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The transatlantic Epstein divide
Schadenfreude isn’t a particularly noble sentiment. But who cares, eh? These days bad things never seem to happen to bad people; accountability is fleetingly rare. So I think we should all take a moment to really appreciate how glorious the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office on Thursday was. Not only was the disgraced royal dragged in for questioning like a mere commoner; the arrest happened on his 66th birthday. Instead of birthday cake, he got his just deserts. And, to top things off, the occasion was immortalized with a photo – an instant classic – of Andrew leaving the police station looking shell shocked and decrepit.
Mountbatten-Windsor has now been released from custody, but the investigation into allegations he shared confidential information with Jeffrey Epstein is ongoing. King Charles has said the “law must take its course” and the head of the Crown Prosecution Service has said that “nobody is above the law”.
Lovely as that last sentiment is, it’s not entirely true. If the law really were enforced evenly, then I think Andrew would have found himself in legal trouble a long time ago. Nobody, not even the king, seems to be quite sure how the former prince has managed to fund his extravagant lifestyle over the years. There has long been speculation that he abused his role promoting British trade abroad for personal gain, though he denies the claims. And when the late Virginia Giuffre brought a civil case against Andrew in New York in 2021, alleging he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 (allegations he denies), he managed to get his hands on £12m (more than $16m) to settle the case with no admission of liability. The reason the disgraced royal is being investigated now isn’t because the system is seamlessly working as it should; it’s because of the release of the Epstein files after Giuffre spent years bravely telling her story and trying to get justice. And, of course, she died before justice could be delivered. No formal police investigation in the UK followed her claims.
Still, while this royal reckoning may be a long time coming, we must take our victories where we find them. And the fact that, in the UK, the king’s brother is being seriously investigated for wrongdoing is undoubtedly a victory. Particularly as the royal isn’t the only high-profile Brit who has found himself in serious trouble over Epstein. Peter Mandelson, the veteran politician sometimes known as the Prince of Darkness, was fired from his post as the UK’s ambassador to the US last September after the release of emails which showed his close ties to Epstein. He’s also now the subject of a criminal investigation into allegations that he passed market-sensitive information to the financier. Epstein talked about getting intelligence from both Mountbatten-Windsor and Mandelson, boasting in one email: “I’ve got the UK sewn up.”
The Epstein revelations have also shaken Britain’s ruling party. While Sir Keir Starmer seems to be hanging onto his position as prime minister for now, his government has faced immense turmoil and Starmer has had to explain why he hired Mandelson despite having some knowledge of his links to the dead pedophile, even after Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor; Andrew’s relationship with him continued afterward, too.
The wheels of justice are also moving very slowly over in France. Back in 2020, a former modelling agent called Jean-Luc Brunel was arrested in relation to his connection with Epstein. Brunel was found dead in his Paris prison cell in 2022 after being accused of rape and held on suspicion of trafficking minors. (Security in certain prison cells sure does seem lax, doesn’t it?) The case again him was later dropped. Last weekend, however, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced it would re-examine Brunel’s case as part of a broader effort to review the Epstein files for evidence that might implicate French nationals.
Meanwhile, over in the US, there seems to be very little hope that justice will come for any of the powerful men connected to Epstein. The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has so far ignored the calls for him to resign over his Epstein links. The former boss of Victoria’s Secret and Epstein associate Les Wexner has testified before a congressional committee but faced no real consequences. The billionaire businessperson Leon Black still sits on the Museum of Modern Art trustee board despite his Epstein ties. I could go on and on. Certain people, including former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, who relinquished a Harvard teaching role amid an Epstein inquiry, have had to step back from their public roles, and a lot of reputations have been marred. But the only person who has seen criminal consequences in the US for their Epstein dealings is Ghislaine Maxwell, a British woman.
The discrepancy in Epstein-related fallout on both sides of the Atlantic hasn’t gone unnoticed, with a number of lawmakers calling it out. Skye Roberts, the brother of the late Virginia Giuffre, has also said the UK is doing far more than the US is. “I think that the king can hold his head high when he comes here saying: ‘I am doing the most that I can,’” Roberts said. “While here in the United States, our president has yet to even do even remotely the same.”
Why has there been so much more accountability in the UK than the US? One theory is that the British public have slightly less tolerance for bad behaviour. “It suggests to me we [in the UK] have a more functional media, we have a more functional accountability structure, that there is still a degree of shame in politics, in terms of people will say: ‘This is just not acceptable, this is just not done,’” the University of Manchester political science professor Rob Ford told the AP.
While that might be correct to some small degree, I don’t think Britain should be patting itself on the back too much. This is not a case of Britain’s accountability structures working well. Rather it’s a reflection of just how much Trump has exploded norms in the US and just how ingrained Epstein was with the US establishment and elites. According to one New York Times analysis, the Epstein files contain more than 38,000 references to Donald and Melania Trump, Mar-a-Lago and other related words. This isn’t to say that any of these references, some of which are unverified tips, are damning; Trump has said their relationship ended in the early 2000s. But there sure do seem to be a lot of links between the two men. Could the fact that Trump is more eager to talk about UFOs and the stock market than Epstein perchance have to do with the fact that the president of the US is desperately trying to cover something up? Certainly that’s what most people with a functioning brain think. More than half of Americans in a new Economist/YouGov poll said they believe Trump is attempting to conceal crimes committed by Epstein.
All this to say: get your act together, America. Two hundred and fifty years ago, you got rid of a king. Now, however, a country that likes to boast about its democracy has become a new sort of monarchy. An unelected ruling class lords itself over the rest of us from its modern castles. Its money shapes our politics and, with the media increasingly being controlled by billionaires, our opinions. And its privilege seems to offer complete protection from our laws.
Young Palestinian American killed by Israeli settlers in West Bank
Speaking of a lack of accountability, a 19-year-old Palestinian American man was killed and four other people injured when a group of Israeli settlers, reportedly backed by Israeli forces, opened fire on a village in the occupied West Bank. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 2023; far more have been driven from their homes by relentless harassment. Meanwhile, foreign reporters are still not allowed in the ruins of Gaza to document the destruction.
Bill Gates cancels keynote speech in India amid Epstein controversy
When people hear the name “Bill Gates” now, an increasingly large number of people don’t think “vaccines, philanthropy, climate crisis”. They think: that creep who allegedly tried to slip his wife, Melinda French Gates, antibiotics because he’d contracted a sexually transmitted disease with “Russian girls”. Gates denies this, but French Gates heavily alluded to a lot of “muck” in their marriage and said her husband’s relationship with Epstein is one reason for their split. Certainly all the muck seems to have had some impact on his speaking engagements.
Congressman Randy Fine compares dogs to Muslims
The Maga lawmaker and proud bigot tweeted: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.” He has now presented a “Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act” in response to the (fairly limited) backlash. You know, if Fine continues to act like a braindead Islamophobe, he has a good chance of becoming president one day.
Winter Olympic village runs out of condoms after three days
In fluffier news, athletes in Italy seem to be having a lot of fun.
Utah Republican party leader accused of ‘waterboarding’ daughter
The party of family values strikes again.
The week in pawtriarchy
A Czechoslovakian wolfdog called Nazgul made a cameo in the Winter Olympics, enthusiastically joining in on the qualifying race for the women’s cross-country sprint. No medals were awarded, but as Nazgul knows, it’s pawticipation that really counts.
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Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
