Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
Trump & Epstein: 18 Question-Raising Facts

Trump & Epstein: 18 Question-Raising Facts

Last updated on: July 20, 2025 at 3:50 pm by Rebecca Hamilton

Trump & Epstein: 18 Question-Raising Facts 2025-07-20T15:50:34-06:00 Rebecca Hamilton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jeffrey Epstein, Source: Wikimedia Commons, pubic domain.

“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” Donald Trump

Like millions of my fellow Americans, I question the story we’ve been told about Jeffrey Epstein’s death. The fact that the surveillance video of Epstein’s cell the night he died had almost 3 minutes — 2 minutes, 53 seconds — cut out of it, underscores my questions.

Here are a 18 question-raising points about and Epstein’s death.

Epstein was in the federal prison system. He was under the control of the federal government. Trump was president.
A “high level” psychologist had taken Epstein off suicide watch.
The guards assigned to monitor Epstein never made their checks and they falsified records.
The guards were charged and then subsequently the charges were dismissed.
The surveillance video of Epstein’s cells was modified.. Two minutes and 53 seconds of the video were removed.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s cohort in his crimes, who is serving 20 years in prison for what they did, says that Epstein taped his high-profile “friends” while they were having sex with minor girls.
Epsteins’ “friends” included the most powerful men in the world, such as Bill Gates, former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Donald Trump. Epstein claimed that Trump was his “closest friend.”
There are many photos and videos of Epstein and Trump partying together.
Trump’s appointed Jim Acosta, the prosecutor who arranged the earlier “sweetheart” deal that let Epstein walk free, to his cabinet.
A young woman filed suit against Donald Trump, saying that she was “groomed” by Epstein and then raped by Donald Trump at one of Epstein’s “events” when she was 13. She gave a stunning, detailed, video deposition which I am linking to here. (It’s raw. Trigger alert. Don’t view with children in the room.) Trump’s deposition is here. (Trigger alert. Don’t view with children in the room.) Trump does his usual “she’s not my type” disclaimer in this deposition.
The victim said that Trump threatened to have her killed if she reported his crime. The young woman dropped the lawsuit due to threats she had received.
Considering that a Trump supporter broke into Speaker Pelosi’s house and attacked her 84-year-old husband with a hammer;
Considering another Trump supporter murdered the Minnesota House Speaker and her husband and also grievously wounded another Minnesota Democrat and his wife;
Considering that Trump’s director of Homeland Security had a United States Senator arrested and roughed up for trying to ask her a question;
Considering that Trump is constantly threatening to have people “investigated” by his “Justice” Department;
Considering that the Supreme Court appears to be willing to re-write the Constitution to whatever Trump wants anytime he asks;
Considering that the Republicans in Congress behave like Trump’s trained seals instead of representatives of We the People;
I would say that it makes a lot of sense that this deeply traumatized working-class woman, who did not appear to have anything like the resources necessary to hire round-the-clock security and legions of lawyers, withdrew her lawsuit.

My best guess — and it is a guess, nothing more — is that Jeffrey Epstein did not commit suicide.

We are embroiled in yet another Epstein/Trump controversy. This time, it’s about the Epstein “List.” Trump himself has talked openly about the Epstein “files” and the Epstein “list” of “clients.” It is clear from his own acknowledgement that the “list” exists, and that Trump knows it exists. Trump’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, famously told Fox News that she had the Epstein file “sitting on my desk right now.” Then, she abruptly announced that there is no such file.

Trump defended Bondi for saying the files didn’t exist. He then went on to instruct MAGA to stop “wasting time” on Epstein. In my opinion, you’d have to be a special kind of stupid to not realize that Bondi was following Trump’s instructions when she lied and said the files didn’t exist.

Trump has twisted and turned with this, trying to find a way to keep control of his MAGA followers, many of whom expected Trump to follow through on his promises to make the Epstein Files public.

Democratic House Members moved to force a release of the Epstein files. House Republicans — acting, as always, as Trump’s trained seals, voted it down That’s the same House Republicans who have campaigned on releasing “the list” since heck was a pup.

Almost immediately, the right wing bots were on the job. Within minutes, this kind of stuff was circulating.

It appears that the “answer” Republicans gave for voting against releasing the Epstein files is to claim that the files are “child porn.” Notice that they are NOT claiming that the files don’t exist; just that they are too “pornographic” to be released. I’m not really ambiguous about this particular ploy. I think Republicans are covering up for powerful pedophiles and this silly garbage is how they plan to keep their MAGA base all lined up behind them while they do it.

Finally, Mike Johnson broke his slavish obedience to Trump and called for the Epstein Files to be released. Shortly after that, Trump finally sort of relented and asked Pam Bondi to release whatever she thinks is reliable.

For what it’s worth, both Trump and Johnson make it clear with these comments that Bondi was lying when she said the file didn’t exist and Trump knew she was lying when he defended her for saying it.

Bondi has already shown herself to be Trump’s legal hammer rather than an Attorney General for the people of the United States of America. She has demonstrated fully that she is a shameless liar.

I am assuming that this means Bondi will edit out any names that might be embarrassing to Trump and the Republicans. Pedophilia does not favor any political party. There are Republican pedophiles and Democrat pedophiles. Bondi will suppress anything in the files that names Republican pedophiles, with the possible exception of Republicans Trump doesn’t like.

