Beware ‘Ragebait Engagement Farming’

Why so many people are captured by unlikely hearsay and anonymously sourced tales of high-level criminal conspiracies rather than meaningful political issues.

Cynical Publius, a poster on X, accurately describes for me the fantastical conspiratorial posts this week about Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Jeffrey Epstein records and death as “ragebait engagement farming.” I hate mobs and mob thinking, and I think Bondi has achieved a remarkable courtroom record against a tsunami of judicial insurrection. This week the Department of Justice she heads, for example, just won its 13th Supreme Court victory in six months. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirms that the President is proud of her and considers the “continued fixation or sowing discord on [his] cabinet is baseless and unfounded in reality. On Saturday the president reiterated his strong support for Bondi. I will endeavor to explain how absurd is this furor and why this (like the ludicrous Pizzagate-like fantasy before it) has so many dupes believing in unsubstantiated nonsense.

A very detailed portrait of Epstein’s background and operations can be found in a 2003 article in Vanity Fair which reveals a shrewd operator who cultivated celebrities, business figures, politicians, scientists, and people of note to amass a considerable fortune. He was also a man with a perversion for sexual relations with underage young women. There has long been a widely held belief that he maintained a list of notable people with details of their crimes. Bondi said she had the Epstein list “on her desk,” and indicated it would be released. This was a mistake, because if the belief was that there was a roster of prominent people engaged in pedophilia, there is no such list. (If there ever had been, he most likely scrubbed it long before any criminal investigation.)

And, that is why those saying there is nothing there are so wrong.
In both cases trafficking was prosecuted and victims, the underaged girls, were IDed. But, in no case were the Johns IDed. Uhh, so if there were victims how come there were not villains who benefited? Why were the pedos not IDed?

Because the rich/celbrities do not get justice, they get privilege.

The SDNY scrubbed the files of the rich/celebrities. Go after the SDNY employees. Don’t just fire them. Pursue obstruction. Squeeze until the piggie squeals.

Some of us are so mean we even quote administration officials:

Oct. 22, 2024
Then-Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) to podcast host Theo Von: “Seriously, we need to release the Epstein list. That is an important thing.”

Jan. 30, 2025
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee): “So, will you work with me on this issue so we know who worked with Jeffrey Epstein in building these sex trafficking rings?

Kash Patel, FBI director nominee: “Absolutely senator.”

Feb. 27, 2025
Journalist Piers Morgan: “Do you think that by releasing information from these files we are likely to see criminal actions being taken?”

Alina Habba, counsel to the president: “Absolutely. I think it would be negligent for us not to. You have to hold individuals who are indeed rapists, accountable. We have to have them tried, in my opinion.”

March 1, 2025
Fox News host Mark Levin: “So once all that’s gathered you’re just going to put it out in the public, with the obvious necessary redactions … but for the perpetrators I assume that we’ll see those names, yes?

Bondi: “Well, certainly, nothing can be withheld on that. …”

March 11, 2025
Habba, to media personality Benny Johnson: “I personally have checked in. They are going through it. You have to be patient. Because when you are wanting to prosecute and actually do something with the information that you have, you have to make sure that you save the integrity of the investigation so that we can bring these people to justice, so that we can hold grand juries, so that we can do certain things.”

March 25, 2025
Habba, interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, to Johnson: “You have to make sure also we bring valid cases … Those people that were crossing state lines and trafficking those girls or having sex with minors will be prosecuted.”

May 28, 2025
Patel to Fox News host Bret Baier: “I’m not going to withhold information from the American public, ever. … We are diligently working on that, and it takes time to go through years of investigations, years of political maneuvering, and years of cover-up.”

June 6, 2025
Rogan: “The narrative has always been that there’s video. Now, where’s the chain of custody? Is there evidence that there’s video? Is there evidence that it was moved around? Stored? Protected from people looking at it?”

Patel: “You’re going to get all that information. Like, that’s literally what we’re putting together. And we’re going to give you every single thing we have and can. And that’s the whole point. … Now we’re figuring out how to put it out.”

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.