Everybody who was anybody in America knew about Jeffrey Epstein. They either didn’t care or were begging for invitations and favours.
While the British government tears itself apart over the scandal, the Epstein files have fallen off the front page in the US. This is not simply because there are too many head-spinning tech bros, bankers, cultural big shots and politicians with their snouts in Epstein’s trough to keep up.
Instead it has laid bare the immorality of America, as those caught lying about the extent of their venal relations with the dead financier and convicted paedophile duck and dive for cover.
Their strategy comes straight out of the PR playbook of the malevolent Donald Trump whisperer, Steve Bannon, who was asked by his pal Epstein in 2019 whether to “continue to ignore” personal attacks. Bannon said yes. Responding, he said, “makes it way worse”. He is now following his own cynical advice on the subject.
One woman, however, has the power to blow this conspiracy of silence apart – Hillary Rodham Clinton. The presidential candidate defeated by Trump in 2016 is now demanding “let’s stop the games”.
Despite appearing only fleetingly in the files, she has been summoned to appear before the congressional House Oversight Committee along with her husband, President Bill Clinton, who features more prominently in the files, as part of the investigation into Epstein. The Clintons have maintained that they had no prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
“If you want this fight,” Hillary challenged the Republican committee chair, James Comer, “let’s have it – in public. You love to talk about transparency. There is nothing more transparent than a public hearing, cameras on.”
Comer is now scurrying for excuses to resist this demand, and says the Clintons will only be asked for “depositions”.
His reluctance to call anybody in Trump’s circle to appear matches the quiescence of the Maga and QAnon conspiracy-mongers who insisted for years there was an elite cabal of paedophiles running America.
Their clamour for action has died down now that Trump, Epstein’s friend in the 1990s and early 2000s, continues to insist from his White House perch that it is all a “hoax”.
The stain of involvement with the paedophile is being brushed off with a casual disdain that defies belief. But all the wannabe and actual masters of the universe entangled in Epstein’s orbit are taking their cue from the top.
When CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins asked Trump “what would you say to survivors…?”, he tore into her as the “worst reporter” and complained, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile.”
Proving his cack-handed, lackey status, vice-president JD Vance chimed in later that journalists like Collins should “have some fun” instead of being antagonistic.
Annie Farmer, who was 16 when she was sexually abused by Epstein, told Collins: “I don’t think it’s something to smile about.” But who is listening to the women who were violated as girls?
Trump shushed a previous female reporter with “Quiet, Piggy” when she tried to ask about Epstein. Some names of people involved in particularly grim email exchanges with the paedophile have been blacked out.
At least one prominent Brit in New York was principled enough to resist Epstein’s lure when he was released from jail the first time for sex-trafficking a young girl. It’s no surprise she is female.
Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair, recalls being invited to dinner with Epstein, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Woody Allen by his high society flak in 2010. “What the f*** is this?” she screamed. “The paedophile’s ball?”
Peter Mandelson wasn’t seemingly bothered by the company Epstein kept, but nor was Bill Gates, or, to some degree, Elon Musk. The hot mix of parties, sex, money and influence exerted a powerful allure.
Here are a few associates of Epstein, currently in Trump’s circle, who may have insight to share about him.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, flew on Epstein’s plane, the “Lolita Express”, at least twice.
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Howard Lutnik, the commerce secretary, accepted an invitation to visit Epstein’s Caribbean island in 2012, despite claiming he broke off contact with him in 2005.
Brett Ratner, the director of the newly-released film, Melania, appears in a photograph with Epstein and two anonymous women (one of which, he claims, was his ex-fiancee).
Epstein claimed in an email to be “hanging with all the Trump boys ..=fun” in Palm Beach on Christmas Day 2016, after Trump won the election.
If Hillary Clinton has to give evidence, let’s hear from all of them. And yes, that includes all the Trumps. It’s time for a moral reckoning.
Sarah Baxter is director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting
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