I have previously avoided commenting on the Epstein saga in the USA. That's not because it was not significant. It always has been. Most especially, it has always been significant for the victims. However, that has been well covered by others, and most especially of late by MSNBC, to whom Ivan Horrocks has drawn attention in the comments on this blog quite a number of times, and appropriately so. Nothing can take away the horror that young people, mainly girls — but also, most likely, boys — who suffered at the hands of Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and those who partook in the activities that they organised.
There are very good reasons for thinking that Donald Trump knew about what Epstein did.
Epstein described Trump as his best friend for a decade.
Trump described him as a close friend and a 'terrific guy' over a period of at least 15 years.
Trump was often seen in Epstein‘s company.
It is documented that he visited his island, where much of the abuse that Epstein organised seems to have taken place, although not exclusively so.
Trump even commented on Epstein‘s liking for 'very young women', although he should have more accurately called them girls.
Now, by commencing legal action against Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, Trump has not only revealed a massive error of judgement on his part, because if the case proceeds he will be interrogated under oath about what he knows, and unless he tells the truth would pay a very high price for not doing so, but he also guarantees that the story about his relationship with Epstein will remain in the media for a long time. That will also matter.
This story has the capacity to destroy Trump. Without in any way taking away from the significance of the actions of Epstein and the suffering of those who were victimised, this capacity for the story to destroy Trump is also important. What that capacity reveals is why people are so angry in the USA, UK and elsewhere with those in power.
As Robert Reich suggested today in a Substack video that is behind a paywall (and I acknowledge his inspiration for some of my thinking that follows on this issue), since 2008, people have been very appropriately angry with the powerful elites in our society.
In that year, those powerful elites brought down much of the Western world's banking system, and none of them ever paid the price for doing so.
Millions of people lost their homes in the USA and elsewhere as we bailed them out.
Millions of people worldwide lost their jobs as a result of their recklessness.
And, all around the world, it is likely that millions of people also lost their businesses.
Since then we have suffered more than 15 years of austerity, and paid an enormous price for that, none of which was necessary, but all of which was supposedly justified by those who imposed it upon us because of the crash that the wealthy elite of the world created through their own recklessness, foolishness, and ultimately, lack of accountability.
That elite thought before 2008, and to a substantial degree still do, that they were the gods of the universe. They believed, and still do, in their right to command, their right to influence, their right to own, and their right to unaccountability. As a consequence, they also believed in their right to abuse, and abuse they did, and still do.
I am not, of course, accusing most of the rich and powerful in the world's financial elite of paedophilia, or any form of sex abuse, come to that. Some might have done that, and I hope that all those who did will be held accountable. Instead, what I am accusing them of is economic abuse, which they think they have had the right to perpetrate with impunity
At the same time, I am also accusing the political power elite, who were so obviously in the pocket of the financial power elite in the run-up to 2008 and have undoubtedly remained so since, of precisely the same thing. They, too, are, I think, guilty of economic abuse that is ongoing still.
Whether it be the Republicans or Democrats in the USA, or Labour, the Tories, or Reform come to that, in the UK, it is very apparent that the financial power elite has almost complete control of our leading politicians, all of whom seem to only act in the interests of that group, and no one else's.
Of course, we are angry about this, regardless of where we are or who we are.
Of course, we resent having been abused.
Of course, we feel used, because we have been.
It is the certain knowledge of this, backed by our anger, that is now fuelling the interest in the Epstein files in the USA.
People who know that there was a swamp, and that those in it did abuse, now want to know the truth.
They want to know whether Donald Trump and others who went to Epstein's island were part of that swamp, and, if so, believe that those people should be held to account.
But, more than that, they also want others who were in the financial and political elite and thought they could financially abuse with impunity to be held to account, because the sense of entitlement of both groups is not that dissimilar. Both hold ordinary people in contempt and treated them with abusive indifference.
Millions of Americans, and billions of people around the world, have already paid the price for that abuse by the financial elite, albeit in a very different way from that in which the young people who Epstein and his acquaintances abused suffered. That does not, however, stop it from being abuse or of significance.
Now they want to see justice being done on both these fronts.
They are no longer satisfied with the abuse of the elite being swept under the carpet.
The Epstein files provide a way to bring to account those who abused children, but that then opens the way for those who abused through the financial system to also be brought to account, albeit in a different way.
The anger now being felt reflects the fact that people know that this abuse has happened, and that they know they are the victims, and that they know that justice has not been done.
If Trump thinks that he can win on Epstein, he is seriously mistaken. He and all those others whose names appear in those files should be very worried.
So too, however, should the organisations that they work or worked for be concerned. The potential risk from the massive loss of confidence that will flow from this is enormous. And that anger will not just be restricted to those who abused children. It will be aimed at those with privilege who thought they could abuse in so many ways.
We can have one hope though, and that is that transparency, accountability, and justice might sweep away the abuse that those with power thought they could partake in with impunity. That impunity has to end. And if those who believed that impunity existed now pay the price for what they did, so be it. That is what justice looks like.
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All good points. There are many reasons many people are not happy with the way things are.
Yesterday my thought was: how long till “Lady Ghislaine” gets a pardon?
