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The arrest of former prince Andrew has underlined the striking contrast between Europe, where high-profile, powerful people are being held to account over their links to Jeffrey Epstein, and the United States, where the fallout has been limited.
Only one person has been arrested or convicted in the United States in connection with the activities of the late sex offender – Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and accomplice.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being found guilty in 2021 of providing minor girls to the wealthy financier, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
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Epstein cultivated a global network of powerful politicians, business executives, academics and celebrities – many of whom have been tainted by their association with him.
A number of prominent Americans – from former president Bill Clinton to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates – have had their reputations damaged by their friendships with Epstein, but no one other than Maxwell has faced legal consequences.
And a top US Justice Department official suggested recently that no prosecutions may be forthcoming.
“In July the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the quote Epstein files and there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN.
“And that’s where we remain for what we’ve seen and what we’ve released from the Epstein files,” said Blanche, who is also President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney.
That explanation has not satisfied a number of US lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, who accuse the Trump Justice Department of dragging its feet.
“The UK has officially done more to prosecute Epstein predators than our own government. Shameful,” Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, said on X.
“A nation that allows the powerful to escape justice is not a nation of laws,” Mace said. “It is a nation of exceptions. And the exceptions always seem to apply to the same people.”
Another Republican lawmaker, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, welcomed Andrew’s arrest but said “now we need justice in the United States”.
“It’s time for @AGPamBondi and @FBIDirectorKash to act!” Massie said on X, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.
Epstein files lower trust
Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, blamed the lack of accountability in the United States squarely on Trump, who was once a close friend of Epstein and moved in the same social circles in Florida and New York.
“Countries across the world are holding their Epstein class accountable,” Gallego said on X. “It isn’t happening in America because we have a pedo protector in the Oval Office running a government coverup for him and his friends.”
Trump fought for months to prevent release of the Epstein files but eventually signed the law passed by Congress requiring their publication. The 79-year-old Republican’s name appears in the files repeatedly but he has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Trump’s right-wing base has long been obsessed with the Epstein saga, and the belief the financier oversaw a sex trafficking ring for the world’s elite.
Trump was asked Thursday if any Epstein associates in the United States will “wind up in handcuffs”.
The president sidestepped the question, reiterating his claim that he personally has been “totally exonerated”. He called Andrew’s arrest a “very sad thing”.
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A Reuters/Ipsos poll published this week found a majority of Americans – 53 percent – say the Epstein files have “lowered their trust in the country’s political and business leaders”.
Sixty-nine percent told pollsters the Epstein files “show that powerful people in the US are rarely held accountable for their actions”.
While there have been no prosecutions beyond Maxwell, several prominent Americans have resigned from high-profile positions after the files revealed they maintained relations with Epstein after his 2008 conviction for sex offenses.
Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers resigned from the board of the OpenAI foundation, and billionaire Thomas Pritzker left the executive chairmanship of Hyatt hotels.
Goldman Sachs announced last week that general counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, a White House lawyer under president Barack Obama, would leave the Wall Street bank at the end of June.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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