this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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Seriosly, why?

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[–] SunshineJogger@feddit.org 11 points 23 hours ago

Too many influential and very rich on there most likely. Among all the Republicans probably also a few democrats because we know there are quite a few assholes among those too.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

too much powerful people on the list: Hollywood moguls/execs, World leaders(people like belerscuni, eventhough hes been caught already), DEM/GOP mega donors, plus the politicians themselves. RFK jr too, since theres a photo out there him interacting with epstein in 1994, plus the epstein/maxwell had ties to israeli's intelligence so its prudent for them to develop a blackmail list that will force the west to divert resources to israel.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 day ago

Because the files vaguely implicate a lot of influential oligarchs who donate to both sides.

We know Trump hung out with Epstein, there are pictures and testimony. It simply doesn't move the needle away from the right. He's just buying trouble.

gdamn thing should have been in the public from day one.

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Because people on all sides are probably listed.

[–] specialseaweed@sh.itjust.works 60 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think it's important to remember that Biden was, perhaps more than any president in my lifetime (and I'm an old man), an institutionalist. He was a senator for just about forever, then the VP for 8 years. He was 78 years old when he became president. He is an old school liberal Catholic, a very nearly extinct person in the Catholic and Christian spheres.

I think he saw his presidency as a repudiation of right wing reactionary politics. His election, in his mind, was in large part a call to what he saw as the original intent and purpose of the executive branch. To put it plainly, he saw himself as elected because America rejected the politicization of government under Trump. Included under that umbrella of beliefs about the purpose of the executive was the unalienable requirement that the executive not direct the FBI to investigate the opposing political party. Remember, Joe Biden was a senator when Nixon resigned. He was there when Nixon was using the executive branch to attack Democrats.

Biden appointed Garland to the DOJ. Garland's record was perfectly fine and appeared well suited to the role, but his biggest strengths (in Biden's mind) was his nonpartisanship and his conservative view of government. By conservative I mean staying within the lines of what the DOJ should be doing, a cautious view of the use of DOJ power. Again, this was done in reaction to Trump and his... let's call it "expansive" view of government power. In Biden's mind, he was righting the ship.

And Garland was exactly as advertised, to a maddening degree. He was cautious to the point of being timid. He refused to throw the weight of the DOJ into investigations with political implications without reaching an imaginary bar of fairness that just isn't realistic. You saw it in the Jan 6th investigations. You saw it in the Kushner deals (and all of the Trump family deals which are obviously dirty). You saw it in Garland's unwillingness to take on wildly politicized federal prosecutor offices because doing so would be political interference (in his mind). You saw it when Robert Hur took unprofessionalism and partisanship to the absolute extreme when attacking Biden under the guise of a special counsel appointment and Garland did nothing because instiutionalism in his mind meant not interfering with the process.

And you saw it in the Epstein case.

Garland did everything by the book to an absurd degree that ended up paralyzing justice. Biden didn't touch Garland or any of it because he believes doing so was itself an injustice, even if Garland was wrong to handle it the way he did. In Biden's mind, the president should not have the power to demand the DOJ take action in a specific case like the Epstein case, especially if there's political implications.

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 day ago (3 children)

TL;DR- Biden was the wrong guy for the job.

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

depends on what you think the job was

keep the status quo? sure, right guy

blow the terroristic american right wing apart so it'll be another half century before it reforms? wrong guy

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

I agree with you 100%.

[–] svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago

I think a more accurate TL;DR is that Garland was the wrong guy for the job, but the Biden thing is more broadly true, too.

[–] specialseaweed@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If one had a fetish for masochistic torture of nuance, then yea, you hit the nail on the head.

[–] Unbecredible@sh.itjust.works 3 points 22 hours ago

THIS level of political nuance qualifies as torture? He boiled it down for us into TWO men's decisions and delivered it in like 300 words.

