Epstein's unquiet ghost

The MAGA activist world is unhappy with the Trump administration's failure to release all the information it has on Jeffrey Epstein's clients, and they're not alone.  The issue will not go away.

Epstein, of course, was the billionaire pedo known for hosting parties at various locations including an island he owned, at which underage girls were made sexually available to other wealthy men.  The Justice Department now estimates that the total number of girls victimized at these events was more than a thousand.  Epstein's activities were so notorious that the private plane which ferried rich men to his island was known as the "Lolita Express".  After scandalously evading justice for years, he was at last arrested in July of 2019.  On August 10 he was found dead in his jail cell, allegedly by suicide.

The identity of the "clients", the other rich men who sexually abused girls at Epstein's venues, remains a question of enormous importance, as they are believed to include many very prominent people in politics and entertainment both in the US and elsewhere, and are guilty of one of the filthiest and most despicable crimes a human being can commit.  In the six years since Epstein's death, almost no conclusive information has been released.  However, the clients are believed to number in the hundreds or perhaps thousands.

There probably isn't an actual "client list" in the sense of a physical piece of paper listing every man who made use of Epstein's "services".  But there is a vast amount of evidence which remains in government custody -- computers, hard drives, and other storage media taken from Epstein's mansion, containing gigabytes of images and video.  Epstein's properties had hidden cameras and he is believed to have recorded some of the activities of his clients, for entertainment or perhaps to keep a hold over them in case they ever turned against him.  There is surely solid evidence that could identify many or most of these men.

Many on the MAGA right believe -- quite rationally -- that the reason why the evidence has never been released is that it incriminates too many prominent and powerful people.  Where they err is in believing those powerful criminals are all, or nearly all, Democrats.  Pedophilia has nothing to do with political affiliation.  Donald Trump was a close associate of Epstein for years, and in 2016 he was sued by a woman who claimed he had raped her at an Epstein party when she was 13; she dropped the suit after being threatened.  Bill Clinton was a "frequent flyer" on the Lolita Express.  (Please remember that every person is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court, especially for a crime as heinous as child sexual abuse; I am merely pointing out known facts that others have found suggestive.)  As for Hollywood, the widespread discomfort there with the recent film Sound of Freedom and the equally pervasive support for Roman Polanski over the years do arouse dark suspicions about how pedo-infested those circles may be.

Epstein's clients were rich, and there is a lot of overlap between the rich and the politically powerful and socially prominent.  In reality, it's very likely that the clients include a staggering number of the biggest names in politics and the film industry, enough to shock the nation to its core if all were known.  The fact that leaders of both political parties have preferred to avoid the subject and keep the evidence hidden is hardly surprising.  It's all too possible that if all the guilty were revealed and held accountable, the leadership on both sides would be devastated.

There are also grounds for suspicion about Epstein's death.  On that night, two guards allegedly fell asleep and failed to perform regular checks of Epstein's cell as they normally did.  Two cameras in front of his cell malfunctioned and another recorded only "unusable" footage.  The "raw" video recently released by the Justice Department was in fact edited in ways that are unclear, and has almost three minutes missing, not just one as originally reported.  Epstein must have know the only way he could possibly have improved his fate would be to give evidence against his clients, and a number of very powerful people must have been highly concerned to ensure that that didn't happen.  It's far from absurd or crazy to suspect foul play here.

So when the Trump administration declared there was no fire behind all this smoke, it turned many of his followers against him as no other issue has.  I had already seen signs of discontent with Trump on some right-wing blogs because there have been no arrests of people such as Obama, Dr Fauci, Schumer, the "Biden crime family", etc for the many imaginary crimes the wingnutosphere is convinced they committed.  But the crimes of Epstein and his clients really happened.

The outcry may be having an effect.  A week ago the bipartisan Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously passed a measure directing that all evidence about Epstein be preserved, and at least some House Republicans openly support forcing the release of the evidence even in defiance of Trump.

All decent people must support these efforts.  The media and the public must never let this drop.  Those guilty of such loathsome acts must be exposed and punished, no matter what it costs.  Let the leadership of both political parties be scythed down, let hundreds of Republican and Democratic rising stars and venerable statesmen spend the rest of their lives rotting in prison, let as many beloved film stars and directors lose their careers and freedom -- but let justice be done. Let justice be done.