Epstein, a weapon of disinformation

The U.S. government’s release of over three million new documents, including 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, from Jeffrey Epstein’s file exposes the hypocrisy of the Trump administration regarding the manner and timing of its public disclosure. It also raises well-founded suspicions that the breadth and influence of the sex offender’s circle of accomplices contributed to his initial 2008 sentence being very lenient, thus allowing his heinous crimes to continue with complete impunity until July 2019. Finally, and equally important, it necessitates a collective effort to clearly distinguish between mere casual encounters, dangerous relationships, reprehensible behavior, and potential crimes among the extensive list of individuals from all walks of life who appear in the released documents.

First, it’s important to pay attention to how Trump is handling the timing of the documents’ release because it goes far beyond mere mismanagement. The president and his inner circle have maintained a completely erratic and misinformation-generating attitude toward the scandal. Initially, they encouraged the conspiracy theory that the convicted sex offender didn’t commit suicide in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail, but was instead eliminated by powerful figures (primarily from progressive sectors of the American political spectrum) who feared being implicated if the truth came out. However, when Trump’s name surfaced in connection with Epstein’s—including messages that were, at the very least, ambiguous about the nature of their friendship—the Trump administration insisted there was nothing to see and decided not to release the documents. Faced with what appeared to be a clear attempt to conceal information, Congress forced the administration to release all the documents by last December. Even so, Trump is delivering late and in dribs and drabs, which is causing a loss of public interest while overshadowing the public discussion about serious events, such as the situation in Minneapolis caused by the White House’s anti-immigration measures.

Beyond the presidential dynamics and the scandal that this sex trafficker and child rapist’s close relationship with prominent figures worldwide might generate, what the latest declassification confirms is how certain power circles operate when they escape public scrutiny. In other words, how a despicable character, already convicted of forcing a minor into prostitution, continued to attract the attention of all sorts of influential people and was warmly feted in circles completely restricted to the vast majority of the population. Only after his arrest in 2019 and as the atrocities he committed—and helped others commit—became known did statements multiply from those who claimed to have distanced themselves from Epstein after that first conviction. The evidence demonstrates the falsity of many of these claims.

The Justice Department considers the case closed, but it’s unclear what the next step might be in revealing the crimes of the man a judge described as “the most dangerous sexual predator in U.S. history.” In any case, transparency from those responsible for providing the information, and objectivity and accurate interpretation by those who receive and disseminate it, will be crucial.

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