Orgy Island

It's pretty obvious that Jeffrey Epstein is a scumbag, who has been known to local authorities in South Florida and New York for more than two decades and who, until the most recent federal indictments in the Southern District of NY, has skated past serious sexually-oriented criminal charges involving underage girls. Epstein, a billionaire, had juice, connections within the establishment, that allowed him to continue his predatory behavior for years. Like Harvey Weinstein, he had rich and powerful friends who looked the other way. In fact, it appears that at least a few of Epstein's rich and powerful friends participated in his activities—and that gave him additional protection.

Until ex-President Bill Clinton became persona non gratia among the woke elements of the Democratic party, the media soft-pedaled Epstein's crimes, at least to the extent that they refused to dig too deeply into his association with other rich and powerful people (including Bill Clinton). Now, the media's interest in Epstein has changed. The reason—the trained hamsters think there is a way to connect members of the Trump administration, specifically Labor Secretary Andrew Acosta and even Donald Trump himself, to Epstein. Acosta was U.S. attorney in South Florida when Epstein faced a 53-page sex-trafficking FBI indictment. According to Frank Cerabino of The Palm Beach Post, Acosta "worked with Epstein’s lawyers to create a “non-prosecution agreement” that guaranteed immunity to any men who participated in Epstein’s underage sex parties, while also gifting Epstein with a shockingly lenient resolution to his crimes."

Cerabino continues:

What Acosta did was inexcusable, and the fact that he now runs a federal agency charged with exposing human trafficking, and was recently hailed as a possible nominee to fill the vacancy of U.S. Attorney General, makes things even worse.

But the original villain in this story is former Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer.

Acosta shouldn’t have been in the position to consider the Epstein case. Krischer got it first, and it was handed to the Palm Beach County prosecutor on a platter by the Town of Palm Beach Police.

The Palm Beach Police had conducted an in-depth investigation of Epstein and concluded that he was praying on underage girls. Krischer essentially looked away. Again from The Palm Beach Post:

Then-Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter was so outraged by the state attorney’s actions that he wrote a letter to Krischer asking him to disqualify himself from the Epstein prosecution.

“I continue to find your office’s treatment of these cases highly unusual,” Reiter wrote.

Reiter also complained to the FBI, asking the feds to take over the investigation. And the bureau did, calling the Epstein’s case “Operation Leap Year.”

That's where Acosta got involved. Interestingly, the Palm Beach County Epstein backstory involving Krischer, a Democrat, isn't getting much coverage. The equally egregious treatment of Epstein by Acosta, a Republican, is. No surprise there.
As this salacious case moves forward, it will be interesting to see how the media covers it. Will both Dem and GOP members of the establishment who are involved in this mess be exposed equally, or will the emphasis be on players in the current administration?

If past history serves, I suspect the the Epstein case will be used to create another faux-scandal (think: Russian collusion) that attempts to connect Donald Trump to Epstein in the public consciousness. There's little question that Trump knew Epstein and was in his presence multiple times. But unlike Bill Clinton,* there is no evidence that he participated in Epstein's predations or took multiple trips on Epstein's jet to visit "Orgy Island," Epstein's private retreat in the Bahamas. I have to wonder which set of facts gets more media coverage.

UPDATE:
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This take on the Epstein saga by Thomas Lifson is worth considering:

It strikes me as quite unlikely that Jeffrey Epstein's motive for allegedly inviting powerful figures from the U.S. and Europe aboard the Lolita Express on a trip to Orgy Island was mere fellowship — as if they were playing a round of golf together. My dominant hypothesis is that he was video-recording highly illegal and morally reprehensible rapes for use as blackmail material. It might have been insurance against serious prosecution for his indulging in his own perversion, which would explain why his punishment the first time he was prosecuted was laughably light.

It will be interesting to see whether the same thing happens again. The Clintons have lost almost all of their political power and it appears that Bill is the most vulnerable Epstein connection here. But Bill and Hillary may have incriminating information about others that could still have powerful sway. We'll see what happens.

FOOTNOTE:
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* Steven Green notes that Fox News reported back in 2016 that Clinton ‘was a much more frequent flyer on a registered sex offender’s infamous jet than previously reported, with flight logs showing the former president taking at least 26 trips aboard the ‘Lolita Express’ — even apparently ditching his Secret Service detail for at least five of the flights, according to records obtained by FoxNews.com.’ Oh wow. That sounds bad. Was he doing something unsavory?”

I have to wonder whether the trained hamsters will be as enthusiastic in following that story as they are in trying desparately to connect Trump to Epstein.