The Department of Justice's strategy for the Epstein files mimics a Russian GRU propaganda technique: overwhelming the public with a mix of true and false information. This creates mass confusion, dilutes the impact of serious allegations, and ultimately leads to public fatigue, protecting powerful individuals from accountability.
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The chaotic nature of major foreign policy moves, such as the Venezuelan operation, could be strategic. By creating an overwhelming and confusing news cycle, the administration can deliberately divert media and public attention away from damaging domestic issues like the Epstein files.
Powerful figures like Trump and Musk strategically deploy headline-grabbing announcements as 'weapons of mass distraction.' This is not random behavior but a calculated tactic to divert public and media attention away from core weaknesses, whether it's a political scandal (Epstein) or a flawed business model (Tesla as just a car company).
Dumping raw investigative files, like the Epstein documents, for public interpretation undermines law enforcement's credibility. The proper output of an investigation should be indictments, not media fodder. This approach turns serious crimes into partisan spectacles, ultimately benefiting the perpetrators by diluting the focus on criminal liability.
The Trump administration intentionally releases multiple major, controversial news stories at once. This overwhelms the media and public's attention, preventing deep scrutiny of any single event and effectively neutralizing potentially damaging stories before they gain traction.
Even when transparency is mandated, there are levers to control the narrative. The allegation regarding the Epstein files is that they will be redacted to protect powerful figures, with "national security" used as a convenient and difficult-to-challenge justification for censorship.
A massive information dump like the Epstein files doesn't lead to a unified truth. Instead, it causes society to fragment into dozens of competing narratives, with individuals choosing the version that best aligns with their pre-existing beliefs, deepening polarization.
The mass release of Epstein documents, without a trusted institution to filter them, creates a justice problem. Trivial details (like being on an invite list) are over-punished through public shaming, while truly criminal behavior gets lost in the noise, leading to a "mushed together" outcome.
An administration has no incentive to fully resolve a major public scandal because its unresolved nature makes it a perfect "red herring." It can be used repeatedly to distract the public and media from current policy failures or other damaging news, making perpetual ambiguity more politically useful than transparency.
Releasing 3 million documents simultaneously, combined with fabricated files circulating on social media, creates an environment where discerning fact from fiction is nearly impossible. This information overload serves as a modern form of obfuscation, hiding truth in plain sight.
The proper role of the Department of Justice is to secure indictments against criminals, not to release unvetted files for public consumption. This approach turns a criminal justice matter into public gossip, ruining careers of the tangentially involved and distracting from the primary goal of prosecuting and imprisoning child rapists.