My only conclusion about all this is that Jeffrey Epstein was not “a terrific guy.” As Trump knew and said for publication, Epstein liked his “women” on the “younger side.” Trump knew Epstein was using young girls as early as 2002 when he gave that quote to New York Magazine. And Trump thought Epstein was a “terrific guy.”

For what it’s worth, I don’t think we’re ever going to see the real Epstein files, probably not ever, and certainly not from the Trump regime.

Note: Quote at the top of the page is from New York Magazine.

Previous Post

July 11, 2025

Pope Leo: The Church Stands with Christians in Middle East

Next Post

July 18, 2025 Famine Ravages Persecuted Christians in Sudan

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Commandments 2012 Election 2016 Election 2020 Election 2022 Election 2024 Election Abortion Addiction Adult Day Care Advent Africa AI Alcoholism Alex Pretti Renee Good America American Citizenship American Fascism Announcement Anti Semitism Anti-Semitism Apologetics Archbishop Coakley Argentina Armenian Genocide Ash Wednesday Ballot Box Salvation Biden Big Beautiful Bill Bishop Black Mass Blasphemy Boko Haram Book Review Brainwashing Breast Cancer Bribery Calling Evil Good calling good evil Cancer Canonize Caregiving Catholic Catholic Vote Cause for Sainthood Chaos child abuse Child Labor Child Rearing Child Sacrifice Christian Bashers Christian Leadership Christian Persecution Christian Solidarity Christianity Christmas clergy Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal Climate Coakley Common Good Communion Communism Computers concentration camps Conclave Confession Consecration to Our Lady Conversion Coptic Christians Coronavirus Corporatism Corruption COVID Crisis Pregnancy Centers Culture D Day Death Death Penalty Dementia Democracy Designer Baby Destruction of the Family Dictator Dignity of Work Divine Mercy Novena Divine Mercy Sunday Divorce Doubt Drug Addiction easter Ebola Economics Education Egg Harvesting El Salvador Elderly Epiphany Epstein eternal life Eternal Life Eucharist Eugenics Euthanizing Children Euthansia evangelization Excommunicate Biden Extraterrestrial Life Failed Clergy Faith False Gods Family Fascism Fatherhood Feast of the Assumption First Amendment Flood the Zone Following Christ forced conversion Forgiveness Fortnight4Freedom fourth amendment Fr James Altman Fr Stanley Rother free press Freedom Freedom of Conscience freedom of religion Freedom of Speech Freedom of Worship vs Religious Freedom Geek Stuff Gender Theory Genocide God the Father Good Friday Gossip GQP Greenland Grief Gun Control Gun Violence Hate Blogs Health Health Care Heart Attack Heaven Hell Herod HHS Mandate History of the Crusades Holy Father Holy Father' Holy Father's Tweets Holy Matrimony Holy Saturday Holy Spirit Holy Thursday Holy Week Home Homeschooling homosexual Hospice Human Dignity Human Rights human trafficking Humor ICE Idolatry Immaculate Conception Immigration Incest Infertility Inspiration Iran War ISIS Islam Islamic Brotherhood Israel JD Vance Jesus Jobs Jordan Judas Judicial and Legislative Murder Judicial Murder July 4 Just War Justice Kavanaugh Ketanji Jackson Brown Laity Latin Mass Leadership Lent Less of Me Lying Lying for Trump Mad King MAGA Magnifica humanitas Mama Marriage Marriage Protection Amendment Martyr Media Bias Medicaid Men and Abortion Mercy Military Dictatorship Misogyny Motherhood Movie Review Murder Music National Catholic Register Nazi Clergy Neo Nazis New Category New Evangelism New Evangelization News Headlines Nigeria No Kings Novena for the Persecuted Church Nuns Obama Oklahoma Oscar Romero Our Lady Our National Embarrassment Pakistan Palm Sunday Papal Conclave Papal G8 Pedophile piano political priests Political Whore Clergy Politics Polygamy Pope Francis Pope Francis Visit United States Pope Leo XIV Pope's Prayer Intentions Pornography Post Christian West Poverty Prayer Prayers for the Persecuted Church Pro Life Prophecy Prostitution Purgatory Putin Quack Medicine Racism Rape Religious Freedom Renee Good Republican Republican priests Rerum Novarum Retirement Risen Lord Roe v Wade Rosary Sacrament Sacred Heart Sacrilege Saints Salvation Same Sex Marriage Sanctity of Human Life Satan Save Our Democracy scandal Scripture Shroud of Turin Sisters Slavery Social Justice Social Security Solidarity Cross St Michael the Archangel stations of the cross Stop Late Term Abortion Stroke Suicide Supreme Court Surrogacy Surveillance State Synod Syria Taliban Tariffs Taxes Technology Thanksgiving The Ascension The Cross The Locust Class The Political Heresy The Resurrection The Tomb The Transfiguration The Trinity The War on Girls Tornado Trauma Trump Trump Coup Trump Destroying America Trump's Coup Trump's War on the Rule of Law Trumpism Ukraine Uncategorized USAID USCCB Vatican Vatican Reform Violence Against Women Violence in America Vocation Voting Rights Wages Walk for Life War Weight Loss White House Why Aren't You a Feminist Too? Woke Women Leaders Women's Rights Worker's Rights World Hunger World War I World War III World Youth Day Worship Writing Year of Faith

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 March 2024 February 2024 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 August 2016 May 2016 April 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which disciple is known as 'the Twin'?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Philip Andrew Thomas James