Last summer, a senior regional diplomat began a conversation by asking ¡°What¡¯s all this about the Epstein files?¡± He wasn¡¯t interested in salacious gossip; he was genuinely befuddled about the scale, scope and intensity of the unfolding scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and how it dominated U.S. politics.
I had shared his confusion. I¡¯d tuned out the Epstein scandal for years. I don¡¯t think I knew about it when it first broke in the 2000s, but it registered during the first Trump presidency with the nomination of Alex Acosta ¡ª the Florida prosecutor who struck the 2008 plea deal with Epstein ¡ª for secretary of the U.S. Labor Department. Epstein¡¯s arrest in 2019 on sex trafficking charges triggered a reexamination of and subsequent uproar about that deal, which forced Acosta¡¯s resignation.
I watched the controversy unfold largely through the prism of partisan politics. By that, I mean that it appeared to be horrific behavior that was blown up or diminished according to who was in the blast zone. It mattered to Republicans when Democrats, most prominently former President Bill Clinton, were among Epstein¡¯s associates. It mattered to Democrats when Donald Trump was alleged to be among Epstein¡¯s closest friends. (Trump insists they split but the reasons for that are murky.)
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