It was December 2010, and Jeffrey Epstein was sitting down for dinner with some of his famous friends — personalities who spanned the TV dial from morning to late night. There was George Stephanopoulos, then the host of Good Morning America, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, and E! comedian and late-night host Chelsea Handler. It was 18 months after Epstein had been released from “prison” (in reality, he spent six days a week workingin an office during his year-plus work-release stay in a Florida jail) for pleading guilty to a lesser charge of solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
Accused of far worse, Epstein pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of solicitation of prostitution with a minor. The dinner also took place less than a year after Epstein settled “at least a dozen civil lawsuits … filed by women who allege they were molested by Epstein when they were underage,” according to the Miami Herald. It was a mere five months after the registered sex offender finished his probation and was allowed to leave the state of Florida.
All of this was reported in a 2011 piece in The Daily Beast by Alexandra Wolfe, which has taken on new resonance as Epstein has, finally, mercifully, been arrested again.
The downfall of Epstein is great news for his victims who were denied justice the first time around. But it’s also the latest example of a recent, broader phenomenon — the crumbling of the elites. This crumbling can be traced to a growing distrust with all forms of power. A 2017 poll by The Associated Press found an astoundingly high 82 percent of America say they think “wealthy people” have too much power and influence in Washington. At the same time, Americans’ trust in government is at historic lows, according to a Gallup poll this year. For Democrats and independents, the percentage of respondents who trust government was at 28 percent, the lowest percentage recorded (since 1997), with 59 percent of Republicans also expressing record-low frustration with those walking the halls of power.
But the governmental distrust is only part of the problem, as Epstein shows. During the past few years, we’ve seen the unraveling of the power structure that protected elites across industries. The #MeToo movement in particular gave this unraveling momentum, with the myriad allegations against Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein’s criminal treatment of women was more than an open secret for years, yet he was deeply connected. He held a $2 million fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in June 2016 and Bill Clinton called him a “really good friend.” – READ MORE