I hope Jeffrey Epstein sings like a bird. And if some Democrats go down, so be it
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
I hope Jeffrey Epstein sings like a bird. And if some Democrats go down, so be it
Jill Filipovic, The Guardian 22 hours ago
Photograph: STRINGER/Reuters
I hope Jeffrey Epstein sings like a bird.
The wealthy and well-connected financier and registered sex offender was arrested this week in New York on accusations of child sex trafficking. He just may bring a lot of bad men – and a few bad women – down with him.
Epstein allegedly groomed and recruited dozens of underage girls, many of them vulnerable runaways, for sex with him and his friends. Despite being caught by authorities, Epstein has largely evaded serious punishment. Thanks to heroic reporting by Julie K Brown at the Miami Herald, Americans learned that back in 2008, Epstein was given an exceptionally favorable plea deal by then-prosecutor Alex Acosta – now Trump’s secretary of labor. The deal was shamefully hidden from Epstein’s victims, and while it forced Epstein to register as a sex offender, it allowed him near-total freedom for the 13 months he was technically in jail – he was allowed to leave the facility to work in his luxurious private office instead of serving life in prison.
It’s unclear why Epstein was given such favorable treatment. But given who his friends are, speculation has run rampant that his powerful connections (and the potential wrongdoings of other powerful men) may have had a hand in keeping him in relative freedom.
Epstein’s friends and contacts include President Donald Trump, President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and high-powered attorney Alan Dershowitz, among many others. In 2002, Trump characterized Epstein as a “terrific guy” who enjoyed the company of girls “on the younger side.”
In the immediate aftermath of Epstein’s arrest, Twitter exploded with political gotchas. On the right, it’s near-gospel that President Bill Clinton and Epstein are jet-setting pals, and that Clinton is at best complicit and at worst a participant in Epstein’s sex crimes. ( We know Clinton used Epstein’s private jet for work related to the Clinton Foundation; according to Clinton, they were always accompanied by Secret Service agents or Clinton Foundation staff.)
On the left, Trump opponents wonder if the president was ever a participant in Epstein’s sexual crimes. Trump was at one point accused by a young woman of raping her at Epstein’s New York home when she was 13; the lawsuit in which those accusations were made was withdrawn by the accuser. We also know that Trump and Epstein socialized, that Trump’s various phone numbers were written in Epstein’s notorious little black book, and that Epstein was once asked whether he had ever been around Trump and underage girls – and he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
This is not a story in which anyone should find satisfaction. Dozens of vulnerable girls were allegedly sexually exploited and abused by Jeffrey Epstein. A great many adults, who should have done the right thing and stood up for these children, chose to look the other way. A few may have even participated in exploitation and rape.
The only way forward is to demand accountability from Epstein, his co-conspirators, and his enablers, without exception and without excuse. Who knew what was going on? Who participated? How, exactly, did Epstein get such a sweet plea deal in Florida?
Wherever these questions lead prosecutors and reporters must follow. And the public must demand real accountability, no matter the answers.
What happens next will be revealing. Any person who participated in or knew about Epstein’s alleged trafficking ring should face (in addition to jail time) total public rejection. If they hold public office, they must resign or be forced out. If they are a lion of politics or public life, they must retreat, live with this profound shame, and know it will taint their legacy forever.
Unfortunately, this isn’t how we’ve treated abusive and predatory men for most of human history. While that’s changing – the #MeToo movement has made an incredible impact – it still seems that a man’s punishment remains contingent on who he is, how powerful he is, and who his allies are. It’s also looking increasingly partisan. While Democrats are far from innocent when it comes to letting badly-behaved men off the hook, the American left has largely stepped up in recent years and demanded accountability from its own. Well-loved men like Al Franken have stepped down in the wake of sexual misconduct. Men whose bad behavior has been long known, like Bill Clinton, are seeing their legacies stained as modern feminists are increasingly willing to criticize their bad acts. When it comes to Epstein, the left is ready and willing to take down anyone who let him get away with his crimes – whoever they are, and however they vote.
But is the political right ready and willing to do the same? Aside from the hopeful conservative claims that Clinton is going down, the actual commitment of conservatives to punishing men for sexual wrongdoing is an outstanding question. Many, many times over, we have seen prominent conservative figures accused of sexual harassment or assault, only to have the most prominent figures on the right just deny it. Women who accuse liberal men of wrongdoing, the thinking seems to be, are to be believed. Women who accuse right-wing men are liars.
Just look at Brett Kavanaugh, who sits on the Supreme Court despite a credible claim of sexual assault and attempted rape. Or Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual misdeeds by more than two dozen women – and most recently of rape. Or Alex Acosta, Trump’s labor secretary, who is the reason Jeffrey Epstein isn’t sitting in federal prison. Too many of the same people salivating over the possibility that some liberal men will be indicated in the Epstein case are too happy to shrug off serious allegation of sexual crimes when those allegations are leveled against men whose politics they share.
