Our government lies to us. Sometimes bluntly, sometimes through fine print, sometimes under the guise of national security and sometimes just to avoid accountability.

This isn’t new.

Governments around the world have lied to their citizens for as long as governments have existed — and it’s a subject extensively documented in academic research, if you feel like getting depressed.

Helen Norton, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Colorado Boulder, has written about this throughout her career. In her paper, “The Government’s Lies and the Constitution,” she argues that official lies can violate the Due Process Clause when they deprive people of life, liberty and property — and that these lies can be a means of coercion, which is a direct First Amendment issue.

In the U.S., public trust in government has been steadily declining for decades, accelerating in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. According to Pew Research Center data, trust peaked at 54% under George W. Bush, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, then cratered under Obama to just 18% and remained low through Trump’s first term and into Biden’s presidency.

The result is a culture so accustomed to deception that it’s easier to assume we’re always being misled. The absence of trust in government has led to extreme political polarization and a growing public cynicism we see reflected daily — including in our own Facebook comments section.

Which brings us to last week’s big headline: The U.S. Department of Justice officially ruled Jeffrey Epstein’s death a suicide and announced there is no “client list.” And for the first time in years, it seemed like everyone in the country — Republican, Democrat and everyone in between — actually agreed on something: we’re being lied to.

To be clear — neither The Express nor any other local media outlet can confirm or deny whether the Justice Department is telling the truth. These are official statements backed by sealed records, and, absent hard evidence, we’re left to accept the government’s ruling.

But it feels wrong. And not just because it’s Epstein.

Official court documents from United States v. Epstein referenced “associates” several times. Presidential candidates — including Donald Trump — have publicly promised to release the “Epstein List.” In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News she had the list on her desk. Later, conservative journalist Megyn Kelly called Bondi out, saying, “Pam Bondi was either telling the truth then, or she’s telling the truth now — but both cannot be true.”

Now, the DOJ claims no incriminating client list exists. Meanwhile, President Trump took to Truth Social defending Bondi and dismissing the files as Democratic fabrications, urging his base to “forget about Epstein” and focus on border security and the economy instead.

Let’s be clear: The Express isn’t taking a position on the DOJ’s statement, nor are we here to take cheap shots at Bondi or Trump.

What we do need to address is this: the Epstein case has been one of the most publicized criminal scandals in recent U.S. history, kept in the headlines for seven years, with multiple politicians, across parties, promising transparency. As recently as a few weeks ago, we were told more information was coming.

The sad reality is that children were exploited by powerful people. Hundreds of them. Possibly thousands.

And now, after years of promises, we’re being told to move on. Even if we accepted every word of the Justice Department’s and Trump’s claims, don’t we still have a right to see the files? If they were fabricated, shouldn’t the perpetrators face consequences, too? Regardless of who the documents may implicate, shouldn’t we, the people, be trusted to know the truth?

Criminality is not predicated upon party affiliation — and anyone involved in this scandal deserves their name to be shamed for generations.

It’s exhausting. It’s embarrassing. It’s infuriating. And maybe — just maybe — it’s not too much to ask for better than this. The lives and suffering of those victims deserve more than sealed files and vague official statements. If our government thinks we’re going to forget, and worse, that we’ll accept it because there’s nothing we can do — that’s the final insult.

We don’t have the answers.

But we won’t pretend to be okay with silence.