U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about the U.S. government shutdown, during the swearing-in ceremony for Sergio Gor as U.S. Ambassador to India, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Now that we have learned that Jeffrey Epstein was trying to leverage dirt on Trump when he “committed suicide” in a federal jail under Trump’s control, am I a conspiracist for pivoting backward, wondering how Epstein really died? And what does it say that I care more about atrocities Trump will commit in order to change national headlines than I care about how Epstein died?

Trump has already demonstrated his capacity for murder. Military analysts have written extensively about Trump’s summary execution of people in fishing boats. The proper term, under the US Code of Military Justice, the UN Charter, and the International Criminal Court, is “murder.”

So I guess that reality—Trump’s extrajudicial killings, aka murder— was already top of mind when I learned that Epstein was getting ready to spill the beans on Trump, and Trump likely knew it, before Epstein died under suspicious circumstances.

Epstein was shopping dirt on Trump

The House Oversight Committee has released 23,000 pages of correspondence maintained by Epstein’s estate, which is only a portion of the complete file. Salacious details will likely keep peppering the headlines as thirsty staffers read each page, or, more accurately, scan those pages into AI with a command to “select key words and phrases.” But it’s already clear that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were thinking hard about the best way to turn on Trump, and how to capitalize on whatever dirt they had on him.

By now, most people have seen Epstein’s 2011 email to Ghislaine Maxwell about Trump not ‘barking.’ After he had been under criminal investigation for several years, an investigation that grew legs as more victims came forward and high profile “clients” were named, Epstein wrote to Maxwell, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump. [Victim’s name] spent hours at my house with him.” Maxwell, obviously aware of Epstein’s meaning, replied, “I have been thinking about that…” Several years later, still shopping his dirt, Epstein asked a reporter, would you like to have “photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen?”

Epstein also turned to journalist Michael Wolff for advice how to hurt Trump. A few months after Trump announced his first run for president, Wolff advised Epstein that he should just let Trump ‘hang himself.’ Wolff wrote, “If (Trump) says he hasn’t been on (the Lolita Express) or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win (the presidency) you could save him, generating a debt.”

Trump had to know Epstein was gunning for him

Trump knew his friend Epstein was a pedophile, but that’s old news. Trump said publicly in 2002 that Epstein “was fun,” and liked girls “on the younger side...” There’s no nuance here. Epstein was a pedophile. Trump knew it. They remained close nonetheless, until they didn’t.

Epstein was originally sentenced in 2008, but served only 18 months under a sweetheart deal arranged by Miami’s U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, who later became Trump’s labor secretary. But Epstein was arrested again ten years later, after the Miami Herald published Perversion of Justice, about the leniency Acosta showed to Epstein.

That year, Epstein emailed one of his lawyers, Reid Weingarten, and asked him to dig into Trump’s finances, specifically Trump’s mortgage on Mar-a-Lago and a $30 million loan. Accusations of money laundering and other suspicious high dollar real estate transactions have followed Trump for years; Epstein said Trump’s finances were “all a sham” years before Trump was convicted of fraud.

Epstein eventually tried to get Vladimir Putin involved. After Trump became president, before he met Putin in Helsinki in 2018, Epstein tried to get a message thru to Russia: If you want to understand Trump, you need to talk to me.

Did Trump get wind of that and decide enough’s enough?

By the spring of 2019, Trump’s DOJ was building another criminal case against Epstein. Knowing what we know now about Trump’s perversion of the DOJ into his own personal pitbull, it’s likely the DOJ was asking questions and feeding Epstein’s accusations back to Trump.

That fall, Epstein was confined at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, which was under the direct control of Trump’s Federal Bureau of Prisons. On August 10, 2019, prison guards found Epstein dead in his cell. Federal investigators concluded he killed himself by hanging.

People who knew Epstein said it was impossible for him to have committed suicide, and the physical proofs seem to support that claim:

  • A forensic pathologist hired by Epstein's brother, Dr. Michael Baden, noted multiple fractures in the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage of Epstein’s neck, and concluded they were more indicative of homicidal strangulation than suicide by hanging.
  • Reports and photos from Epstein's jail cell indicate that both his mattress and his body had been moved before FBI investigators arrived, and basic forensic tests were not conducted.
  • Crucial surveillance video footage taken outside Epstein's cell at the time he died either went missing, was recorded over, or came from feeds other than the camera pointed at Epstein’s cell door.

The fear factor over Epstein files

Now that Epstein is back in the headlines, Trump is again bullying Republican lawmakers into looking the other way. Trump warned on Wednesday that “only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that (Epstein hoax) trap.”

In February of this year, Eric Swalwell, (D-CA), said his Republican colleagues were “terrified” of crossing Trump, and it was not as simple as being afraid of being primaried. “It’s their personal safety” they fear for, with their spouses saying, ‘We will have to hire around-the-clock security’ (if you cross Trump). In April, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) confirmed Swalwell’s comments, and that US Senators, indeed, have genuine fear of Trump.

The evidence matches the hunch. Trump has killed 66 people so far, that we know of. Sixty six people on fishing boats have been murdered without legal process, murdered without evidence of their crimes. That Trump calls them “Narco-terrorists” and “unlawful combatants” offers cold comfort, given that Trump has also issued an Executive Order labelling all Americans who dislike him “domestic terrorists.”

Whatever new atrocities Trump has planned for Americans, he is obviously pre-selling his narrative, getting his Proud Boys riled up. Whatever his plans, they will be executed miles away from due process and the rule of law, just like Epstein’s life and death and 66 people buried at sea.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.