The populism of the Epstein files

Epstein has become the face of a system the protects some and not others.

I’ve had a hard time writing the last few days—not because there’s nothing to say, but because there’s so much happening. From the Washington Post to the Epstein files to the occupation in Minneapolis, I can’t stay focused on one subject long enough to write. And that doesn’t even take into account the primaries here in North Carolina that are less than a month away.

I’m going to focus on the Epstein files for a moment. I don’t think they should have been released, but, unfortunately, they needed to be. They shouldn’t have been released because, like many high-profile investigations, they contain tons of untrue, inaccurate, or irrelevant information. They also contain true, accurate, and relevant information, but they aren’t delivered in a way that allows people to decide what matters and what doesn’t. Besides, most people don’t have the investigative skills or enough information to determine what’s real and what’s not.

The release of sloppily redacted and incomplete files has created less certainty rather than more. Social media is awash with speculation and interpretations that lack scrutiny but quickly become “truth” to too many people. People see what they want to see in what’s been released.

They needed to be released because Donald Trump and MAGA made such a big deal about them throughout the 2024 campaign. They were certain the files were going to bring down a host of big Democrats. The cabal of left-leaning pedophiles—the same narrative that led a QAnon supporter to shoot up a pizzeria in Washington—was supposedly about to be exposed. Somehow, they missed the fact that Donald Trump had been hanging out with Epstein at the height of his depravity. After so many promises, people deserved to see what was in them.

The release reveals a lot of very disturbing information—so much that it’s hard to parse. I don’t believe the storyline about an organized international sex ring of rich and powerful men abusing girls. I do believe that there are, and were, rich and powerful men who turned to Epstein to find them sex, sometimes with teens. Instead of being robust, virile men, many were socially awkward nerds like Larry Summers and Bill Gates, who probably spent their teens and twenties getting rejection after rejection from women. Others turned to Epstein because of his discretion; he would find them sex without undue publicity.

What most of those men shared was not membership in a cabal, but insecurity, narcissism, and a sense of entitlement. Those traits often come hand-in-hand with power and money. While there are plenty of honest and decent people who reach the pinnacle of their professions or become billionaires, many also carry sociopathic tendencies that allow them to abuse and deceive others to achieve their goals.

Epstein understood them because he was one of them. He preyed on them as well as the girls and women. He flattered and courted them, bringing them into his confidence and building his own fortune. He used that fortune to buy legitimacy and social mobility, funding research projects and philanthropic ventures that vaulted him to the top of New York society. Those relationships gave him access to the most powerful people in the world and provided the protection he needed to continue his perversions, pedophilia, and financial scams.

He understood the system and how to work it. The unsealed indictment against him in 2007 is damning and deeply disturbing. He should have gone to prison for the rest of his life. Instead, he got a plea deal handed down by a man who, a decade later, would become Trump’s Secretary of Labor. Epstein knew the right people and hired the right lawyers, earning a slap on the wrist for charges that would have taken a person of lesser means off the streets forever.

That’s the heart of why the Epstein scandal is so damaging to our country and drives such intense interest. It reveals that people with enough wealth and the right contacts can get away with anything. Watching politicians walk away from financial scandals is one thing, but watching a sexual predator walk free and then back into the arms of the elite establishment is another. If billionaires, politicians, CEOs, and academic leaders will forgive the sins of a man who callously destroys the lives of young girls, what won’t they overlook?

The outrage over the Epstein files is real and comes from across the political spectrum. The scandal illuminates a system that is rigged and has been for years. It failed young girls, many of them already struggling, while protecting rich and powerful men—all with the tacit approval of an elite society that is inaccessible to most Americans.

The Epstein saga is an analogy for the populism that’s descended on our country and the world. We have one set of rules for the people who control the levers of power and collect the money. We have another for average Americans who work hard every day, live by the letter of the law, and are barely getting ahead. The people who have been excluded from the latter system are now lumping together all of the people privileged enough to avoid consequences for their actions, whether they deserve them or not.

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