MAGA panics as midterm survey season approaches

Amid all the horrific details about old and new accusations of rape and sexual abuse, there’s a four-word phrase in the new congressional report on Jeffrey Epstein that speaks volumes about why Donald Trump seems particularly unhinged these days: “There’s no statute of limitations.” Led by Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have investigated the long-running consequences of crimes against the late perpetrator. The report cited testimony from 11 women that “showed that Trump abused, assaulted and even raped numerous women alongside one of the most notorious sex traffickers in history.”

Despite compelling new evidence about the scale of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, which suggests that powerful people involved were more powerful than those facing legal consequences, media reaction to the allegations has been lukewarm. Perhaps the report was overshadowed by the midterm elections. Or maybe someone feels this is “old news” and won’t have any impact. But if Raskin has his way, we will all view this release as the beginning of a season of accountability, not just for Trump, but for various government figures and Make America Great Again cronies who enjoy the legal protections of the Republican congressional majority.

Democrats are expected to win control of the House and even the Senate in the midterm elections. If they do, Raskin and investigators will have greater power to investigate not just Trump and the White House, but various Republican donors, right-wing business interests and other powerful MAGA-aligned figures who have been taking full advantage of the corrupt atmosphere the president has created. The Epstein report may be just the beginning. As the Washington Post noted on Monday, Democrats “are laying the groundwork for a series of investigations into President Donald Trump, his family and his administration.” Various business and political leaders are meeting with their lawyers, worried about what Democrats might uncover with this new power.

“I have never seen so much investigative activity in anticipation of a change in control of the House of Representatives,” Michael Bopp, who leads the congressional investigations unit at law firm Gibson Dunn, told The Washington Post.

There are plenty of signs that those around Trump are beginning to realize that he will be out of office in just two years, and as the latest Epstein report shows, the statute of limitations has not yet expired on many possible crimes committed under the White House’s protection. Zeteo’s recent reporting on Stephen Miller revealed that the White House deputy chief of staff is worried about going to jail if a Democrat wins the presidency in 2028. Congressional Democrats have been talking about impeaching Pete Hegseth, and the defense secretary is visibly anxious, reportedly calling to plead with Sen. Marsha Blackburn to appoint him to her Senate seat if she wins this week’s Tennessee gubernatorial race as expected. Having a Senate seat not only protects against impeachment; It could also make it more difficult to prosecute him for alleged war crimes.

In October, Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin sparked huge panic on the right when she suggested focusing on “landmark cases” against “Trump supporters.” The Michigan senator wants to send a “deterrence message” to anyone considering working for Trump, letting them know that committing a crime or otherwise assisting illegal or corrupt activity could cause them “substantial problems” that are not worth the risk of legal liability. Fox News and other outlets tried to portray this as Slotkin threatening mass arrests of young staffers, but the hysteria obscured their real concern: Democrats might be able to gather enough evidence that prison is a real threat to many who work for Trump.

Slotkin’s comments clearly unnerved the White House. Trump has since said repeatedly that his staff don’t have to worry about complying with the law because mass pardons are underway. Days after Slotkin issued the warning, a source inside the White House told The Washington Sun that administration lawyers were considering “blanket pardons for all employees involved in specific policy areas such as deportations, war or trade.”

Still, the White House faces serious staffing problems. A September report from the Partnership for Public Service found that people hired by Trump left their jobs quickly. Not only are the number of resignations hitting a record high, but nearly half of those resigning have been working for Trump for less than a year.

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On Monday, Trump himself told the New York Post that he was considering broad pardons, not just for his employees but also for allies such as Tesla CEO Musk. Musk has good reason to be concerned. His brief tenure running DOGE raised questions about what laws he or the staff who carried out his orders broke. He is also suspected of interfering with Ukraine’s Starlink connection and weakening Ukraine’s defenses against incursions by Russian troops. That might explain why Musk has spent nearly $500 million — more than any single donor in history — trying to tilt the election in favor of Republicans.

Trump and his family should also be worried. Trump often interprets the Supreme Court’s grant of presidential immunity as catch-all, but as Raskin told The New Yorker, he doesn’t see it that way at all. He outlined how the president made billions of dollars during his term, about $1 million an hour, and there was a lot to know about where that money came from. Technically, the Supreme Court’s ruling only covers crimes committed by the president in the course of his official duties. By definition, Trump’s outside money-making ventures are not. His children are also deeply involved in the family business. As the Epstein report makes clear, there is no statute of limitations for some of the crimes Trump and his associates are accused of committing with his old friend Epstein.

It’s easy to think that none of this matters because Trump and his cronies were able to escape serious consequences last time. But dismissing the rhetoric would be a mistake, in large part because Democrats need to keep their feet on the ground. The corruption this time around is far greater and more blatant than during Trump’s first term, as an atmosphere of lawlessness led to a level of carelessness that created more indictable evidence. The next Democrat may not avoid harsh prosecutions of Trump and his allies, as Joe Biden did. Politicians whose names have been widely circulated — such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York or Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia — have been highly focused on rooting out Make MAGA corruption.

Then there is the question of political will. Before then, it was difficult to build enough political support for accountability because voters simply didn’t care enough about corruption. But as The New York Times reported last week, the issue is increasingly drawing attention from voters. On the one hand, Democrats have done a better job of connecting Trump’s self-dealing to the economic problems of ordinary people. On the other hand, the Epstein scandal has entered the national consciousness, and even Republicans have struggled to fully explain why Trump, despite signing a bill to release all Justice Department documents related to the case, has refused to do so.

With these winds on their side, Democrats have a better chance of conducting thorough investigations and pursuing criminal accountability for those found to have violated the law.