Trevor Ponsen| Writer
January 18, 2024
Recent breaking news has Jeffery Epstein in headlines as court documents depicting details of his crimes and associates continue to be released since the start of the year. For those who are unaware, Epstein was a successful New York financier who managed to make billions through various dealings in the 1990s and early 2000s, by many means of which the public was unaware.
He was well-known amongst celebrities, with many considering him a good friend, such as Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, Kevin Spacey, and Bill Gates. Epstein was familiar with the high-end party scene, with many meeting him through these exclusive events as he gained a reputation for his vast connections, hidden wealth, and became known as “a ‘terrific guy’ who enjoyed ‘younger’ women.”
The hidden side to Epstein that only other celebrities were aware of was his extensive sexual abuse of minors. This news only came into the public eye when one of his victims came forward in 2005; the parents of a 14-year-old girl came to the authorities saying that Epstein had sexually abused their daughter. An investigation was opened by the FBI, where it was eventually revealed that there had been a lengthy history of sexual abuse of minors by Epstein.
Ultimately, a plea deal, along with shady dealings with the prosecution, would cause him to only be charged with two counts of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. He would only serve 13 months for this, many of which were spent with him on leave for work where he would just have to spend nights in prison.
Even though he had been outed for sex trafficking minors, many of his powerful friends stayed in contact with him and continued to act as his friends and once he was released from prison, where it’s speculated that he continued his trafficking.
Junior Noah Henderson describes Epstein’s actions as literal and figurative “social suicide” for which anyone should receive “at least life in prison for something like that.”
Through of investigation by the FBI, they finally arrested him again in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. Not long after, he allegedly killed himself in jail, sparking much controversy over whether he was assassinated by people who wished to hide their connection to him or if he had killed himself. Sadly, it’s something that we’ll probably never know the real answer to.
Through recently released court documents, we know that Epstein operated his sex trafficking rink by finding young girls in elite schools and promising to pay for their education and way through life, but then trapping them in his high-security properties like on “Epstein Island” and threatening their life to keep them silent. These minors were then forced into sexual activities with Epstein’s powerful friends and subjected to years of abuse at his hands. Epstein would then collect evidence of his friend’s sexual activities with minors and use it as blackmail against them. Countless witnesses, including the people who helped him traffic these children, have come forward, confirming these facts– such as the flight logs taken by one of the three pilots of Epstein of whom he flew to and from where, but the specific details have yet to be fully released in court documents and will be coming within the early months of this year.
Because of Epstein’s dealings, some of our favorite celebrities, along with some of the most powerful men in the world, have been outed as sexual abusers of minors. They supported and kept silent about dozens if not hundreds of young girls being taken advantage of in a system that let Epstein get away with all of it. In the end, his victims never got their day in court, and justice was never served to the people he harmed.
Upon asking senior Otto Schniepp if he had known about any of this, he said, “It’s surprising to learn about the extent of it all and how long it’s been going on for…all I knew about it was the ‘Epstein didn’t kill himself’ meme and the news about Steven Hawking and his weird kinks being involved.”
For the hundreds of celebrities who were associated with him, spent time on his private island, and played their role in the abuse, most likely nothing will happen to them other than public shame for a month or two until it’s all forgotten.
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