Remarkably, most of the men connected to the convicted sex offender have barely experienced any fallout. That says as much as the scandal itself, says Emma Brockes

Still, let’s give it a go. Bill Gates, very much in contact with Epstein from 2011, has suffered no apparent ill effects from the association.

No one expects anything of Steve Bannon, so he’s fine, despite exchanging hundreds of texts and emails with Epstein right up to the year of his death.

Ditto Martin Nowak, the professor of maths and biology who was placed under sanctions by Harvard for two years after the extent of his personal and financial association with Epstein was revealed, but has since had all his privileges restored.

Anyway, Woody Allen! An occasional dining companion of Epstein’s who showed up in the latest Epstein photo dump relaxing with him over coffee and on set, and who recently said of the man: “He couldn’t have been nicer.”

And still among these men the most brazen escaper surely has to be Michael Wolff, the journalist who offered Epstein PR advice while recording more than 100 hours of interviews with him. Wolff has not only escaped unscathed but has successfully leveraged the association by claiming unique insight into Epstein in his endless podcast and social-media appearances.

  • celeste@kbin.earth
    11·
    1 day ago

    I wish we could offer the victims lifelong protection from retribution if they agree to name names. They deserve to live full, healthy lives and the people who hurt them need to face justice. As it is…

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/epstein-survivors-list/

    When they’ve tried to do anything, nothing comes of it and their lives get worse.

    “Most of the individuals, the victims, are very scared to say these names because they could get sued. They’re going to get attacked, and nobody protected them the first time and that was against one person,” Edwards said.

    Henderson added, “I think if someone’s interested in prosecuting, they may have something different to say about sharing a list, but they’re not sharing a list for nothing to happen. And that’s the experience that they’ve had for all of these years.”

    All their lives, they get treated like a sacrifice for other people to get what they want. They get raped to fulfill the fantasies of the powerful. They get threatened if they ever say anything. Now, the well intentioned keep pushing them to come out with names for the greater good. Are there negotiations behind the scenes to make sure the people who victimized them don’t use their considerable power and lack of interest in abiding to the law (by definition, if someone raped a child, they don’t care about exclusively following the law) to further harm them? And everyone they care about?