We're still missing the main point about not investigating Epstein's crimes

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released additional photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, including ones of Donald Trump. (Photo: Epstein Estate/House Oversight and Reform Committee)

If the Jeffrey Epstein files alone felt like a set of embarrassing political crises up until now, it's grown into an unrelenting cankerous sore without solution or any apparent desire to cap a campaign looking for any associations with the child rapist.

We've suffered through reports of botched investigation of child rape, official disdain for victims, government cover-up efforts and absurd testimony to Congress about all of it. Now we're trying to make sense of university presidents who reached out to a guy with a bad history with donations.

Somehow, we're still missing the main point about not investigating the serious crimes that occurred. This week there are more congressional hearings with Bill and Hillary Clinton, whose mentions in the files seem far from the central crimes involved and more about gaining political advantage. We are even missing whether any purported crime is even still prosecutable.

The Epstein Files mess was a stinking pile of sexual attacks that successive governments had managed to push aside or constrained by outstanding prosecutions until it re-emerged a full-fledged presidential campaign issue for Donald Trump.

Over months, as Trump sought to distance himself from Epstein, his repeated lies about closeness with Epstein undercut any public declarations of un-involvement. After having picked up on MAGA insistence to re-opening the can of political worms, Team Trump was seen as shielding its worst sexual predators, who may include friends or donors. We still don't know, and the Justice Department is formally uninterested in finding out. We only know that Epstein's partner, the convicted Ghislaine Maxwell, now wants a pardon from Trump, who is non-committal about it.

Even with only partial and heavily redacted release of its contents, The Files now have exploded into global anger and frustration touching rich businessmen (and women) and government figures galore — for a bewildering range of email exchanges, acquaintances, social and business associations that may have nothing to do with attacks on 1,000 children.

We are suddenly awash in articles and social commentary about a permanent "Epstein class" of wealthy, influential "elites" who skip through their lives without concern for law or morality, sure of protection from exposure, prosecution or even discomfort. And while European countries are drubbing even unmasked princes and government ministers, we in the U.S. listen as Trump and his Justice Department shrug off any need to confront those people unless they are political opponents identified by Trump.

The strategy to protect Trump from Epstein has turned upside-down.

Starting Bad and Getting Worse
Almost everything about this case that goes back two decades is weird.

Presumably, previous administrations were told that Justice was pursuing allegations of many women who had gone to the FBI, and the Ghislaine Maxwell case only convicted at the end of 2021. Why there was insufficient follow-through with those victimized remains unclear, among the zillion questions about how Justice responded across administrations.

By now, we all know this, up to the recent shameful congressional testimony by current Attorney General Pam Bondi who was unable to even look at women in the room who say they have never been contacted by prosecutors. The stench of cover-up for friends of Trump and Epstein, now seemingly forever linked despite Trump's attempts at separation, crosses party lines and political leanings.

Instead, we debate to what degree the Trump administration is violating the law enacted this year to force release of the documents, the value of releasing documents that have been wholly blacked out to block identities of wealthy friends of Epstein, but still showing information about the victims of attacks on a private Caribbean island, New York and a New Mexico ranch, on planes, at parties, under pressure to recruit ever-younger teens. We debate words about law and order, while re-abusing the now-grown women involved.

Trump could have controlled this story, could have made himself and his Justice Department political heroes. Instead, he has chosen shrug even as his own Cabinet and donors are caught in public lies, and Trump is watching a constant erosion of public support.

The Backlash
Meanwhile, ripples from simple mention in the files – the Justice Department has been overly generous in mentioning as many names as possible while blocking release of any FBI investigative notes – are ensnaring people who seemingly had plenty of non-sexual contacts with Epstein over philanthropy and donations, financial advice, and Epstein's ever-eager desire to mingle with the rich and famous.

Robert Draper's New York Times piece sums it up brilliantly. Even as members of Congress, victims, lawyers and journalists pour through The Files in search of names of those involved, "the documents lay bare the once-furtive activities of an unaccountable elite, largely made up of rich and powerful men from business, politics, academia and show business. The pages tell a story of a heinous criminal given a free ride by the ruling class in which he dwelled."

Those caught in the Epstein web are not facing sex ring charges or assault but a whole variety of non-sexual allegations. The British police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the dethroned prince, on suspicion of misconduct in public office involving handing confidential government information to Epstein. In 2022, he paid Virginia Giuffre an undisclosed sum to settle a lawsuit in a New York court in which she said he had raped and sexually abused her when she was 17. Maybe deposition discoveries in his defense eventually will prove useful, but those prospects again are months or more away.

Others similarly are being fired or dropped from boards and businesses and universities for longtime friendships with Epstein or shared trips or financial arrangements. Though inclusion in the files does not necessarily imply wrongdoing, the mere association with Epstein is being seen as reason enough to cut ties.

Not so with Trump and Republican friends. Even as the House Oversight Committee calls the Clintons to testify this week, few Republicans – and fewer people actually pinpointed in sexual crimes — are being called. Les Wexner, billionaire owner of Victoria's Secret and a close Epstein friend, told Democratic members of the committee that he was "duped" by Epstein. Republican members refused to attend. Maxwell was allowed to avoid questions as she sought a pardon for testimony. Any pressure on Alex Acosta, the original federal prosecutor with a deal to offer, was remarkably light.

There is no end in sight to a rebellion over scandal. We are stuck with an America that attacking "elites" who somehow escape the claws of the law only to keep shielding them amid a healthy dose of political partisanship.

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