Empty Chairs

I completely understand why the MAGOP-led House Oversight Committee so dearly wanted Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton to be deposed about the Epstein files.  And how they were almost bursting with unadulterated joy when it finally came to pass.  Their wish come true!  It’s quite a “get” for them – a former U.S. President and his wife, herself a former Senator and Secretary of the State who MAGOPs both hate with a driving passion.  And Bill Clinton doesn’t have a squeaky clean past and was on about 20 flights of Epstein’s plane.
 
That said, I think that it is bizarre and so almost unimaginably wrong-headed and counter-productive for MAGOPs that they wanted Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton to be deposed about the Epstein files.
 
First, Hillary Clinton has said she never met Jeffrey Epstein.  And there’s no record of it.  She’s mentioned in the files about 600 times – but almost all of them are references to her in articles.  She’s said she has casually met Ghislaine Maxwell, so that’s “something”, but it’s never been the standard on who the Committee thus far has been questioning people about.  Further, House MAGOPs know from painful experience what it’s like questioning Hillary Clinton when they don’t have what they only hope they have.  They tried with Benghazi, and after 11 hours came away looking bloodied.  Having her testify about someone she didn't know could only end up being empty and make MAGOPs look like they don’t care in the slightest about getting any actual information about the Epstein files, but only want to embarrass someone they hate.  Especially since Secretary Clinton wanted to testify in public.  And especially since zero MAGOP members of the committee showed up to depose Les Wexner, the man who was basically Jeffrey Epstein’s financier, which is what made all of Epstein's efforts possible.
 
Second, while Bill Clinton did know Jeff Epstein well, and took around 20 flights on his plane – and for all we know might have slept around with women (or not) – he too offered to testify under oath in public.  Something that would seem to suggest that whatever he did or didn’t do, he is very confident that nothing he did was  reprehensible, slimy or illegal.  He may have, but (again) he offered to testify in publc.  That should have been the first yellow caution light to MAGOPs that they won’t get much of any value (or at all) to do with investigating Epstein’s crimes and getting justice for the victims.  And will show that they have no interest in investigating Epstein’s crimes and getting justice for the victims.  Most especially since zero MAGOP members of the committee showed up to depose Les Wexner, who was basically Jeffrey Epstein’s financier, if not his partner.  At worst, it will only serve to embarrass Bill Clinton – and, for the sake of argument, perhaps disgrace him -- which, considering that he is 80 years old and hasn’t been in public office for a quarter-century, before 50 million Americans were even born, is without almost any impact on the political landscape and only about personal legacy.  If they even do embarrass him, considering that he openly offered to testify publicly.  
 
But worse for MAGOPs is that whatever tiny benefit they think they might possibly gain by having President Clinton to testify – and Secretary Clinton to testify -- is microscopic compared to what they lose.
 
And that’s the most disastrous, bizarre and so almost unimaginably wrong-headed and counter-productive thing for MAGOPs.
 
Because having President Clinton and Secretary Clinton deposed shines a bright klieg light on the two empty seats in the hearing room.  Raising the obvious, blatant question – so self-evident it’s impossible to miss unless you have your eyes closed, and even then your brain is presumably still working – if a former President and his wife, a Senator and Secretary of State herself, agreed to testify, why haven’t Trump and his wife Melania testified, and when will the committee subpoena them?

It’s an inescapable question.  And making the question worse for MAGOPs – and even worse in that it’s impossible for their Committee not to have seen this from the first – is that we know (absolutely know) from what Trump has long said and from what photos have long shown that both Trump and Melania not only actually knew Jeffrey Epstein -- and Ghislaine Maxell -- but knew them closely.  Trump most especially, indeed knew Epstein intimately, since he’s said so himself, and since Epstein said they were best friends.
 
And Trump can’t claim executive privilege since his dealings with Epstein occurred decades before he was in the White House, before he was in politics.  And even if chairman James Comer (MAGOP-KY) and the Oversight Committee refuse to subpoena a sitting president (though Bill Clinton testified in court when he was in office), there’s zero excuse for Melania not to testify.
 
But of course neither Trump nor Melania will testify, nor called to, not with MAGOPs in control.  And it will only serve to keep shining the intensely bright light on those two empty chairs. Daily raising the question, “What do they have to hide?”
 
And we haven’t even touched on those members of Trump’s cabinet and administration who knew Epstein and haven’t been subpoenaed.  Notably Howard Lutnick, Robert Kennedy Jr., Mehmet Oz, Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, and others in the Trump circle like Steve Bannon and Elon Musk.

And, for that matter, Trump's second wife, Marla Maples.  Whose wedding Epstein attended.  And who told staff at Mar-a-Lago that she felt something was "off" and "wrong" about Jeffrey Epstein, and suggested not to spend time with him.  So, she would seem someone with personal knowledge of Epstein who the Committee should want to call.  Even if it means bringing a third empty chair.
 
And the light will keep glaring.  And the question will keep swirling.  Every day that those two chairs remain empty.  And (worse for MAGOPs) arguably those most angered will be so many in the Trump base – because they were the ones riled up by Trump and his party during the 2024 campaign, relentlessly pounded about how damning the Epstein files are for Democrats alone and how Trump promised to be open and transparent and release everything.  And so that MAGA base lay in wait, in near-delirious expectation for Trump to unleash the dogs of hell and get the traffickers and predators.  And now, with Trump and his administration blocking the files and investigation every way they can, so many in that base feel lied to, deceived.  And all the more so now that President Clinton and Secretary Clinton agreed to be deposed – and Trump and Melania refuse to.
 
And MAGOPs did this to themselves.  It was impossible for them, for almost anyone to not see this as the result of subpoenaing the Clintons.  Trump alone is mentioned almost a million times in the Epstein files, more than anyone than perhaps Ghislaine Maxwell.
 
They did this to themselves.  And it was impossible not to have known that this would be the result.
 
But they so deeply wanted to get The Clintons.  The burning wish drove them.  And in the end, their blind fury hatred most probably only helped to get themselves.