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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, a distant heir to the British throne, was stripped of his royal title and perks, and arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office last week in connection with the Epstein files. His brother, King Charles, said simply: “The law must take its course.”
Elsewhere in Europe, a former Norwegian prime minister has been charged with “gross corruption” for visits to Epstein’s homes and private island, and a former British ambassador to the United States was arrested on accusations of passing confidential government information to Jeffrey Epstein, who was indicted on charges of sex trafficking minors in 2019.
In the United States, by contrast, the release of millions of documents, which name many prominent American politicians, including President Donald Trump, have mostly been met with a collective shrug. A few people mentioned in the files, such as former Maine Sen. George Mitchell, have stepped down from boards and teaching. But many others have escaped scrutiny — and prosecution.
Being named in the voluminous files is not an admission of guilt. But when individuals are named repeatedly in the documents — Trump, his wife Melania and his Mar-a-Lago club were mentioned more than 38,000 times, according to The New York Times — a much more serious investigation is overdue.
Yes, lawmakers — including Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King — championed legislation requiring the full release of the full Epstein files. That has yet to happen, however, as the Justice Department heavily redacted the files it first released, mostly to protect the powerful men named in them, not to protect the survivors, many of whose names were initially revealed in the documents.
None of Maine’s four members of Congress have reviewed the fuller files that the Justice Department began to make available to them earlier this month. We understand that the restrictions the department has placed on their review of the documents are onerous and absurd, and that the files are still incomplete. But every member of Congress should review the files — to let their constituents know what they saw, to formulate an informed plan to require a fuller release of the documents and to begin fuller investigations of any illegal actions revealed in the documents.
The shielding of powerful and monied Americans has gone on far too long.
In a powerful column published by the Bangor Daily News, University of New England anthropologist Alicia Peters explains why far too many people have downplayed or ignored the voluminous allegations of sexual abuse and human trafficking in the Epstein files. Scores of women have bravely shared their experiences, to be largely ignored. This sends a dangerous message to survivors, far beyond the Epstein case.
“When multitudes of survivors substantiate a long history and network of abuse yet are met with suspicion rather than empathy, the message reverberates beyond a single case,” Peters wrote. “It tells future victims that coming forward will invite doubt rather than scrutiny of the alleged perpetrators and their circle of protection. It is time we stop defending abusers and start believing and empowering survivors instead.”
In a similar vein, when powerful men go along with the demeaning of women, it also sends a powerful message.
Many Americans are rightly outraged by the behavior of members of the U.S. men’s ice hockey team, who partied in their locker room with FBI Director Kash Patel after defeating the Canadian team to win Olympic gold medals Sunday. Sure the men were caught up in the excitement of winning a gold medal and being congratulated by the president (and maybe a bit buzzed from the beer they were chugging). The usual locker room excuses.
But when Trump said he would bring them to the White House, he warned, “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.” The team burst out in raucous laughter. Trump then said he’d probably be impeached if he didn’t invite the women, which prompted more laughter.
The president wasn’t inviting the women’s team because they won the same honor as the men, and have done so more frequently. He was doing so because he had to — and their male counterparts thought it was funny.
The familiar casual misogyny was a stab to the heart of women everywhere.
Just days earlier the U.S. women’s hockey team had also won a gold medal by beating Canada in overtime. Their players are not paid millions of dollars a year, as are the members of the men’s Olympic team. Women needed a federal law to gain access to the same athletic opportunities that men had taken for granted for generations, and funding for women’s sports still lags.
The gold medal-winning women’s hockey team did not get a congratulatory call from the president, nor did administration officials join their celebration, nor fly them to Washington in a military jet after a night of partying in Miami. The women’s team was belatedly invited to Tuesday’s State of the Union address, which some of the men’s team attended and received a long standing ovation. The women’s team declined because they had to return to their professional teams and colleges.
“Yet their inclusion was framed as a political inconvenience. As something required. As something forced,” activist and comedian Judith Dayal wrote in her Substack blog. “That is not just a joke. That is hierarchy. It is the same hierarchy women have lived inside for generations. The assumption that men are the primary story and women are the add on. The reflex that male victory is central and female excellence is supplemental.”
This reflex to elevate men and to diminish women is so woven into our society that we may not even notice. So, it is sadly no wonder that the survivors of abuse must fight so hard to be heard.