What the Epstein Files Say About the Impunity of the Rich

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FEATURING JEET HEER - The latest trove of Epstein files released by the United States Justice department came many weeks after a deadline Congress had established through the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Some three million pages of documents published contain heavy redactions, and yet, in many cases, victims of the sordid sex trafficking ring that Epstein led were exposed. 

Meanwhile, the perpetrators and beneficiaries of Jeffrey Epstein’s web continue to operate in public with impunity. 

What do Epstein’s operations tell us about the capitalist world of billionaire elites?

Jeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” He's written about the Epstein files here and here. He spoke with Sonali Kolhatkar about the how the story reveals the ugly collusion of moneyed elites.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: Let's first talk, before we get to the “warlord” aspect of it, let's talk about what the Epstein files say about the social networking that it seems as though the wealthy of the world are involved in behind closed doors. This sordid story unveils of course, not only the way in which women and girls have been victimized and offered up as objects for mostly men to enjoy. But it also reveals the way in which often these connections were built on trading favors, much of it after Epstein was already convicted, was already in the sights of federal investigators?

Jeet Heer: Yeah, no, that’s absolutely right. I mean obviously the most horrifying part is the sexual predation of children, which Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell participated in. And, which I mean, there's considerable evidence to believe that they were involved with sort of trafficking. And one of the interesting things is that the only Epstein and Maxwell were ever charged with this, even though it seems to go farther. 

The way I would put it is like if you're convicting someone, as you did with Maxwell, of being a trafficker, then they must have had clients. But the department of Justice position seems to be that trafficking happened but, you had pimps without Johns.