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Republicans Look For The Exits As Epstein Files Scandal Threatens Their Careers

For weeks we've been highlighting that Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and Michael Johnson's efforts to suppress the files are acts of obstruction of justice. That message is sinking in for Republicans.

Zev Shalev and Vicky Ward Investigates Oct 9 ∙ Paid

Eric Swalwell s tweets (heard through Dean Blundell) about House Republicans hunting for exits on the Epstein files confirm what we’ve been documenting for weeks. The obstruction message has landed. Republicans understand they’ve backed themselves into a corner where continued suppression creates criminal exposure, and they’re scrambling to find exits before the documentary record traps them.

The discharge petition requiring 218 signatures to force these files to the floor sits close enough to that threshold that Speaker Mike Johnson can count the names in his sleep. He knows exactly how precarious his position has become, which explains why he’s still refusing to swear in Adelita Grijalva—one more member means one more potential signature, one more vote closer to ending his ability to control the calendar.

But understanding why these files generate such panic requires examining the network they document. A conversation with investigative journalist Vicky Ward, who first exposed Epstein in 2003, reveals an architecture spanning from Bear Stearns to JP Morgan, from Israeli intelligence to Silicon Valley, from British aristocracy to Saudi royalty. What’s in those files explains why Bondi, Patel, and Johnson are willing to risk obstruction charges to keep them buried.

Epstein Financial Network

Epstein’s 50th birthday book, compiled in January 2003, contains a reference suggesting he may have met Robert Maxwell and possibly Ghislaine in the 1970s when she was a teenager. Ward expressed skepticism about that early timeline, but confirmed that Robert Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, and Donald Trump all operated within the same Bear Stearns financial ecosystem.

Ace Greenberg ran the firm and maintained connections to Epstein that lasted decades. In 2003, as Ward investigated Epstein for Vanity Fair, Greenberg’s number two Jimmy Caine lobbied her hard, insisting Epstein was “a great guy” and “an important client.”

What my research for “The Greatest Heist” reveals: Epstein never really left Bear Stearns. He remained involved in offshore holdings including Liquid Funding, which held approximately $4.5 billion before the 2008 collapse which became a complicating factor for JP Morgan purchase of Bear Stearns.

Taxpayer money may have rescued an offshore vehicle run by a convicted sex offender.

David Enrich ’s New York Times investigation showed JP Morgan executives meeting with Epstein between 2014 and 2018, viewing him as essential access to Leon Black. Ward’s question cuts through: why would JP Morgan need a convicted sex offender as intermediary to one of America’s richest men?

The answer isn’t financial expertise. It’s the intelligence network Epstein built over decades—and the compromising information he accumulated.

Epstein’s Used Politics, Power and Blackmail

Ari Ben-Menashe and Steven Hoffenberg claimed Epstein represented Israeli military intelligence in efforts to prevent Clinton from advancing Palestinian peace negotiations—blackmail operations targeting Democrats to blunt the peace process.

Ward discussed how Douglas Leese, a British arms dealer connected to the Al-Yamamah deal, mentored Epstein in the 1980s after he left Bear Stearns. This was Epstein’s “bounty hunter” period, operating between finance and intelligence. Ghislaine Maxwell, whose father Robert Maxwell had deep intelligence connections, would have understood these operations despite her claims of naivety.

The two paintings in Epstein’s townhouse—Bill Clinton in a blue dress, George W. Bush playing with World Trade Center dominoes—weren’t just provocative art. They were trophies. Could Monica Lewinsky have been an intelligence trap? It’s within established intelligence MO, and those paintings suggest Epstein believed he had leverage over presidents from both parties

Silicon Valley’s Entanglement

House Democratic oversight documents naming Elon Musk and Peter Thiel in Epstein’s network reveal the expansion of his access into tech power centers. Ward noted she’d seen these names in discovery before, but renewed attention matters because it shows how recently these connections operated.

Epstein understood competitive ego dynamics among tech founders. Ward described his triangulation strategy: once Bill Gates was in the room, Musk didn’t want to miss out. Once Musk was there, Thiel followed. The same pattern applied to CIA Director Bill Burns meeting with Epstein after his conviction.

Ward’s assessment captures it: Epstein laughing himself to sleep each night at what suckers the world’s most powerful people were. The ease of booking meetings with Gates, Musk, Thiel, and Burns after serving time as a convicted sex offender reveals how power actually operates at those levels—and what kind of information Epstein accumulated in the process.

Obstruction Trap

For weeks we’ve been documenting how Bondi, Patel, and Johnson’s suppression efforts constitute obstruction of justice. That message is breaking through to Republicans who understand criminal exposure better than political talking points.

The legal framework is straightforward: obstruction doesn’t require tampering with evidence. It includes using official position to prevent evidence from reaching investigators or the public. Every day Johnson delays swearing in Grijalva, every evasion Bondi gives before the Senate, every bureaucratic delay Patel engineers at the FBI—all of it creates documentary evidence of using government power to suppress criminal evidence.

This is the trap Republicans have built for themselves. The longer they block release, the more their blocking looks like obstruction. The more it looks like obstruction, the more dangerous it becomes to maintain the blockade. But breaking ranks now means admitting they’ve been part of a cover-up all along.

Why Republicans Are Breaking

Swalwell’s “jailbreak” comments confirm what voting patterns already showed. Republicans aren’t discovering principle—they’re discovering legal exposure. They’ve watched how obstruction charges developed in other contexts, and they understand that using congressional procedure to bury evidence in a child trafficking case crosses from politics into crime.

Some have already signed the discharge petition. Others are waiting to see if they can avoid a recorded vote entirely. None want to be the member prosecutors point to when explaining why Congress buried evidence of potential federal crimes involving minors.

The Supreme Court’s rejection of Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal, whatever its legal reasoning, demonstrates that some institutions still function independently of political pressure. Ward noted the Court isn’t simply Trump’s rubber stamp—it was the Federalist Society that selected the last three conservative justices, not Trump personally. That independence matters when Republicans calculate their legal exposure.

What’s Coming

Virginia Giuffre’s memoir arrives within weeks. Journalist Tara Palmeri reports it contains sensational revelations with major names that will shock people. Since Giuffre died by suicide, the manuscript likely holds nothing back.

The network Epstein built—from Bear Stearns offshore vehicles potentially bailed out with taxpayer funds, to JP Morgan executives using him as intermediary to billionaires, to Silicon Valley founders competing for access, to intelligence operations targeting American political figures—exists in documentary form. Flight logs, emails, meeting records, financial transactions spanning decades.

Johnson can keep delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in. Bondi can keep evading Senate questions. Patel can slow-walk FBI cooperation. But they cannot make the Epstein files disappear. Every day spent blocking their release creates more evidence that prosecutors can use to demonstrate obstruction.

The jailbreak isn’t coming. It’s already here. Republicans are just trying to get through the door before it locks behind them—and before the files reveal a network connecting financial crime, intelligence operations, and sexual blackmail that reaches into the current administration.

Thank you