Congressman French Hill of Arkansas wants his constituents to know that, aside from the two reasons he isn’t, he supports transparency on the entire Jeffrey Epstein juvenile sex trafficking case.
In answer to a letter from a constituent in Little Rock who wanted to know why he and other Republican lawmakers voted against a Democrat-led attempt last week to give the voters what they want, Hill explained why he was keeping the Epstein affair under wraps.
Given that conspiracy-minded MAGA voters were the ones clamoring the loudest for the authorities to make all evidence about Epstein’s teenage sex trafficking public, this is a particularly sensitive topic for Republicans. During his campaign, President Donald Trump himself pledged to reveal the identities of prominent guests who visited Epstein’s private island, where his crimes took place.
Since the election, there has been a lot of backtracking, and this week, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Trump’s name appears in the files. By saying that there is nothing to see here and that they should walk on, the president is now retaliating against his own supporters.
Even though certain immigration-related bills were still up for debate, House Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly ended the session on Monday, sending everyone home for the August recess. Clearing empty the chamber is preferable to having to defend against future attempts to compel the release of the Epstein data.
Republicans appear to be in disarray here, according to behind-the-scenes accounts. However, Hill is one of the people who are protecting Trump from a potentially humiliating revelation.
The representative from the 2nd District voted last week to retain the files tightly sealed, which contradicts his statements about transparency. Hill provided two justifications in a response to the Little Rock constituent on Thursday.
The Democrats come first. Hill claimed that even though he voted against Democrats’ attempt to compel the information’s release, the vote was unrelated to the file itself! According to Hill, it was about ensuring that we could carry on with the mission that the Americans had assigned us here to do.
He said that Democrats’ attempts to make intelligence material about Epstein public were merely pranks and games.
Hill complies with Trump’s gold-plated bluster while maintaining the elegant footwork necessary to uphold his upper class country club persona. Here, he flexes his well-trained muscles by applauding Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi for maybe revealing papers they think are important in the future.
This brings us to Hill’s second justification. Hill maintained that it would not be just to reveal the identities of the victims and witnesses because we must protect the innocent.
I was happy that President Trump directed the Attorney General to make all pertinent material public because I too think the American people should have transparency from their government. However, his letter states that we must strike a balance between openness and the need to prevent unjustly naming and harming witnesses and innocent victims who may have testified or contributed information but had no relation to Epstein’s actions.
Naturally, Hill is well aware that victim identities may be readily removed, negating any worries about unjust injury. And given that Trump is allegedly listed in the file, can we really rely on the Trump administration to make these decisions about what information should and shouldn’t be shared? Hurry up.
Unfortunately, given that Hill has been defrauding his constituents for years, it is nearly impossible to challenge him in person on these weak justifications.We believe that as long as business benefits and tax breaks for the wealthy continue to be offered, Hill will continue to dodge and defend Trump’s disgusting pussy-grabbing antics.
The letter that Hill’s constituent gave to the Arkansas Times is attached. We would also like to hear the opinions of the other members of Arkansas’ all-Republican congressional delegation.If you hear from Sens. Tom Cotton or John Boozman, or from Reps. Steve Womack, Bruce Westerman, or Rick Crawford, please let us know.
It’s dragon-slaying time!
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