Good question
I guess timing is important here because if Trump is found guilty of anything while he is still President he could just pardon himself (I seem like to recall that is possible).
He thinks he can
The President can only (legally) pardon federal crimes. But who knows what Trump will try!
There is still an awful long way to go rich elites push a model of the economy as a private-sector-led system where the state intervenes reactively whilst in fact the state is a constitutional architect of monetary systems which regulate market operations through taxation, currency issuance, and fiscal and dubious monetary policy. Few politicians and voters currently understand this despite their anger that the economy appears to be run in the interests of these rich elites not the many.
“the financial power elite has almost complete control of our leading politicians”
I’d suggest that has ALWAYS been the case. It was certainly the case in 1900s (e.g. Lloyd George) nothing has changed since.
The profile of the girls in the Epstein case was mostly working & middle class = tools/products to be used & abused. Again – normal situation.
The situation in Europe is not so different & if anybody thinks Histoire d’O was a work of fiction – they need a rethink. Wealth opens up options – some good – some bad – some highly corrupt. I have enough 1st & 2nd hand stories to illustrate this with the end point: (& relevant to the blogs on wealth) – when is enough wealth enough, when does it become corrupting? The idea that Epstein was the only one indugling in this “life-style”, is laughable. It is still happening – but better concealed.
The human situation was long ago delineated in Christopher Boem’s book “Hierarchy in the Forest.” Those human beings with special skills or aptitudes have to be very carefully regulated by other human beings in case they take advantage of these to the detriment of other human beings.
Boehm’s book is now available as a free download. The Preface alone is worth a read with its emphasis on egalitarianism something very much missing from the Starmer government!
https://opac.uma.ac.id/repository/0674390318.pdf
I used to work in criminal defence in the north east in the 90’s.
At that time there was an area of Midlesbrough where prostitutes worked. Actually, there were several areas, but there was one particular area where the average age of the female prostitutes was 12.
The police regularly rounded them up and charged them with criminal offences – soliciting, mainly. Aged 12. The courts convicted them and sent them into the care of the LA, who were unable to protect these ‘criminal’ childen who were usually back on the streets within hours.
I asked the officers why they never arrested the men. Their response was that the men were not committing a crime – sex with a 12 year old was, apparently, not a crime, as the girls had ‘chosen’ to be prostitutes.
None of the officers, inclduing the duty inspectors I raised it with saw an issue.
Eventually the penny dropped, but it took years.
I really do hope this has changed now.
Let us remember, Starmer “likes and respects President Trump and understands what he is trying to achieve.”
Starmer has several times echoed Trump but he is a liar in his own right.
Were there ever politicians here and in US who cared about the people?
I truly hope you are correct, Richard, and this backfires spectacularly on Trump with him impeached / preferably jailed. However, I suspect that whatever is released will be ‘curated’ and that the Supreme Court – assuming it gets that far – will find a way to support Trump. Fundamentally, to varying degrees, they are all in it – certainly for the personal enrichment – and the recent ‘history’ does not suggest that an outcome that comes even close to justice will emerge.
Richard,
I absolutely agree that this story has the power to destroy Trump’s Presidency and I hope that it does, but I do not believe that he will ever suffer punishment for what he has done.
In all likelihood he will resign “on grounds of ill health” and Vance will succeed him. The price of that resignation will be a full pardon and Donald Junior becoming Vice-President and so the merry go round will continue. Where Trump’s angry and disillusioned supporters will turn next is anybody’s guess.
I agree with Richard.
Abusers, and let’s be clear that is what they are, should be identified, held accountable and not “pardoned”.
I also agree with you. Quite frankly, the prospect of JD Vance becoming POTUS, in the scenario of Trump stepping down, fills me with horror…
We might also add abuse of the environment into the list of why there is so much anger against the power elites. There is also pain too over this
Agreed
Q’Anon’s conspiracy theory was that the establishment was deeply involved in paedophile rings … seems that that was neither a conspiracy or a theory.
I was not aware of the links with modelling and Miss World contests but I suppose that they were obvious sources of very young girls whose innocent ambitions put them across a barrel with regard to resisting predatory advances. We know that the same has been true for aspiring actors and the infamous casting couch.
I wonder if there’s other evidence out there – or at least hidden out there.
I wonder if Epstein’s properties had hidden cameras installed to allow the paedophiles to watch recordings at their leisure, or possibly as future blackmail material.
Apologies for presenting thoughts about such things depraved people could do.
One aspect of mentioned is the Kompromat collection Epstein may have been paid for. Maxwell Snr had extensive Russian and Mossad connections. Ms Maxwell may have inherited connection. Certainly Epstein’s bank accounts showed huge money flows and unexplained wealth.
Did I read that Vance had visited Murdoch? Perhaps he started the hare running.
Apparently the case is certain to be thrown out by the Florida court where it was filed because Florida has particularly strict rules requiring libel litigants who are public figures to prove both malice and reckless disregard for the truth. My guess is that Trump is counting on the case being dismissed as without merit. He can then blame the “deep state”, will still have thrown shade on the WSJ report and will not have to testify in court.