The wealthy gaggle of men who hung around Epstein—some even after he was a known sex offender—have just flitted back to their lives, no questions (as far as we know) asked by prosecutors.
Sure, we have seen ripples of repercussions. Joi Ito lost his job at the MIT Media Lab for taking money from Epstein—a self-professed “error in judgment.” Bill Gates finally came forward and admitted his association with Epstein was “a huge mistake”; it reportedly played a major role in his divorce. Prince Andrew paid a settlement to his accuser Virginia Roberts Guiffre and was stripped of his royal title.
But in the context of the larger crimes, these all seem like paltry prices to pay.
There was an entire circle of male power that surrounded Jeffrey Epstein. Just this weekend, I learned from someone whose anonymity I promised to protect that the same web continues apace. I am told that, during the Cannes Film Festival this year, $10,000 in cash was exchanged in order for 20 models (of unknown ages) to be bussed from Milan to the French riviera.
The trafficking of human females is still a lucrative business. And it’s run by men. It was this web that held up Epstein’s entire sex-trafficking enterprise. Without these men, Jeffrey Epstein wouldn’t have been propped up to run his criminal sexual enterprise.
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