There's a Reason This Time Feels Different With Epstein and Trump. It's Right There in the Letters.

"It is, admittedly, difficult to follow the Jeffrey Epstein story. The saga has been churning along for so long now-with so many twists and turns-that I don't really blame anyone for not knowing what to make of this most recent wave of intrigue. Thankfully, I've been paying close enough attention to highlight what you should care about as Donald Trump barrels toward a confrontation with whatever his associations were with the elusive sex trafficker. Buckle up! It's going to get weird."

"Epstein has been an obsession of the far right and far left for years. But that obsession didn't fully catch on among liberal Democrats until Trump took office for a second time. That's when the rarest of phenomena occurred: The MAGA base got mad at Trump over his failure to release the legendary Epstein files, a group of documents (that may or may not exist) that would blow the whole scandal wide open."

"Regardless, the rest of the House is set to vote on releasing the contents of the Justice Department's investigation into Epstein, which are colloquially known as those aforementioned Epstein files. Ahead of that discharge, though, the Oversight Committee has been releasing select cuts of its trove in a deliberately partisan way. On Wednesday, Democrats put out a couple of emails exchanged by Epstein that seemed to imply that Trump had extended contact with one of the women the financier sex trafficked."

Jeffrey Epstein's long-running saga has produced another wave of revelations that have become difficult to follow. The timing of recent disclosures reflects partisan dynamics, with right-wing and left-wing interest intensifying after Trump's second presidential term. The MAGA base grew angry at Trump over his failure to release the so-called Epstein files, which some believe would expose wider scandal. House Democrats on the Oversight Committee have pushed to force the files into the open and have released selective documents. Democrats released emails suggesting Trump had extended contact with a trafficked woman. Republicans responded by releasing their own documents.

Read at Slate Magazine