told CNN<\/a>: \u201cIn July the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the Epstein files and there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody. And that\u2019s where we remain for what we\u2019ve seen and what we\u2019ve released from the Epstein files.\u201d<\/p>\nThat explanation has not satisfied some members of Congress who accuse Bondi\u2019s justice department of dragging its feet.<\/p>\n
Senator Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, has blamed the lack of action in the US squarely on Trump, once a close friend of Epstein. He posted on X: \u201cCountries across the world are holding their Epstein class accountable. It isn\u2019t happening in America because we have a pedo protector in the Oval Office running a government coverup for him and his friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump fought for months to prevent release of the Epstein files but eventually signed the law passed by Congress requiring their publication. The 79-year-old Republican\u2019s name appears in the files repeatedly but he has not been charged with any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Trump was asked on Thursday if any Epstein associates in the US will \u201cwind up in handcuffs\u201d. Trump sidestepped the question, reiterating his claim that he personally had been \u201ctotally exonerated\u201d while calling Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s arrest a \u201cvery sad thing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Critics say Trump\u2019s passivity has been thrown into sharp relief by Britain and other countries going to extraordinary lengths to institute accountability.<\/p>\n
Kurt Bardella, a political commentator and former congressional aide, says: \u201cYou would think that the entirety of the global community could get behind the idea that trafficking underage women and trading secrets and money is not a good thing. Apparently everyone has gotten that memo except the United States of America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this goes on, and while those at the highest echelons of power here in America are not held accountable, we have zero moral authority to tell any country in this world what they should or shouldn\u2019t be doing. We don\u2019t get to tell Iran what to do. We don\u2019t get to tell the Middle East what peace should look like. We don\u2019t get to police anybody because we\u2019re not willing to police ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The divergence between the UK and US does not end in the courtroom. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, had to fight off questions about his judgment after the papers revealed that Peter Mandelson, the man he appointed ambassador to the US, had a more extensive and closer relationship with Epstein than was previously disclosed. Mandelson was fired last September and is now under police investigation after allegations that he leaked government material to Epstein.<\/p>\n
Compare and contrast with Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary. Lutnick claimed that he vowed never to \u201cbe in a room\u201d with Epstein following a 2005 incident in which the financier showed Lutnick a massage table at his townhouse and made a sexually suggestive comment. Yet emails show that Lutnick visited Epstein\u2019s private island for lunch in 2012 and invited him to a fundraiser in 2015. \u201cWe had lunch on the island \u2013 that is true \u2013 for an hour,\u201d Lutnick admitted to Congress earlier this month.<\/p>\n
He had been caught in a lie and Democrats demanded his resignation. In Britain and many other countries around the world, that outcome would have been inevitable. But Trump has no intention of handing his foes such a win.<\/p>\n
Troye, a former homeland security and counter-terrorism adviser to Mike Pence, commented: \u201cYou have the former prince Andrew being taken into a police station and yet we have cabinet-level people that remain in their positions and there doesn\u2019t seem to be any accountability happening there. That is how deep this rot goes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people have continued to lie repeatedly along the way and then new evidence shows up and the American people can see for themselves that these people have lied about what\u2019s happened here. They continued to engage with this individual, even though they knew that he was a convicted pedophile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump himself is on much safer ground than Starmer, who was elected precisely because of his milquetoast propriety, seen as an antidote to the shabby Conservative years; any hint of scandal destroys that core identity. Trump, by contrast, has plunged so many ethical depths as to have a numbing effect; his presence in the files was long expected and had little shock value.<\/p>\n
But there may still be a reckoning to come. His rightwing base has long been obsessed with the Epstein saga and the belief the financier oversaw a sex-trafficking ring for the world\u2019s elite. Some in that base are angry at how the release of the files has been mishandled. They are not likely to vote against Trump\u2019s party in the November midterm elections but they may well not vote at all.<\/p>\n
Mountbatten-Windsdor, who denies any wrongdoing, has been held accountable by the long arm of the law. Trump and his allies may yet face a different kind of justice at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
Rick Wilson, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, says the president is \u201cfacing political disaster\u201d with Democrats on track to take control of the House of Representatives and maybe even the Senate. \u201cAnd then the subpoenas will start going out, lawyers will be hired, and House committee rooms will be wired for cameras and sound.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intensity of the investigations into the Epstein cover-up, redactions and omissions will surpass any previous investigation in the history of the United States and they will blow this wide open. Any insulation anyone thinks they have will be ripped away.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Tale #nations #Andrews #arrest #highlights #passivity #Epstein #files #news<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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