The Brooklyn Rail

I have a deep-seated abhorrence for the kind of elitism exemplified by the lives of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. The features of this elitism came through loud and clear in Todd Blanche’s fawning, disgraceful “proffer” with Maxwell in July. Maxwell was born into privilege and has always taken her superiority and prior exemption for granted. Both Epstein and Maxwell were obsessed with being in proximity to people that were famous for being famous, and one entire tier of that category, especially for Maxwell, was occupied by British royals. Prince Andrew was to be kept supplied with underage girls no matter what.

Monarchy was the preferred milieu. Epstein and Maxwell valued wealth and power and visibility over all things, but they needed to keep their main enterprise entirely secret, known only to those who participated in it. It could never be exposed to hoi polloi, the many, because the many were too stupid to appreciate it. The girls they recruited and abused represented the many then, and they are rising to represent us again.

It was inevitable that Donald Trump, Epstein, and Maxwell would become fast friends. They viewed the world through the same lens. Their goal was to have power over others, however that was gained. It was not enough to have money and power; these things had to be marshalled over and against other, “weaker,” people. Maxwell called the girls she and Epstein recruited and trafficked “trash.” Trump has called his own supporters “weak” and “stupid”(if they don’t stop talking about the Epstein Files). The danger now is that the con of the whole Trump enterprise will be exposed.

Even though he has been given the office of Deputy Attorney General in Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, Todd Blanche was clearly still acting as Donald Trump’s personal defense attorney when he interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell in July. He was there for the sole purpose of getting Maxwell to go on record saying that Trump wasn’t involved with the trafficking ring (“he was a perfect gentleman”). In those nine hours of immunized “conversation” with Blanche, Maxwell told one lie after another. But the biggest one came when she told Blanche that all of her victims were lying when they testified against her in court; that they made the whole thing up. The jury thought differently. In 2021, a jury of six men and six women found Maxwell guilty on five of six counts of sex trafficking and conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse multiple teenage girls from 1994 to 2004.

One of those who testified against Maxwell and whose name was kept confidential at the trial but has now come forward is Anouska de Georgiou. “Ghislaine Maxwell was a liar when I met her,” said de Georgiou, “and she’s a liar now.”

On September 2, Trump’s DOJ released 33,000 pages of material on Epstein. This is one gigabyte of material out of the 300 gigabytes that comprise the Epstein Files, and 97% of the material in this latest release is already publicly available. To date, less than 1% of the Epstein Files have been released. The Department of Justice needs to release all the files now.

Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California have co-sponsored a discharge petition seeking to publicize all the government files on Epstein and Maxwell. Their discharge petition would force a floor vote in the House. The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, the Christian nationalist, is doing everything he can to shield Trump and others implicated in the Epstein/Maxwell child sex trafficking ring from being exposed, and to protect House Republicans from having to vote on the release of documents, on the record.

Massie and Khanna held a press conference on September 3 on the steps of the Capitol with a number of Epstein’s victims. The nine women who spoke were articulate, moving, and persuasive. Their testimonies dispelled any idea that the Epstein case is a “Democrat hoax,” as Trump is now claiming. 86% of Americans believe the women and want the files to be released.

Anouska de Georgiou was the first to speak at the press conference, about “ending secrecy wherever abuse of power takes root.” Then came Annie Farmer, about what happens when “the system meant to protect us recreates the abuse cycle” and brings about “two Americas, one for people with power and privilege and one for everyone else.” And she entreated the Congress and the President to realize that “We are the Americans you promised to protect.”

Lisa Phillips said the survivors would “compile our own list” of abusers, since they all know exactly who participated in the abuse and who enabled it. Chauntae David said, “Trump was his biggest brag.” And Teresa Helm talked about how the voice of Ghislaine Maxwell in that conversation with Todd Blanche brought back terrifying memories. “It was the same calm, coercive, manipulative voice that she used to groom people, the same voice that sent me off to a monster.”

Why is Trump so afraid to have the Epstein Files released? In his statement from the Oval Office as the women were speaking at the Capitol today, Trump presented himself as the victim, because all the focus on the crimes committed against these women is taking the focus off of all the wonderful, successful things he’s done over the past eight months. “That’s what we should be talking about,” he said, “not the Epstein Hoax.”

Trump actually believes that he is the real survivor here. He has survived scores of women credibly accusing him of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. He survived the E. Jean Carroll trial, even though she beat him in court. Trump’s whole life has been punctuated with prosecutions and convictions for being a creep and a predator, like his best friend Epstein, and both of them have, for the most part, gotten away with it.

But the women on the Capitol steps on September 3 are extremely dangerous now, because they have gotten together with each other. They are no longer alone. And they have nothing to lose. This also makes them especially dangerous.