July 10, 2019
Since Saturday’s arrest of pedophile “billionaire,” Jeffrey Epstein, we have been learning both the depth of his depravity and the long list of his powerful enablers. According to the indictment unsealed on Monday, Epstein, who counted both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton as friends, lured dozens of underage girls to his homes in New York and Florida and sexually abused them. According to the indictment, Epstein “maintain[ed] ‘a steady supply of new victims to exploit by paying past victims to recruit new victims,’” (Source: “Who is Jeffrey Epstein?” by Deanna Paul, The Washington Post, 7/8/19).
It is only thanks to the dogged investigative reporting of The Miami Herald’s indefatigable Julie K. Brown that this rock has been overturned to reveal the maggots beneath. Julie K. Brown uncovered almost 100 victims of Epstein’s perversity and revealed that then U.S. Attorney, Alex Acosta, had negotiated a sweetheart plea deal that allowed Epstein, who was facing 45 years in prison, to plead to one count of soliciting a minor for prostitution and serve a mere 13 months in a county jail (Source: “The Jeffrey Epstein Case Was Cold, Until A Miami Herald Reporter Got Accusers To Talk,” by Tiffany Hsu, The New York Times, 7/9/19). What’s worse, Acosta concealed the fact that he was negotiating a non-prosecution agreement from Epstein’s victims, in contravention of the law (Source: “Federal prosecutors broke law in Jeffrey Epstein case, judge rules,” by Julie K. Brown, The Miami Herald, 2/21/19). The only plausible explanation for Acosta’s indefensible actions is that he was intimidated by the likes of Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr or that he was compromised himself.
While we don’t know which of Epstein’s famous and powerful friends will be implicated in this unfolding morass of perversion, we do know that this entire deeply disturbing episode shows the extent to which powerful men consider women and girls utterly disposable beings who exist solely to satisfy their most prurient appetites. Yet, any belief that the capacity to dehumanize women and girls was limited to those whose wealth insulated them from consequences was disabused by the story that broke yesterday. NBC News reported on multiple allegations of abuse of children in an immigration detention facility in Yuma, Arizona, by staff members. Allegations including forcing children to sleep on the floor in retaliation for complaints about food and water and a truly disturbing report of the sexual abuse of a 15 year old girl by a guard in the facility. The young girl asserted that an officer groped her in front of other detainees, while laughing and joking with other staff members, none of whom stepped in to intervene, (Source: “Migrant kids in overcrowded Arizona border station allege sex assault, retaliation from U.S. agents,” by Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley, NBCnews.com, 7/9/19).
Meanwhile, rather than move to impeach Acosta, who as Labor Secretary is responsible for combatting human trafficking (!) or pushing to shut down the government’s operation of concentration camps that are torturing children, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reserved her ire for four progressive women of color in the House freshmen class. We need to take a long hard look in the mirror at what we’ve become. Our country seems to be comprised only of three kinds of people – predators; those who, through their actions or their indifference, are complicit; and those who are outraged enough to fight. Which kind of person are you?
#LightsforLiberty
#one-family.org