The simple reality of this stinking scandal is all roads lead to Trump

It’s been building for more than a decade, but my head finally exploded after hearing the news that not only had convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell pleaded the Fifth in refusing to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein during a deposition before the House Oversight Committee (HOC) — she also said through her lawyers she’d only speak the “unfiltered truth” if granted clemency by President Donald Trump.

I believe this is called blackmail.

The same statement said “both President Trump and President [Bill] Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing” and that “Ms. Maxwell alone can explain why.”

We’re all being asked to believe that a single thing emerging from Maxwell’s mouth after a pardon would have any resemblance to the truth. The woman will naturally say and do anything to get herself out of prison, or whatever it is they call the minimum-security playground currently housing her.

The very idea that Maxwell’s legal team would even release something this brazenly shameless speaks volumes about where we are as a country. It’s mind-boggling that such an offer could even be committed to paper.

Does it actually give Trump cover to pardon Maxwell, under the supposed pretext of revealing the unvarnished truth of the Epstein saga? Trump may think so. But then, he claims to think a lot of things, few rational, none sincere.

We live in Crazytown U.S.A., ladies and gentlemen. Everything that’s come out in the redacted Epstein Files stinks. The affair is taking down powerful men internationally, but here in America it’s much more about protecting those who can purchase guilt-free status.

I’m sick to death of all the pretending. We are constantly asked to suspend disbelief, to substitute the implausible for the obvious, because the human being whose culpability appears greatest happens to be the one with the farthest to fall and the greatest power.

Come on. An innocent man wants the truth out there to clear his name. A guilty one hides, deflects, diverts, threatens — everything Trump has done since day one of the Epstein outrage.

What we get instead is Rep. James Comer (R-KY), oversight chair, going after former President Clinton and his wife, Hillary. The Clintons have called for an open hearing, with cameras. But Comer isn’t interested in getting to the bottom of anything, preferring to concentrate on sullying a couple of long-targeted Democrats.

I truly don’t much care what the Clintons have to say about Bill’s apparent involvement. I want to put Trump in the spotlight. Force him to lie under oath, because we know he would. Simply making him answer publicly for his involvement in the greatest pedophile scandal in modern history would be a major step toward a measure of accountability.

Maxwell’s lawyers asserted that Trump and Bill Clinton were innocent in order to make her outreach appear non-partisan and somehow genuine. But it’s all just part of the coverup.

I want U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, fronting for the corrupt Department of “Justice,” to be called to testify about what he discussed with Maxwell that landed her a Club Fed hotel suite where she gets to munch escargot and cuddle puppies. Part of the quid pro quo for keeping her big yap shut, perhaps?

Why aren’t the Dems – and, for that matter, the survivors/victims of Epstein and his pals – demanding that Blanche get on the stand and make sure he’s threatened with the same Contempt of Congress charge that they slapped on the Clintons if he refuses?

The reality is that all roads lead back to Trump.

Trump is mentioned in the 3 million pages of released Epstein files some 5,300 times. It’s well established that Epstein and Trump were best friends for at least a decade. The odds Trump wasn’t aware of Epstein’s criminal penchant for trafficking and abusing underage girls are approximately zero. He is guilty of, at the very least, felonious complicity.

Comer: “We’re interested in talking to anyone that might have information that would help us get justice for the survivorship.”

Oh really, Congressman? Well then, step right over here. I’d like you to meet a dude who’s mentioned in the files more than 5,000 times. Think he might have a couple of tidbits that could interest you? No? Perhaps you’d like to fill us in as to why not?

It was on Nov. 17, 1973, that President Richard Nixon famously declared during a televised press conference, amid the Watergate scandal, “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”

People have also got to know whether or not their president is a pedophile or someone who protects those who commit such heinous acts. The only way to purportedly know the answer is to question Trump while he’s sworn to tell the truth.

There is no precedent to think we should just take Trump’s word for it, as he has no credibility. At least getting him on the stand conveys the presumption of forced candor.

It’s well past time to get this all out in the open instead of cherry-picking enemies like the Clintons. This has never been a Democrat vs. Republican issue but one pitting the powerful vs. the powerless. The survivors themselves have grown sadly, disgustingly irrelevant, mere collateral damage to an ever-raging hurricane.

• Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.