There's only really two possible scenarios.

1. The Trump admin lied about there being a list or rather, files, which implicates a lot of people, they lied for political capital and to goad on the Qanon/Pizzagate nutjobs. They lied about "having it on their desk" and lied about promising to release it. They lied about basically everything to do with the list/files and it never existed in the first place.

2. They didn't lie about there being files which implicate a lot of people (but still lied about promising to release it) but the reason they won't release it is either it implicates themselves or implicates their allies/friends, so they're protecting themselves and/or protecting their friends.

It's extremely unlikely after years of work by the FBI/DOJ they have fuck all on Epstein's associates, they likely have thousands of files investigating his connections. I also lean towards #2 because in the current shitshow, the best of two awful choices for the Trump admin right now would be to simply admit that they lied about there being a list for political gain.

They could have just made some bullshit up about how the Democrats in Biden's term shredded everything and so the Trump admin has to start from scratch, that will shut his fanbase up for a few years. Instead they've gone from "There's a list" to "We have the list" to "There's no list" to "The Democrats made the list" to "Shut up about the list!" to now straight up insulting his supporters.

What's likely is that there's simply a lot of very powerful people who all have their own receipts and dirt, in essence there is a lot of people with their own "mini-nuke" and anyone who fires their "nuke" first will cause MAD because the rest will then expose their dirt and receipts in revenge. It's powerful people protecting each other, not because they care for each other but due to self-preservation. There's obviously not some master list like "All My (Epstein) Pedo Friends". But there is definitely a lot of files which would implicate a lot of people if exposed.

What of there is a third option.

What if it was a US secret service operation all along. That it was something akin to Operation Norhtwoods. That releasing all the info would cause a US revolt against their government and subsequently a collapse of US society at least for a while and no-one wants that on their watch.

With both Dems and Rups tiptoeing around this, I think there are some real skeletons and dark pits.

For referencce, source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods

I'm not really sure what you're saying here, are you proposing that the US secret service are the ones who are preventing it from being released because they fear America would collapse if it does? I'm not sure what the comparison is to Operation Northwood which was a proposal to stage and commit acts of terrorism to justify a war with another country (lying to go to war isn't new to America, Lol).

I think some of these takes are a bit extreme, the idea that the United States would completely collapse and the people would revolt against the entire government because there's a few rich and powerful nonces is a bit much, Lol. A lot of people in the UK already run under the assumption that Prince Andrew is a nonce and the Royal Family is still around and he still gets privileges. A lot of Republicans already been saying for years that Democrats are all pedos, a lot of people already believe Trump is one.

Sure it's one thing to believe and another to have proof but it just feels like a weak reason to justify not releasing the list, the United States won't collapse because there's a few dozen rich pedos, a lot of people already assume there are a lot, they just don't know who. Those found guilty will resign in disgrace and people will vote on a replacement, it'd probably need to be at least 50% of government to cause a collapse and that is extremely unlikely, especially when 99% of current House Dems just voted in favour of releasing everything, Lol.

Agreed Ryu but it's not just their friends, it's more than certain to be across the political spectrum, don't make this a partisan issue. I'd say scenario 2 is most likely by far without the "protecting friends parts", they're protecting their apponents too by protecting themselves. They'll likely use scenario 1 as a way to cover scenario 2.

The Chinese could have them, release the files and have the US go the way of the USSR.

I dunno why everybody thinks that these files will say anything useful. It's going to be like the JFK files, so many documents have been redacted ( removed completely, not just putting a line through what is not permissable info), to the point that nothing is intelligible anymore.

People think that the rich and powerful will let this get out, nope. Won't happen.

If I said like, as an example, oh no the Epstein files show that the Royal Family were heavily involved! Okay...It's not going to cause the UK to collapse if they got rid of the Royal Family, Lol. Parliament if anything would probably like that but it's not like the Royal Family have any real power nowadays, we know Prince Andrew is a nonce but he is still wondering around with his privileges.

This entire political party is full of nonces? Good thing we have multiple parties. President Trump is implicated? Impeachment and onto the next in line, the USA has procedures for this, Nixon would have been impeached and removed if he didn't jump ahead and resign in disgrace, Lol.

For a total revolt against government (I'm not talking just a revolt against the current leaders but all of government) and a complete societal collapse then you'd probably need it to turn out that hundreds from both parties to turn out to be nonces, you'd need the majority of both House and Senate to turn out to be nonces. Society won't collapse because a few dozen rich and powerful people are pedos, you're going to need hundreds, thousands even, otherwise people will not "care" enough to go out and brutally overthrow their government and burn down society, Lol.

Hypothetical offcourse but let me use my imagination:

Let's say the entire Epstein thing is a Mossad operation to blackmail US powerbrokers to keep sending billions to Israel in military aid and other things.

Let's say Mossad would have proof that 9/11 was a false flag operation where the US killed their own civilians to ensure support for the middle east invasion (Hypothetical offcourse)

Now let's say Mossad would say if the Epstein thing would go public, it would release this prove that the US killed their own (again Hypothetical).

Shit would hit the wall. 

As I said, just hypothetical, but something about all this reeks to me like there is more going on then rich people being pedo's.

That links to my mini-nuke example, that if anyone makes a move they will all fire because they all likely have receipts and dirt on each other, nobody will make a move because of MAD. They aren't doing it to protect each other but because they're protecting themselves. Therefore #2 directly links into that because if there was no dirt on Trump he should have no issue with releasing it.

If it is #2 then he is either not releasing it because he is protecting someone or he isn't because he is implicated and if he releases files which remove himself but exposes others, then others will expose him. There will obviously be Democrats, Republicans, Independents and everyone in-between involved and they all only care about themselves.

China doesn't want America to collapse as much as they hate each other, China isn't as delusional as Russia, they need America, and America needs China, they're both huge trading partners with each other.

Possibly but if that were the case they could release just enough to cause major disruption, they have all the time and successfully too.