Holding people accountable for abusing girls should be a nonpartisan affair. Sadly, in the Trump era of lowered expectations and even more dismal behavior, we can’t even count on that.
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Jill Filipovic is the author of the The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness
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I want Epstein and all his criminal cronies to get thrown in prison for the rest of their natural born lives
I'm with you, I want everybody guilty of this to be thrown in prison for life. And I hope they have a long and healthy life, so they can "enjoy" every day locked away.
The laws are there to protect those that can't protect themselves from predators like Epstein. I don't care who they are or if their last names begin with a "C" or a "T". I want them brought before a court and if found guilty, put behind bars.
An article published last December by OpenSecrets explains why Jeffrey Epstein was offered a plea deal.
Billionaire sex offender Epstein gave heavily to Democrats, until he didn’t -- OpenSecrets.org
From the article:
"The Herald’s look into the plea negotiations revealed “an unusual level of collaboration between federal prosecutors” led by Alexander Acosta, President Donald Trump’s current Secretary of Labor, and Epstein’s legal team of political powerhouses — Alan Dershowitz, Kenneth Starr, Jay Lefkowitz, Roy Black and Jack Goldberger.
A series of stories in the Miami Herald revealed the terms in which the U.S. Attorney’s Office under Acosta negotiated with Epstein’s lawyers to hide the details of the agreement from the victims, to keep the terms of the deal under seal, and to cancel the grand jury subpoenas. "
Nice try Nerm, but no banana
The point is that the plea deal wasn't to protect Jeffrey Epstein. The prosecution records are still out there. Now that Epstein is being prosecuted again (and obviously violated the conditions of the original plea deal) those existing records could be unsealed.
If Democrats can demand public disclosure of grand jury records and material related to the Mueller investigation then Democrats can also demand public disclosure of material related to the Epstein plea deal. And there is valid justification for disclosure of the Epstein records.
Where's the investigative zeal?
No. Epstein was let off the hook to avoid implicating others. Who? That information is in the sealed records.
BTW, should Epstein's legal team be held accountable?
Why protect Jeffrey Epstein? For Alex Acosta this would have been a prosecutor's high profile win that would have benefited Acosta politically.
There's more to the story; unseal the records. As long as the records remain sealed, Acosta is prevented from disclosing details.
Acosta has resigned.
Even more interesting since Edwards was once part of a law firm hired by Epstein and was involved in suits and counter suits against
Epstein, Edwards & Rothstein, his previous attorneys. After Rothstein lost his case and closed the law firm Epstein went after the firms assets
and the individual lawyers many of whom had to settle with him or were charged in a ponzi scheme which Rothstein had started.
Edwards escaped any charges and retaliated with this lawsuit alleging that the secret deal violated the victims rights.
Good for Edwards. Bad for Epstein.
I hope Jeffrey Epstein sings like a bird. And if some Democrats go down, so be it
Degenerate behavior should have no political boundaries and whomever may be found guilty of involvement should receive the maximum penalty in my opinion.
But the reality is that the folks living in this sphere dwell on a different plane than we mere mortals and answer to an alternate set of rules than you and I as evidenced in Mr. Epstein's original deal. Personally I think the victims should have been allowed to stone him to death (with rocks not weed), which would have made this comment moot.
They can all go down, this should never be a partisan issue. Yet we see one political party treading water, peddling excuses and even embracing pedophiles and men who sexually exploit, assault and abuse women.
The old saying "you know a man by the company he keeps" has never been truer than we see now. Trump and his appointed campaign officials and many of his associates, as well as several Republicans in office across the country are being found out as sex offenders.
I never defended Clinton for his lying and the Lewinsky affair, but at least she was an adult. Seems like Republicans have so many scandals going on from the Kraft sex scandal connected to Mar-a-Lago to the credible accusations against Trump and the infamous "Gym" Jordan in Ohio. Republican excuse immoral behavior but expect Democrats to be saints.
I don't give a rat's ass if they are Dem or Repub. All who are involved need to be held accountable, no matter what their party affiliation is.
Yup
All who are involved should be held accountable. (I have not read through the list of 84 comments yet.)
Well, Trump, Clinton, Allen Dershowitz, (the liberal attorney turned Trump ARSE licker, and, many, many more high profile arse-wipes are pissing their panties, or, so I am told by my "sauces".
I have to check my appointment books. I may be summoned, too. Living in NYC at various time in the '60s and '70s, I was a played out "player".
"I can't recall, your honor. It was just one long, hedonistic blurred memory of pleasure, upon on pleasure. I have no recollection. I might have attended those social gatherings".
What-r-ya saying there ETP?!! Don't accept any summons! 'Crusty' old men ought to be somewhere quiet nursing their kneecaps!
Jill Filipovic needs to learn about the necessity for evidence & due process.
As for Epstein, reporters need to begin their investigative journey by looking at the politicians whom he donated money to.
Dear Friend Tessylo: A political commentator I saw on television siad this.
"If Bernie Madoff and Harvey Weinstein had a son, he would be Jeffrey Epstein".
E.