On 19 December, the Trump administration released a tranche of heavily redacted files relating to the dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. As we reported, the level of redactions was almost certainly at odds with the law (specifically the Epstein Files Transparency Act). This suspicion was seemingly confirmed when it was revealed that it was possible to un-redact these documents:

UNREDACTION OF BELOW DOCUMENT:
84. As of October 23, 2007, Indyke was listed as President of the Foundation. He also was a signatory on the Foundation’s checking accounts.
85. Between September 2015 and June 2019, Indyke signed Foundation account checks for over $400,000 made… pic.twitter.com/mV4EG4pkMZ

— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) December 22, 2025

So, how did this monumental cock up occur?

Reportedly, it may have all been down to Elon Musk and his disastrous DOGE initiative:

The disappearing redactions was the fault of Elon Musk. Musk cancelled government subscriptions to Adobe programs that would have made the redactions permanent. That’s gonna cost him. pic.twitter.com/EX3j0IrXHK

— JR Horsting (@JRHorsting) December 27, 2025

The ghost of Epstein

Earlier this year, Musk joined the Trump administration as the leader of its brand new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). People suspected DOGE would be a disaster from the start; not least because the government already had an efficiency department. Regardless of whether you support Musk or not, you have to acknowledge it’s probably not efficient to have multiple departments of efficiency.

Here is what was revealed by one of the young men Musk employed:

I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was. This isn’t to say that it can’t be made more efficient — elimination of paper, elimination of faxing — but these aren’t necessarily fraud, waste and abuse.

DOGE fired the guy for making these comments. This was despite Musk’s promise to be “maximally transparent” about DOGE’s activities.

As people have discovered, the ‘savings’ DOGE made included cancelling subscriptions for Adobe Acrobat:

incredible https://t.co/yLkGP919sh pic.twitter.com/1nIXIg6isb

— c (@_chris_is_tired) December 25, 2025

Some people think all government spending is bad and wasteful because it’s the government spending the money. As is now obvious, however; most spending has some sort of purpose.

elon canceling the adobe pro subscriptions of the entire federal government and that resulting in the entire Epstein files getting accidentally released fully unredacted because real redaction is a pro feature sure sums up 2025 nicely

great year everyone, good work 11/10

— s (@SteveMoraco) December 24, 2025

The unredacted files revealed that the justice department covered up information relating to potential criminal activity. This is a problem, because the Epstein Files Transparency Act only sanctioned redactions to protect victims:

EPSTEIN FILES: UNREDACTED FILES SHOWS BRIBERY AND PAYOFFS TO SILENCE VICTIMS AND WITNESSES.

DOJ used Adobe to redact some files that can be undone by copying/pasting & searching.

Here they are: https://t.co/jREFfA9as0 pic.twitter.com/UeI3qlUarV

— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) December 23, 2025

The musk of success

There is another conspiracy going around, and it’s that Musk masterminded this chain of events on purpose. He did warn us that Trump was in the Epstein Files back in June, after all:

Remember when Elon Musk told us that Trump is in the Epstein files?

He has since deleted the tweets pic.twitter.com/Lz5PLQXfEg

— No one (@Thapelo24) December 23, 2025

Of course, there are also those who think Musk couldn’t mastermind a pissup in a brewery (and we’re among them):

You’d think that the genius that owns this website would know real from fake before sharing it pic.twitter.com/4lfTQKZplj

— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) December 26, 2025

Either way, it’s obvious Musk has quietened on all the Epstein stuff since worming his way back into Trump’s orbit:

Elon Musk hasn’t mentioned the Epstein files in over 83 days. Hmmmm

— Liam Nissan (@theliamnissan) December 21, 2025

We wonder what Trump thinks of this situation if it was indeed Musk who created it? Given that the president has no ability to keep his thoughts to himself, we may not have long to wait before we find out:

these are all of Trump’s posts just from today. man couldn’t even PRETEND to enjoy Christmas with his family https://t.co/8RVnxTIZdE pic.twitter.com/2pIKZJm5GT

— katie dyer (@kegelsandlox) December 26, 2025

Featured image via the Canary and US Justice Department

By Willem Moore

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