Last week the Department of Justice announced that Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a “client list” of prominent individuals who may have broken the law at Epstein’s private island. These individuals could be blackmailed by Epstein and whatever intelligence agencies were working with him.
In February, in response to a question about when Epstein’s client list would be made public, Attorney General Pam Bondi said she had it on her desk and would soon release it. She now says she meant she had a file related to Epstein, not the Epstein client list.
The Justice Department also claimed it did a full investigation of the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death and can definitively say that Epstein committed suicide even though an autopsy paid for by Epstein’s brother concluded that Epstein was likely murdered.
The Justice Department’s announcement last week was met with outrage, much of it coming from some of President’s Trump’s most prominent allies, such as popular media figures Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Benny Johnson.
The willingness of so many Trump allies to openly criticize the Epstein announcement and other actions like the bombing of Iran is a positive development. Advancing liberty requires that more people refuse to automatically trust government officials, whether concerning Epstein, wars, the economy, or other important matters.
Widespread questioning of government presents an opportunity for the liberty movement. Those who understand the philosophy, history, and economics of liberty can explain that it is not just that some government officials lie. Instead, all governments lie, and the more important the issue the bigger the lie. In fact, the modern state is built on a series of lies, including:
- that the moral prohibitions against murder and theft do not apply to the government,
- that government regulations protect consumers, workers, and small businesses from greedy corporations,
- that the best way to help the poor is through government bureaucracies, not private charities,
- that government bureaucrats know a child’s educational needs better than do the child’s parents,
- that the US government is justified in intervening in countries around the world because the US is an exceptional force for justice and liberty and its crusade for global democracy is worth the ending of many innocent lives,
- that the government has the moral authority to override personal health and lifestyle choices — such as whether to drink raw milk — for our own good,
- that foreign aid takes money from wealthy Americans to give to poor people in other countries,
- that a government-created central bank can print the way to prosperity while enabling a welfare-warfare state without causing a boom-bust business cycle and continuously reducing the average American’s standard of living through eroding the dollar’s purchasing power,
- that gun control, mass surveillance, and airport harassment keep us safe, and
- that government is the source of our rights so government can restrict or “modify” our rights at will.
Exposing such lies is key for restoring liberty. The good news is that the more mistrust of government grows the easier it will be to find people receptive to our message.
