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After getting hammered for a week for trying to bury files related to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, his “clients,” and his death, Donald Trump and GOP leaders are trying something new: to appease an enraged base, and in the face of much more meaningful measures to force transparency and accountability in the case, they are pretending to take the issue seriously… in the most worthless ways possible.

First, let’s turn to the president.

Trump has been fielding — and fumbling — questions about his erstwhile pal all week. Furthermore, in multiple social media posts, he has insulted his most loyal supporters and tried to convince them that this Epstein thing is one big nothingburger and a “hoax.”

That hasn’t gone over well.

After all, theories about Epstein’s crimes, who else participated in them, and who helped cover them up, are at the center of MAGA orthodoxy. The fact that young girls could be groomed and trafficked to become the victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the rich and powerful, and that those elites would get away with it, is at the center of the movement’s grievances.

And while the conspiracy theorists of QAnon may have twisted the Epstein saga into some crazy tale of Democrats drinking blood and Hillary Clinton running a pedophilia ring out of the basement of a basement-less pizza restaurant, the underlying crimes are very real, as is the fact that only Epstein and his consort have been held to account in any way.

It is also undeniable that there are many links between Trump and that pair, including the fact that the current president of the United States alluded to his friend’s penchant for young women more than 20 years ago.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal uncovered another such connection and published it over Trump’s attempts to kill that story.

The paper published an article describing a cryptic and lewd birthday message that Trump had penned for his buddy’s 50th birthday.

Predictably, the litigious president threatened to sue the Journal, NewsCorp, and Rupert Murdoch, who, according to a social media post published under Trump’s account, had promised that he would “take care of it.”

While the first post was likely not written by the president himself based on the wording, he later published another.

“The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures,” he wrote. “I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.”

While chances are that this lawsuit would result in yet another bribe settlement, we really hope that it goes to trial because it is time that Trump answers some questions under oath.

In any case, shortly after the initial post (the one likely not written by him), the president published one of his own that, for the first time, at least appeared to provide some of the transparency he had promised his followers.

“Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval,” Trump wrote. “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!”

As for the “scam” and who is behind it, the president has offered many different explanations. Either the Epstein list doesn’t exist, or Democrats put it together (without ever using it against him), or it’s unimportant.

But let’s look at what Trump is promising here: First of all, the grand jury testimony that led to Epstein’s indictment is obviously about him and not others who partook in his crime. It won’t include the names of his clients, so what value will these documents really have?

Also, why just the testimony and not all available evidence?

Finally, note that, all of a sudden, Trump seems worried about “court approval.” This is the same man who is running the most lawless administration in history that does not seem to care one bit about court rulings.

Democrats immediately called him out on it.

“YOU were promised ALL of the EPSTEIN FILES. Clearly implicated in the files, Trump is telling the AG to release “pertinent” files from the “Grand Jury,” tweeted Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) in a direct message to the president’s reporters. “What does this bullshit mean? Trump/Bondi will bury the files and will pick and choose what doesn’t hurt Trump.”

But the president wasn’t the only one trying to mount a token effort to appease an irate MAGA base.

Down the road from the White House, House Republican leaders are worried that a bipartisan discharge petition is going to pass that directs Bondi to make available “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices” that relate to Epstein, his confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, flight logs, the names of individuals named in connection with Epstein’s crimes, entities related to his trafficking or financial networks, immunity deals or plea bargains from anybody involved, internal DOJ documents related to charging decisions, all communications related to the destruction of evidence, and information related to Epstein’s death in prison.

In other words, this bill would force Bondi to put out a treasure trove of information, and in a searchable format.

And the discharge petition, sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), is picking up steam. It already has enough GOP support to pass if all Democrats vote for it.

To get ahead of legislation that Republican leaders clearly want to bury, they introduced their own measure, a non-binding resolution that calls on DOJ to use information related to Epstein.

Massie wasn’t having it.

“Congress thinks you’re stupid,” he tweeted. “The rules committee passed a NON-BINDING Epstein resolution, hoping folks will accept it as real. It forces the release of NOTHING.”

The mad scramble on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue shows that both Trump and GOP leaders see this as a potentially existential crisis and are trying to get a handle of the narrative again.

In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.