America’s shame is that Trump can remain shameless

The saga of the so-called “Epstein files” is extraordinary for many reasons, not least because it has turned rational, fact-adherent news consumers into conspiracy theorists. Or it has at least made us conspiracy-theory-curious.

There are so many unanswered questions about the case, and Jeffrey Epstein’s activities when he was alive and trafficking girls, that you don’t have to be paranoid to wonder if there hasn’t been some high-level cover-up of some of the most damning parts of the case.

Donald Trump and his future wife, Melania, with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2000.Credit: Getty Images

The conspiracy theories swirling around Epstein were initially useful to US President Donald Trump. Stoking them helped him woo the substantial chunk of the MAGA base who believe that Washington elites were involved in powerful paedophile rings that trafficked young girls.

Gross antisemitism is rife among these far-right conspiracy theorists, and Epstein’s Jewishness dovetails neatly with their belief that nefarious Jews are running the world, working against the interests of the rest of the population.

Trump was happy to play along with these conspiracies for a good while, and promised to release publicly the FBI files on Epstein – these are substantial, and include 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence.

In February, Attorney-General Pam Bondi said she was sitting on large amounts of evidence relating to the case that would be released. But in July she said that after reviewing it she had discovered that no Epstein client list existed. No files would be released.

Trump was a close friend of Epstein’s – the two kicked around together in the Tom Wolfe-hued, moneyed Manhattan scene of the ’80s and ’90s. Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet seven times, according to flight logs. He says they fell out over a property deal in 2004.

Last week The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s name appears in the Epstein files and that the president has been informed of this “multiple times” by members of his administration, including by Bondi. There is no suggestion Trump is accused of wrongdoing, only that his name appears in the FBI documents relating to Epstein. He denies any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

A few days earlier a separate Journal story reported on a sexually suggestive letter it said Trump had sent the financier for Epstein’s 50th birthday. The letter refers to secrets and has a sketch of a naked woman on it. Trump denies he wrote it and is suing the Journal for defamation.

On Wednesday, The New York Times published a piece titled “I Covered the Epstein Case for Decades. These are 9 Questions We Actually Need Answered.”

Among the unanswered questions journalist Barry Levine lists are queries about how Epstein made so much money (his estate was worth $600 million), whether he might have been an intelligence asset (which was claimed as an unverified excuse for the leniency of a 2008 plea deal that ended a federal investigation into Epstein), questions over the nature of Epstein’s relationship with former US president Bill Clinton (who also appears in the Epstein private jet flight logs), and queries over why the autopsy on Epstein was never made public (many people doubt the report’s finding that he died by suicide while in prison).

The MAGA heartland has long held as an article of faith that Trump would release the Epstein files when he was in a position to do so. Trump has responded with a frenzy of social media posting, apparently to distract from pressing Epstein-related matters, and has reacted angrily when asked questions about Epstein by reporters.

In an apparent concession, Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche interviewed Epstein’s convicted accomplice and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. But Blanche was previously Trump’s private attorney for his hush-money trial and two federal criminal cases. Suspicions inevitably arise that he might be predisposed to protect the interests of the president.

It is a scenario worthy of a political thriller – The Da Vinci Code set in the post-#MeToo era.

Trump’s history of sexual misconduct is well known, spans decades and has been successfully tested in court. Comedian Stephen Colbert calls it the president’s “long public history of pervitude”. Paramount cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last week, with many commentators concluding it was at least partly due to the host’s mockery of Trump. Undeterred, Colbert – who will continue to present the show until May – played a tape of Trump talking to US radio shock jock Howard Stern in 2006.

After boasting he could easily bed a 24-year-old, the then-60-year-old Trump was asked if he had an “age limit” when it came to women. “No, I don’t have an age limit,” Trump told Stern, before correcting himself – slightly. “You know, I don’t want to be, like … with 12-year-olds.”

It is a truism that Trump has redefined the terms of shamelessness in public life with his sexual exploits, brags about sexual assault, and the judicial findings against him of sexual assault. None of it has made any difference to his popularity among his base. If anything, the moral outrage over Trump’s doings only galvanises his fervent supporters in his defence.

Whatever is in the Epstein files regarding Trump may indeed be shameful for the president by any objective measure, but that measure no longer exists in American public life. Few observers of American politics believe Trump could be damaged substantially by further revelations of sexual misconduct.

Those in his base who are pressuring Trump to release the files are not suspicious about the president’s potential sexual wrongdoing. They are piqued by a betrayal of faith – they believed Trump was the guy who would work to unmask the deep-state Democrat paedophiles on their behalf.

On Friday, The Australian Financial Review published a long interview with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Lewinsky has become a latter-day feminist heroine, whose public shaming following her affair with then-president Bill Clinton was epic and unprecedented. Her notoriety was such that, for a decade or so after the event, Lewinsky struggled to get a date or a job interview. The affair was consensual, but the exploitative power dynamics at play – she was a 22-year-old intern, he was the world’s most powerful man – are undeniable in the contemporary context. Clinton lied about the affair and it almost ended his presidency.

But I do not think you could say any substantial moral shame adheres to him, all these decades later, from the affair. Meanwhile, Lewinsky has spent the rest of her life – she is now 52 – trying to expunge her shame and to make amends for it in the court of public opinion.

It seems likely that the public has not been told the whole story about the people and institutions that enabled Epstein to offend against vulnerable girls, at such scale, over decades. But you don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that whatever comes out, the shame of it all will defy gravity and bounce off some, while sticking to others.

Jacqueline Maley is a senior writer and award-winning columnist.

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