treated Ghislaine Maxwell suspiciously well in still-unexplained ways. And it has taken actions geared toward supposed transparency that didn’t appear all that transparent.

The whole thing has several of Epstein’s victims and their allies suggesting a cover-up is afoot. (Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the accused sex trafficker.)

And on Monday, a key moment arrived: Confirmation that the administration’s big initial move toward supposed transparency was, in fact, a smokescreen.

Trump’s first effort to quell the building backlash was to push for the unsealing of grand jury testimony in the Epstein and Maxwell cases. But even at the time, experts cautioned how limited a step this appeared to be.

A judge has now rejected that push in the Maxwell case. But what’s key here is his reasoning. It’s not that the information is too sensitive, as some wagered it might be; it’s that it simply isn’t new.

In other words, the White House’s first big move toward shedding light was … trying to release documents that don’t do that at all.

And the thrust of Judge Paul Engelmayer’s ruling is that this indeed looks, for all intents and purposes, like that smokescreen.

“(The administration’s) entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false,” Engelmayer wrote. [Continue reading…]