Michael Goodwin: This latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein photos proves it’s time to end the bipartisan obsession

Another day, another drum roll to signal another release of Jeffrey Epstein photos. This time it was the Democrats orchestrating the circus, complete with the promise they had the goods to persuade the whole world that President Trump really, really, really is guilty of something truly awful that had been kept secret.

But the release of 92 photos, out of 95,000 said to be on Epstein’s email account, turned out to be such a dud that even The New York Times had to stifle a yawn. Now, nobody hates Trump more than the Gray Lady, so the paper’s ho-hum reaction amounts to a spanking of the Dems for overpromising and underdelivering.

“House Democrats released new images from the estate of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that highlight his ties to celebrities, financiers and other powerful men, including President Trump and former President Bill Clinton,” the paper said in its report.

It then threw a bucket of cold water on even that perfunctory tease by saying, “the photos offer little new detail to illuminate Epstein’s well-documented relationship with prominent men in politics, business, media and academia.”

The phrases “little new detail” and “well-documented” are polite ways of saying we already knew this, so move along.

Bipartisan bust

Reporter Michael Gold felt the need to further lower expectations by adding that “It was not clear whether Mr. Epstein, who is not in all of the images, took some of the photos or how they ended up in his possession.”

He also wrote that “Democrats provided no context for the images they released, including any email messages that might have accompanied them.”

Similarly, the BBC, a committed “Hate Trumper,” noted that the president appears in just three of the photos released Friday, and quickly added: “There is no suggestion that these pictures imply anyone who appears has done anything wrong, and Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing related to knowing Epstein.”

A second problem for the Dems’ attempt to sell the Trump pictures as a bombshell is that the voluminous data dump also contained images of Epstein with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Bill Gates and Woody Allen.

So if the Trump photos are newsworthy, so are those of the others. But those aren’t new or significant either, so the whole thing amounted to a bipartisan bust.

The media’s cold shoulder to the release marks a moment to behold. Normally, the legacy lefties get out the trumpets to herald any attack Dems make on Trump in their role as the party’s handmaidens.

Because the distorted coverage of him is ingrained and goes back to Trump’s first days in politics, it’s probably foolish to hope this could be the start of more balanced and fair coverage of the president.

In truth, the Epstein fixation is largely an extension of the day-in, day-out race to get a story that drives Trump from office.

The “gotcha!” fever is a hangover from the media’s glory days of Richard Nixon and Watergate, and it shows no sign of cooling off for any Republican president, especially this one. The low-key reaction to the Epstein photos more likely reflects something else:

Trump’s readiness to sue publishers and networks over stories he believes are unfair or untrue. His “fake news” epithet has the potential for real sting when it’s delivered in the context of a libel and defamation lawsuit.

No publishing outlet wants to be on defense in a trial with the president, especially in a red state, and a backroom deal with Trump is not a slam-dunk, either. He has extracted apologies and multimillion-dollar payments from ABC, CBS and others for the pleasure of settling his claims.

To be fair, the obsession with Epstein is not limited to the left. The fever is also s gripping too many Republicans and causing them to lose their way.

The GOP controls the House oversight panel that the Dem members used to subpoena the Epstein estate for the Friday photo release. More troubling, the GOP members went down that same rabbit hole with a subpoena of their own to the estate last August.

Soon after, the Republican chairman of the panel, James Comer of Kentucky, accused his Dem colleagues of cherry-picking among the documents and politicizing information in a bid to smear Trump.

Fishing expedition

On the other hand, he insisted, Republicans were focused on running “a thorough investigation to bring transparency and accountability for survivors of Epstein’s heinous crimes.”

Yet before long, led by the GOP members, the panel voted to issue deposition subpoenas to a raft of Dems, led by Bill and Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland and others. Lacking any evidence about how the targets could help Epstein’s survivors, the subpoenas smell like what they are: a fishing expedition.

Comer is obviously frustrated that there has been no progress in getting the depositions. And probably infuriated that Dems won the subpoena war for at least a day, he issued a blistering statement late Friday afternoon.

It said the Clintons have “delayed, obstructed, and largely ignored the Committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony.”

He threatened that if the Clintons fail to appear for depositions next week or schedule a date for early January, the panel “will begin contempt of Congress proceedings to hold them accountable.”

Ho hum.

In truth, I am confounded by this bipartisan obsession with the belief that Epstein will, from his grave, somehow deliver a political kill shot.

It’s as if all of Washington believes victory in the midterms depends on connecting their opponents to the disgusting pedophile and sex trafficker.

Both parties are being seduced by the same echo chamber, and I believe they’re both wrong.

Whatever happened to winning voters’ hearts and minds with good ideas and sound policies?

Scandal of course has its place. But this one is beyond tawdry and tiresome, and I don’t believe anything coming from it has changed the balance of power an iota since Epstein killed himself in a New York prison more than six years ago, in August of 2019.

Get back to governing

All the mud thrown at Trump over his acknowledged relationship with Epstein decades ago didn’t help Dems defeat him last year. Similarly, White House and Justice Department efforts to show they were hiding nothing and would release a devastating Epstein “client list” flopped with the admission that no such list exists.

The same fate likely awaits Comer’s efforts to use Epstein to hurt the Dems next year.

Instead, before the midterms, Republicans ought to put their time, energy and money toward the things most voters care about.

According to RealClearPolitics polling averages, Trump’s approval on the economy is just 44%, with 53% disapproval.

Similarly, Dems hold a nearly 4 point advantage in the November generic vote.

Epstein didn’t cause those GOP deficits, nor is he the solution.