Eyes Wide Shut: From Crypto Wallets to Epstein Files

The staggering literal AND figurative cost of the DOJ's willful blindness

There is a dangerous cynicism settling deeper and deeper into the American electorate. It is the belief that corruption isn’t an aberration, but a baseline — a feature, not a bug. And when voters believe that everyone is on the take, they stop demanding better. They lower their standards. They shrug.

This exhaustion is the precise environment in which corruption thrives. And right now, the Department of Justice is providing a masterclass in how to dismantle public trust from the inside out.

The Crypto Conflict (to name just one)

The story begins with money, as it so often does. Recent investigations by our strategic litigation partner Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has illuminated a brazen conflict of interest at the highest levels of our justice system. Todd Blanche, the current Deputy Attorney General and President Trump’s former personal defense attorney, appears to have been at the center of dismantling financial regulations that directly benefited his own portfolio.

While holding between $159,000 and $485,000 in cryptocurrency assets, Blanche oversaw a dramatic shift in DOJ policy regarding digital currency. Under his watch, the DOJ disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) — an elite task force specifically designed to root out money laundering and fraud in the crypto markets.

The timing was impeccable. While Blanche held these investments, the administration began dropping enforcement cases and/or investigations against major crypto players who had donated millions to the President’s inauguration and reelection efforts, including Coinbase, Gemini, and Robinhood.

This goes well beyond a “technical” ethics violation. It is the government picking winners and losers based on who pays the piper, while the referee (Blanche) holds a betting slip on the game. As CLC has pointed out in their formal complaint to the DOJ Inspector General, Blanche certified he was complying with ethics rules while actively participating in decisions that could boost the value of his own holdings.

From Financial Greed to Moral Blindness

If this were only about Bitcoin, it would be bad enough. But corruption is a rot that spreads. When officials practice “willful blindness” to financial crimes because it suits their interests, they lose the moral authority — and perhaps even the inclination — to investigate darker crimes.

This is where the story takes a disturbing turn toward the Epstein files.

The same Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, has a direct intersection with the Jeffrey Epstein saga. He personally interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidante, who is currently serving 20 years for sex trafficking.

We must ask a difficult question: If the leadership of the DOJ is willing to turn a blind eye to financial malfeasance because of personal or political conflict, why should we trust them to pursue the powerful names hidden within the Epstein files?

The connection here is not conspiracy — it is culture. A culture of impunity does not distinguish between crimes. It protects the powerful, whether they are laundering money or exploiting the vulnerable. When we allow our justice system to become a concierge service for donors and friends, we dismantle the very mechanism designed to hold predators accountable. The failure to prosecute financial crimes facilitates the failure to prosecute much worse. They are two sides of the same corrupt coin.

The Cynicism Trap — and the Antidote

The tragic result of this behavior is that the American public is checking out. Recent polling data from the Searchlight Institute reveals a startling statistic: 71% of voters believe the “typical politician” is corrupt. When the public assumes corruption is inevitable, they stop punishing it at the ballot box.

But there is a silver lining — a path forward that is as popular as it is necessary.

Contrary to the narrative that Americans are hopelessly divided, there is massive, bipartisan consensus on fixing this rot. The same polling shows that “trust-boosting” reforms are wildly popular across the ideological spectrum, such as:

• 85% of voters support term limits for politicians.

• 69% support a total ban on stock trading by government officials.

The data show an anti-corruption platform is not just “good governance” — it is a political juggernaut waiting to be unleashed. Americans are starving for leaders who will treat the disease, not exploit it, and who offer solutions that aren’t only aimed at helping one side win.

A Call for Brightness

At Bright America, alongside our partners at the Campaign Legal Center, we are shining a light on these conflicts of interest and corruption not to depress you, but to arm you with information and inspiration. The normalization of corruption is a choice. We do not have to accept a Justice Department that serves the crypto lobby while ignoring the victims of predatory crimes.

The leaders who will guide us out of this dark time will be those who embrace a radical (by comparison, but not in reality), “pro-trust” agenda. They will be the ones who understand that the only way to heal a fractured nation is to prove, through action and accountability, that the law applies equally to the billionaire, the crypto-bro, and the predator alike.

The antidote to corruption isn’t cynicism. It’s sunlight. And we intend to keep the lights on.