Why Did So Many People in Epstein's Circle Look the Other Way?

"Here is what I've learned from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal so far: If you are rich, practiced in the art of flattery, generous with favors and connections and donations, give star-studded dinner parties, and offer flights on your private plane, nobody cares if you hired a 14-year-old girl for sex. Even if you went to jail for it-though Alan Dershowitz and future labor secretary Alexander Acosta finagled a deal whereby you didn't serve your whole sentence and were allowed out during the day and on weekends. Nobody's going to ask a lot of follow-up questions about your activities in the years since your encounter with the law. It was just the one time! Mistake of judgment!"

"As Jeffrey Epstein's very good friend Noam Chomsky (yes, that Noam Chomsky) put it in 2023 when The Wall Street Journal asked him about his extensive contacts with Epstein over many years, "What was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to US laws and norms, that yields a clean slate." (Not exactly-he was, after all, a registered sex offender in two states.)"

"Pay no attention to the flock of pretty young women who surrounded Epstein seemingly everywhere he went, or the Miami Herald 's extensive 2018 reporting on his depredations, or the fact that the private jet that ferried girls and guests to his island in the Caribbean was called the Lolita Express by locals in the Virgin Islands."

"According to a Mother Jones interview with Epstein's long-standing friend the art collector and industrialist Stuart Pivar, "If the conversation drifted beyond his interests, Epstein was known to interrupt, 'What does that got to do with pussy?!'""

Elite status, social charm, and generosity with favors and donations helped shield Jeffrey Epstein from sustained scrutiny despite a conviction for soliciting a minor. A negotiated deal involving Alan Dershowitz and Alexander Acosta allowed shortened incarceration and day/weekend release privileges. Observed signs such as many young women in his circle, investigative reporting by the Miami Herald, and the nickname "Lolita Express" for his private jet failed to prompt full accountability. Appeals to legal norms of a "clean slate" after serving a sentence overlooked Epstein's registered sex-offender status and ongoing social access that facilitated impunity.

Read at The Nation