Yeah, we're cooked.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
  1. Donors - some donors are implicated - eg Bill Gates
  2. Bill Clinton - Bill Clinton is a known associate, former president
  3. Celebrities/Press - Steven Pinker and a lot of the other idiots that dems like to pretend are smart and exceptional are implicated.
  4. if Dems released it it would probably be easier for trump etc to dismiss allegations as a smear
  5. Dems did prosecute Maxwell but its not clear anyone else can be charged.

Its clearly stupid to not have released a list of epstein's friends and been like "these people are wanted for questioning"

[–] fittedsyllabi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why isn’t Trump and the Republican Party doing it now?

[–] ReiRose@lemmy.world -5 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Because they're assholes.

Oh, you mean dems are assholes too...?

Are you one of those 'both parties are the same' folks?

[–] swordgeek@lemmy.ca 6 points 23 hours ago

I think you missed the point.

Trump won't release them because his name (and others in the GOP) is all over it and he could be facing actual prison time.

The Democrats didn't because...well, we know that Clinton at least was involved with Epstein. I'm sure many others were as well.

Besides which, other powerful people outside of politics are likely to have put strong pressure on the US to keep them locked up (e.g. Prince Andrew).

The problem isn't one party or the other, and it's not that "all parties are the same," but in this particular case it IS almost guaranteed that too many people are named and shamed for any group in power to release them.

[–] possumparty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 23 hours ago

It's not just because they're assholes, it's because a significant portion of them are also pedophiles. Pedos protecting pedos.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because spineless Establishment Dems have some obsession with "playing nice," even with vicious MAGA Nazi enemies. I have a million questions, starting with:

Why didn't Biden have HitlerPig and his henchmen arrested within the first 60 seconds after his Inauguration?

Because spineless Establishment Dems have some obsession with "playing ~~nice~~ insider trading

Ftfy.

The Dem party is known as the party of insider trading after all!

[–] IndustryStandard@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (4 children)

They are also on the list.

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[–] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Because they are the other side of the same coin as Republicans. Neither side wanna help us much. One side actively trying to make it worse for us while the other one is happy we are living shit but don't want it worse.

[–] burgerpocalyse@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

why would they? they have nothing to gain by doing so, and biden didnt run on it.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 108 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because it could hurt rich people and both parties are on the side of rich people.

[–] Binturong@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

This is the actual answer, cutting right through the smoke and mirrors and bullshit. Anyone who had the displeasure of reading through the flight logs that were available in their entirety online almost a year ago and probably still are: saw just what names pop up, often multiple times. This is the most bipartisan issue there ever was, so NOBODY in power wants to touch it.

[–] AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works 45 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Well specifically, it is still an ongoing investigation, so nobody has a "complete set of files to release."

In February Pam Bondi said she had the first phase of files in her office, made a big public announcement about having requested all remaining files, and said she was waiting on them to be delivered. She even wrote a letter to Kash Patel about it and publicly released the letter.

Then when she read whatever was in that second half of files that got delivered to her, she suddenly wasn't so eager to release it.

Even more than knowing what is in there about Trump, I would be most interested to know what banks knowingly financed what Epstein was doing. I would guess any bipartisan fears about information in there that could "destroy the country," is more likely related to banks and corporations that are considered "too big to fail," rather than any super scandalous information about individuals.

[–] wildcardology@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

She released that first phase to MAGA influencers and made a big show out of it. She was asked about releasing the Epstein list and she said it's on her desk along with mlk and jfk files and would release it

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 154 points 2 days ago (10 children)

Legal Eagle just released a video about "the real Epstein files". The main point they covered in the video is victim impact. The victims could be threatened and harassed because of the info.

Another point not covered is that criminal case info is typically not disclosed. Releasing a list of accused perpetrators (i.e. pedophiles/child rapists) encourages vigilante justice. It also interferes with any ongoing investigations, which should (at least in theory) still be ongoing.

I don't want Trump to release the case info. I want his DOJ to announce charges against people like Les Wexner, based on that info. And I want it to not just be his political enemies and bullshit lies.

