Elite Impunity?

The Epstein files release not only compromises the individuals involved, they are shaking the very foundations of our institutional frameworks

It took me a while to dive into it, I thought of it as a tabloid story while the world was tuning into Ukraine, Iran and Israel; there was far more important stuff. I also felt that it would not be impactful enough to shake up Trump’s presidency as his involvement appeared to be somewhat immaterial. Yet, with the latest disclosures there is no way to any longer ignore the Epstein files. Every release takes down a figure of import, be it a businessman, a royal, a rockstar or a politician, and each time the scale of this sordid affair widens and deepens.

And it happens in context. While this saga a few decades ago would be classified as another scandal of the rich and famous, in today’s world of affordability crises, divisiveness, resentment and renewed antisemitism it is quite possibly the last thing western democracies need. The Epstein files reveal how a creeping moral rot is eating away at the foundations and power structures of our free and open societies.

Take for instance one of the bigger scalps that was taken this week. Lord Mandelson, the man behind Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, one of the architects of New Labour, who was one of the symbols of the progressive neo-liberal zeitgeist that promised a world of free trade and abundance for all in the 1990s. Few could foresee that all of that carried the seeds of the financial crisis of 2008 and eventually Brexit and the emergence of Trump. I had the pleasure once of running into Mandelson, at Web Summit in Lisbon, and saw a man who could comfortably rake in the rewards of his reputation with wise and informed commentary.

That resulted last year in the plummest of plum positions, the appointment to be his Majesty’s ambassador to the United States. A role that ended after only seven months as his involvement with both Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell came to light. The latest release of documents by the American Department of Justice (DOJ) last Friday makes it clear how deep that relationship was. It was less about sex - Mandelson is gay and was probably not into teenage girls - but more about influence peddling and money. Nick Cohen in this long expose makes it clear that Mandelson was actively working with Epstein against the UK government that he himself was a part of. Epstein rewarded him for his services and you could indeed ask yourself if $75,000 was worth it, but Mandelson has a long track record of improprieties and he always managed to somehow get away with it.

The relevance here is that Mandelson was Starmer’s pick, a sitting UK prime minister who should well have been aware of the past dealings of his appointed ambassador to Washington. Starmer put forward a man whose moral turpitude had been an integral part of Mandelson’s career. And the same by the way goes for Bill Gates - see his former spouse Melinda’s response to the STDs stories here - and of course Bill Clinton who has now volunteered to testify before Congress, a pre-emptive move to spite Trump or to salvage his reputation? Who knows. All of them were complicit.

The biggest surprise may be not so much the named people themselves, but the fact that their sexual and financial proclivities often totally overrode any instincts they should have had as normally functioning human beings, indeed as public figures. And in most cases they continued their relations with Epstein well after his guilty plea for sex crimes in 2008. And while the public is lapping up the gory details about Russian hookers and what not, the real unanswered question remains where Epstein generated the hundreds of millions to finance his enterprise came from. Why is this angle so underexplored?

But yes, in a time when weak leadership collides with global crises and deep economic uncertainties, the roles the rich and famous play will come under intense scrutiny. The moral outrage over the abuse of young women can now be combined with all sorts of unsavoury financial dealings. The ‘elites’ will be targeted and their ideological make-up is totally irrelevant: the left and the right were all in on it.

It is the fact that a separate class can do whatever it likes at whatever the cost, while continuing to enrich themselves. Fertile soil for populist agendas. It is also fuelling the rising tide of antisemitism, the presence of people like Ehud Barak and Larry Summers on the list is not helpful. Already the most disgusting theories about Jews controlling the world are doing the rounds on social media, exploiting myths that hail all the way back to the dark Middle Ages. This is fodder for the conspiracy theorists and nutters on all sides of the political spectrum, and it spreads like wildfire on social media.

Another area of concern is that a large chunk of the Epstein files is still under wraps and unlikely to be released by the DOJ. That will not only fuel more and wild rumours, it also means that the Epstein name will be with us for some time to come and will impact future election cycles, in the US, but also in the UK. It is one of the harbingers of further political instability and will help the new Marxists and Fascists everywhere.

So yes, these files and their staged releases are putting a blunt hammer to our social fabric and political conventions. They reveal the unthinkable and erode confidence at a time when we need to be able to trust our leaders more than ever. The enemies from within will exploit this and the resulting damage may be irreversible. The few incorruptible leaders that we have left may be unable to save it all. Jeffrey Epstein will be with us for a long time.

Photo top: Lord Mandelson (he will probably also lose his peerage so we can call him Peter again) and Jeffrey Epstein in 2005. Below, Mandelson on the left, chatting at Web Summit in 2021.