They Weren’t Just Hiding the Epstein Files

Trump’s DOJ was tracking the journalist who exposed them

There’s something deeply unsettling buried in the Epstein files. Not just what’s missing, not just what’s been redacted into oblivion, but what never should have been there in the first place.

Back in 2019, while Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were finally being dragged back into public view, one reporter was doing the work no one else would. Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald. Her reporting cracked the Epstein case wide open. It forced accountability where there had been silence for years. It gave survivors a chance to be heard after multiple administrations, judges, and institutions failed them.

And then she noticed something chilling.

Her own American Airlines flight records from July 2019 appeared inside the Epstein files. Not just her name, but her full name. Including her maiden name, which she doesn’t even use professionally. The kind of detail you don’t accidentally scoop up.

Think about what that means.

For those flight records to be attached to a grand jury subpoena, someone at the Department of Justice had to obtain them. Had to review them. Had to think they were relevant. Julie K. Brown wasn’t a suspect. She wasn’t part of Epstein’s network. She was the journalist who exposed it.

So why was Trump’s DOJ tracking her?

Brown herself said she expected to see her name referenced in the files. She lived and worked in Miami. She was embedded in the reporting. That part wasn’t shocking. What shocked her was seeing airline booking records tied directly to her identity. Records that could only exist there if the government was monitoring her movements while she was investigating Epstein.

This wasn’t about justice. This was about control.

The Trump administration has spent years hiding, delaying, and over-redacting Epstein-related documents while repeatedly leaving out the names that actually deserve protection: the victims. Every time Trump is asked about Epstein, he spirals. He lashes out. He melts down. And now we have reason to believe that behind the scenes, his DOJ was surveilling the reporter who refused to stop digging.

That alone would be a scandal.

But it gets worse.

Internal DOJ emails from January 2020 show that prosecutors were actively discussing Donald Trump’s presence on Epstein’s private jet. Not once. Not twice. But repeatedly. According to an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, flight records showed Trump traveled on Epstein’s jet many more times than previously known, including during periods relevant to a potential Ghislaine Maxwell case.

At least eight flights between 1993 and 1996.

On several of those flights, Maxwell was present. On one, the only passengers listed were Epstein and Trump. On another, Trump flew with Epstein and a 20-year-old individual whose name was redacted. On others, women who could have been witnesses in a Maxwell prosecution were aboard.

And yet, Trump continues to claim he was never on Epstein’s plane.

This is why the cover-up matters.

This is why journalists like Julie K. Brown matter.

Instead of transparency, we got intimidation. Instead of accountability, we got surveillance. Instead of protecting the press, Trump’s DOJ appears to have treated it like an enemy. That’s not democracy. That’s authoritarian behavior, plain and simple.

And it doesn’t stop with Epstein.

This same administration hides economic data while Americans struggle with food prices. It refuses transparency about Trump’s health. It attacks universities, journalists, activists, and anyone who asks questions. Every act follows the same pattern: suppress information, consolidate power, punish truth-tellers.

They know what would happen if the full truth came out.

So they tried to stop it at the source.

We’re not letting that happen.

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