[–] Nanook@lemmy.zip 98 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

Virginia Giuffre would argue otherwise. BTW, she just died. By “suicide”. After being struck with a bus at 110km/h, which would’ve killed most. (Fun fact, police didn’t want to send help to the accident scene).

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/virginia-giuffre-father-death-cause-b2743303.html

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 31 points 2 days ago

Fucking hell. I didn't even know that.

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[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 38 points 2 days ago

First, Bill Clinton is almost certainly all over them, and older Democrats still think of the Clintons as the epitome of Democratic success. Some of the old guard is still trying to push focus away from the Epstien files. Just two days ago, Nancy Pelosi was calling the Epstien files a distraction, which is a bat-shit crazy thing to say about evidence that could prove that your opponent was involved in a pedophile ring.

Second, Epstien probably has some sort of ties to the intelligence community. I don't know that I believe all these stories about him being a secret Mossad asset, but I think its very possible that the someone in the CIA was using him. Alex Acosta, who prosecuted Epstien in 2008, claimed that he was told to back off because he, "belonged to intelligence," and they're clearly withholding a lot of information, there's definitely something they don't want people to know. Anyway, since 9/11, the Democrats and Republicans have had basically the same position on the intelligence community (essentially, abject deference), so if the CIA says that it would be a national security risk to release the files, the Democrats aren't going to release the files.

[–] Quacksalber@sh.itjust.works 50 points 2 days ago (4 children)

The give reason must be procedual, but the real reason is that the Epstein files undoubtedly also contain the names of democrats or democratic backers. They were more than happy doing nothing with those files.

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[–] Snailpope@lemmy.world 83 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Because a bunch of them are also child rapists

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 32 points 2 days ago (1 children)

…or they’re friends with child rapists, or owe favors to child rapists. Those three are the only answers that make sense.

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[–] auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 2 days ago (9 children)

They were sealed until Jan 2024 as part of Maxwells appeal process.

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[–] lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They did.

Not long ago, everyone was calling claims of secret, unreleased documents a right-wing conspiracy theory. Why popular opinion on that has turned from fringe to accepted is a mystery.

[–] LikeableLime@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

They apparently had video (obviously doctored and they couldn't even hide that) after saying for years that all of the cameras malfunctioned. That video was released very recently so that leads me to believe there's more stuff that never got released.

[–] takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 54 points 2 days ago

Because you don't publish details of investigation. You publish indictments once investigation is done. That's essentially weaponization of DOJ.

Republicans were promising to release (and suggesting Democrats are on it). Now as they have the power, they refuse. Claim the files don't exist then that they are fake, then they are boring.

At this point it is very clear that trump is in them.

[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I think one reason is that democrats wanted to do things by the book, and they didn't want to be accused of tampering with the 2024 election, more than trump already did.

[–] CannedYeet@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Reminder, when you don't do things by the book, the perp wins in court on technicalities or wins on appeal. For example, see Harvey Weinstein.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

That's a decidedly generous interpretation of events

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I think the real question is: why isn't anyone on the FBI or whatever agency is responsible for that, willing to just throw that shit onto the internet?

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[–] aberrate_junior_beatnik@midwest.social 29 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Here is Christine Pelosi, daughter of Nancy Pelosi, saying "It is quite likely that some of our faves are implicated." Democrats and their billionaire owners are just as implicated by this as Republicans.

https://xcancel.com/sfpelosi/status/1147657745253855233?lang=en

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[–] nthavoc@lemmy.today 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Because "High Road" and "Moral Victories" were their focus and always pretend to act surprised when the goal posts are moved by the republicans. At least that's one reason.

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[–] memfree@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 days ago

Why didn't Republicans under Trump's first term release them? See reply by @Nollij@sopuli.xyz

Sample coverage from back then: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/09/trump-not-a-fan-of-jeffrey-epstein-accused-sex-trafficker.html

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