On Thursday, America woke up to the news that Andrew (the artist formerly known as Prince) had beenarrested over serious allegationsmade in the Epstein files. And you know what? It felt good.
There has been much consternation in the U.K. about the fact that Andrew’s “punishment” for alleged bad behavior looked very much like being handed a fancy free house and a lavishly funded retirement in obscurity. If that’s what you get for being a creep, then you might find a lot of similarly sweatless men lining up to be publicly “shamed” for their past misgivings.
The fact that the ex-royal has now been formallyarrested on suspicion of misconduct in public officelooks like a big PR win for the embattled U.K. Because, given the same access to the same documents as the U.S., British police actuallydid something. King Charles’ response to his brother being taken into custody — that “the law must take its course” — was similarly indicative of actually lettingsomethingbedone. If you squint, it all looks very open and sensible and upstanding.
Obviously, if you stop squinting and think about the whole “pedophile island visited regularly by international elites” thing, it allstarts to look a bit less shiny.
And now let’s take a look at the other side of the Atlantic, where I currently sit: the side where Donald Trump —mentioned multiple times in the Epstein files, famously pictured partying with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, though he denies wrongdoing and claims that he cut ties with the sex trafficker pedophiles who were his former friends long before Epstein’s first conviction in 2008 — says it’s“really time” for us to all move on.
Because yes, there are a lot of emails, a lot of photographs. There are lots of claims, many salacious and unfounded. There are also a whole load of redactions. Of course, of course, it’s clear some bad stuff happened. But didn’t a couple of people resign from a couple of posts at a couple of universities? Anyway, have you heard about the Board of Peace?
The problem is that when you make the Epstein files a central part of your election strategy, it’s hard to shrug your shoulders and say, “that’s all, folks” as soon as they actually get released. Despite some truly shocking claims — that there may have been children as young as 9 years old, perhaps even younger, who were trafficked by Epstein and his associates; that there was a “torture video” shared among them; that Epstein and Maxwellpaid their victimsto recruit their friends into the trafficking network — there has been very little action by the DOJ.
In fact, it’s unclear whether the Justice Department has even looked closely enough at the tranche of files to know the basic specifics. Attorney General Pam Bondi erroneously claimed that all the files had been released just days ago. She also refused to acknowledge the victimsat a congressional hearingwho said they had been unable to meet with her Justice Department thus far, shrugging the claim off as “theatrics.”
Bondi’s reaction followed a now-familiar script: claim a “Democrat” witch hunt, refuse to mention the victims, immediately deflect into whataboutism. But loudly asking why the previous administration did nothing doesn’t count as action. It gets old quickly.
We have now seen releases of FBI files and heard the shock and horror of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. We, the American public, have access to a lot of the emails but lawmakers have seen even more of them behind closed doors. We have heardfrom the U.N. itselfthat some of these allegations amount to crimes against humanity.
Source: Drudge Report
