The Epstein files arrest of former ‘Prince’ Andrew makes Trump’s Justice Department look pathetic
On Thursday, America woke up to the news that Andrew (the artist formerly known as Prince) had been arrested over serious allegations made in the Epstein files. And you know what? It felt good.
There has been much consternation in the U.K. about the fact that Andrew’s “punishment” for alleged bad behavior looked very much like being handed a fancy free house and a lavishly funded retirement in obscurity. If that’s what you get for being a creep, then you might find a lot of similarly sweatless men lining up to be publicly “shamed” for their past misgivings.
The fact that the ex-royal has now been formally arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office looks like a big PR win for the embattled U.K. Because, given the same access to the same documents as the U.S., British police actually did something. King Charles’ response to his brother being taken into custody — that “the law must take its course” — was similarly indicative of actually letting something be done. If you squint, it all looks very open and sensible and upstanding.
Obviously, if you stop squinting and think about the whole “pedophile island visited regularly by international elites” thing, it all starts to look a bit less shiny.
And now let’s take a look at the other side of the Atlantic, where I currently sit: the side where Donald Trump — mentioned multiple times in the Epstein files, famously pictured partying with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, though he denies wrongdoing and claims that he cut ties with the sex trafficker pedophiles who were his former friends long before Epstein’s first conviction in 2008 — says it’s “really time” for us to all move on.
Because yes, there are a lot of emails, a lot of photographs. There are lots of claims, many salacious and unfounded. There are also a whole load of redactions. Of course, of course, it’s clear some bad stuff happened. But didn’t a couple of people resign from a couple of posts at a couple of universities? Anyway, have you heard about the Board of Peace?
The problem is that when you make the Epstein files a central part of your election strategy, it’s hard to shrug your shoulders and say, “that’s all, folks” as soon as they actually get released. Despite some truly shocking claims — that there may have been children as young as 9 years old, perhaps even younger, who were trafficked by Epstein and his associates; that there was a “torture video” shared among them; that Epstein and Maxwell paid their victims to recruit their friends into the trafficking network — there has been very little action by the DOJ.
In fact, it’s unclear whether the Justice Department has even looked closely enough at the tranche of files to know the basic specifics. Attorney General Pam Bondi erroneously claimed that all the files had been released just days ago. She also refused to acknowledge the victims at a congressional hearing who said they had been unable to meet with her Justice Department thus far, shrugging the claim off as “theatrics.”
Bondi’s reaction followed a now-familiar script: claim a “Democrat” witch hunt, refuse to mention the victims, immediately deflect into whataboutism. But loudly asking why the previous administration did nothing doesn’t count as action. It gets old quickly.
We have now seen releases of FBI files and heard the shock and horror of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. We, the American public, have access to a lot of the emails but lawmakers have seen even more of them behind closed doors. We have heard from the U.N. itself that some of these allegations amount to crimes against humanity.
So where are the arrests? Where is the crack team poring over every single date and word in order to hold as many people as possible to account? Where are the back-to-back, day-and-night meetings with the victims to gather every single possible morsel of data, to piece together a constellation of crimes so that the perpetrators may be held to account? Where is the DOJ? And why, oh why does justice in America these days look like a bunch of millionaires stepping down from their very prestigious jobs?
As yet, we are waiting to see a single U.S. arrest following the release of the files: Epstein (dead) and Maxwell (currently seeking a pardon from Trump in exchange for clearing his name and doing so in a “Club Fed”-style prison she was moved to by Trump’s DOJ after being interviewed by the president’ former personal lawyer Todd Blanche) remain the only ones.
At risk of stating the obvious: When a cabal of ultra-wealthy and ultra-connected individuals stand accused of some of the worst crimes against humanity, “moving on” is a hard sell. This isn’t a nasty divorce where everyone said some things they all regret. This is not behavior within the norm. And as a society, we simply cannot afford to absorb this.
The behavior we leave unchallenged now is the behavior that we tacitly accept.
Andrew Mountbatton-Windsor should have been removed from public office earlier. And no, it doesn’t feel entirely satisfactory that he was stripped of his titles — few of us have aristocratic titles, after all — and no longer (no longer?!) living off British taxpayers’ money (he now lives off King Charles’ private funds, which Charlie Boy didn’t exactly accrue by working the checkout counter at Tesco.) We do not know whether his arrest will lead to a formal charge or a criminal trial.
Nevertheless, this whole thing clearly makes one side of the Atlantic look undeniably better than the other in the handling of the Epstein files. And sure, the royals must be cognizant a crisis could be looming, considering public support for the gilded freeloaders is now lower than ever. Andrew’s not exactly a shining ambassador for their brand.
But by God, doesn’t Britain’s willingness to go after him make America look absolutely pathetic in comparison?
