Libertarians are often characterized as a fringe movement, advocating limiting government far beyond what most Americans would even consider and prone to promoting conspiracy theories.

All of that is true.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t right, even about the conspiracy theories. We almost always are. We were right about the war on terror. We were right about Obamacare. We were right about the intelligence community conducting unconstitutional mass surveillance on Americans, that it was a fundamental violation of our most basic liberties, and that it wouldn’t catch a single terrorist (it didn’t).

We were right when we predicted the free market would solve deplatforming and online censorship without government intervention. We were right about Covid hysteria.

The Epstein saga has been a different story. Most libertarians believe the basic tenets of the narrative – that Epstein not only was “trafficking” underage girls to a vast number of prominent “elites,” but also filming their indiscretions to use as blackmail for…well, it’s not clear what for but something really, really bad that’s for sure.

After multiple releases of the so-called “Epstein Files,” there is still no evidence of any part of that story. On the contrary, there is quite a bit of evidence against the idea that anyone other than Epstein sexually abused minors. This is the official position of the FBI:

“The files relating to Epstein include a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography. Teams of agents, analysts, attorneys, and privacy and civil liberties experts combed through the digital and documentary evidence with the aim of providing as much information as possible to the public while simultaneously protecting victims. Much of the material is subject to court-ordered sealing. Only a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial, as the seal served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing. Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography.

This systematic review revealed no incriminating “client list.” There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

Now, this writer certainly doesn’t take the FBI at its word. But in this case, it isn’t just the FBI’s statement that is persuasive, it is the sheer volume of files (over three million) released that seem to be completely consistent with this statement.

To this, proponents of the Epstein narrative reply that the government is holding back the incriminating material. They also point out that there are still redactions in the released files that are concealing perpetrators. On this point, the first six names unredacted under pressure from Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna were a colossal failure.

Read the rest on Tom’s Substack (no paywall)…

Tom Mullen is the author of It’s the Fed, Stupidand Where Do Conservatives and Liberals Come From? And What Ever Happened to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?