I expect that the current push will lead to the release of files.
I expect that anything released will not include any real bombshells.
Some have suggested that Trump is playing n-dimensional chess at the moment. They’re the ones who like to claim that frequently, even though he mostly blurts out things on the basis of his id or spouts whatever BS he thinks will serve what’s going on in his semi-scrambled frontal lobe at the present moment. He’s not all that bright, but he’s also not a total fool, and he loves to troll people and loves to undermine anyone else’s attempts to grasp truth and broadcast it (you can try to come up with any number of accusations about that or justifications for it, but I’ll leave it at that).
And he doesn’t have to be brilliant: Few people are as likely to step in it as the DNC and Congressional Democrats. There’s no bigger heads-I-win-tails-you-lose person on the planet, and is often handed one of his favorite things — the ability to make a bunch of vague and contradictory statements and play things both ways — gift-wrapped by the Democrats.
If he does something that is bad at a level of 7 out of 10, the screaming will come from the Left that it goes to 11. What do they have to do then? Prove that it’s 11. Of course, they can’t. Maybe they can prove the 5-7 range. But they didn’t prove what they were screaming about, so he gets to call it fake news. His followers bleat assent and gloat over how dumb the Libs are.
Here, we have a situation where he scored political points by making a promise that he’ll release the Epstein files. Sure, there could be any number of reasons underlying it, but the point all along was to stoke anger and make shady insinuations about “the other guys” to keep the base riled up. And as the situation has unfolded, now he’s in power. He doesn’t want anyone riled up about the power structure, just about the other guys. So he downplays it. It’s not that his administration will fail to deliver on its promises, you see; it’s just that the files are a nothingburger. Well, for whatever reason(s), you can imagine that the files are likely to turn up a nothingburger. OK. They don’t have the “win” of files exposing a vast Liberal groomer ring, but they can still pull a win out of this.
If he downplays it, even though most of the outcry all along has been from Trumpers, his opponents will go against him and demand the release of the files. And when the files are a nothingburger, he gets to say that those Dems are always trying to create a hoax. And his followers get to bleat assent and gloat over how dumb the Libs are.
It’s incredibly stupid and disingenuous, but the guy has made quite a living and quite a political career in that way. And his opponents are often pretty stupid and sometimes nearly as disingenuous, so they’re all too likely to commit another unforced error.