Not only could they exonerate themselves, they could vilify political opponents. Even if an accurate copy surfaced they would just say, “Nuh uh!” and MAGA would believe them.

This seems like a no-brainer. What am I missing here?!

  • RabbitBBQ@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Because it’s not possible to tell any story about it without including Trump, the Clintons, and others.

    When an issue crosses political lines where it becomes bi-partisan, such as bi-partisan corruption, things get weird.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    6 hours ago

    I guess they have a fear of a whistleblower from within the FED.

    Imagine that an annoyed employee at the fed starts speaking out to the public that the released epstein files are actually fake and releases the actual files instead. that might make for a bigger shitstorm than simply not releasing anything in the first place.

  • fishos@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Something I didn’t see mentioned: say you make a fake list, redacting the people you want to protect. What about the people you are now throwing under the bus? First your fake evidence has to make it past all of their lawyers scrutiny and hope you’re not revealed for your con, and then you have to hope that these people don’t have evidence that they can use to throw you under the bus as well. Releasing anyones name is likely to cause many more names to come out and the domino effect is way too unpredictable. It’s truly some mutually assured destruction.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    10 hours ago

    They tried to, and tons of people immediately twigged to the fact that the footage was altered.

    I want to believe this is going to start their house of cards collapsing, but unfortunately, I’m pretty certain most maga dipshits have skulls so thick that a GBU-57 would have trouble reliably impacting their trains of thought.

  • dragontamer@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    They already did.

    There’s that ‘Raw Edit’ video that is missing over a minute of footage because they forgot to edit out the timestamps.

  • cecilkorik@lemmy.ca
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    9 hours ago

    The problem with lies is you have to have a good memory. You need to make sure all the lies line up and don’t leave holes in your story that reveal the lie underneath because ironically the smaller the slip the more damning and harder to explain it can be. That applies to falsifying documents too. It’s actually more dangerous to try and create something fake because now you need fake evidence for all the fake stuff you’re putting in there, and you need to hide any evidence or corroboration that points to the stuff you’ve removed, and it all gets really complicated and really error-prone really fast. Liars survive by keeping things simple enough that it can’t be challenged, or in Trump’s case, by hiding all the small lies behind big obvious ones, like “there are no Epstein files” which everyone knows is a lie but the lie is so big it’s immovable while all the juicy details are buried underneath.

    • aceshigh@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      MAGA has the memory of a goldfish. Everyone else has t deranged syndrome (or whatever the fuck it’s called).

  • ceenote@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    I’m no expert, but I would think that altering evidence is a huge risk.

    • If you want the changes done by experts, so they’re harder to identify, you have to let the experts in on what you’re doing. That means more potential leakers.
    • If you make any changes that contradict the physical evidence, you’ve outed yourself.
    • The changes you make can be credibly contradicted by people who have seen the unedited versions.
    • You might have to change a lot of stuff, especially if your boy was very close to the sex trafficker in question.

    If you get caught, you’ve just made the problem 100x worse, as a lot of people are just going to assume your guilt as soon as they hear you’ve tampered with the evidence.

    • fullsquare@awful.systems
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      3 hours ago

      about #1, not only this makes number of potential leakers higher (intentional or not - by opsec failures) but also this narrows down number of loyal, reliable people who also won’t fuck up the job real fast

    • meco03211@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Pro-tip. Blame it on the dems. His base would eat that shit up. Doesn’t matter that it makes no sense.

    • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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      If you make any edits that contradict the physical evidence, you’ve outed yourself.

      We’re talking about people that contradict both themselves and physical reality on a daily basis without their supporters batting an eye.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldOP
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        6 hours ago

        Largely why I asked this. Still haven’t found a good answer that doesn’t outline how they might be caught. How cares?!

    • imrighthere@lemmy.ca
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      10 hours ago

      It makes no difference how good they are at photoshop, there is software that will highlight changed portions of photos in red. Skill won’t prevent that.

      • pcouy@lemmy.pierre-couy.fr
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        9 hours ago

        There is no such software (that works kind of reliably). I’d love to be proven wrong, but I’ve looked into it enough that I’m quite confident it does not exist

  • lemmy_outta_here@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Bondi said in a hidden camera recording that there were videos depicting CSA among the files - the supposed blackmail material. Now that material is in the possession of Trump et al. If they publish the videos, they become useless as blackmail material.

    Source: APNews

    • Microw@piefed.zip
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      9 hours ago

      I wouldnt trust Bondi on anything she says. I think she is just flooding the zone with shit.

      And she specifically spoke about videos of Epstein with children; not clients with children.

      I have a hard time seeing how they would have gotten hold of those videos when all legal documents from Maxwells case and Epsteins death do not reference videos taken in at all.

  • Part4@infosec.pub
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    Presumably the risk of getting caught. There must be quite a few people aware of what is and isn’t in that evidence (edit including people in the previous administration and people Trump has sacked), some of whom might whistleblow.

  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    My body is made of trees.

    I can say that. I can offer no evidence. I can do no work to prove it. I can ignore how half the country knows I’m full of shit, and still have half the country believe my bullshit.

    And if the situation changes, I can always move the goalposts.

    Either way, I gain nothing by trying harder, and face no consequences either way.

    What motivation do I have to even try to be more secret in my corruption?

  • TwinTitans@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    When you release some, they’re going to make sure that everyone else is known about too. It’s kind of an all or nothing.