Way back in 2005, businesswoman Martha Stewart was found guilty on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice involving a highly publicized insider trading scandal. She was sentenced to five months in a federal prison. During those five months, her incarceration became a bit of a meme. Stewart’s imprisonment was one of relative leisure. Images were released of the mogul engaging in everyday activities, such as golfing and taking strolls, which are typically restricted in prisons. For some odd reason, she was given extreme privileges that are not usually afforded to the average prisoner. Strange right?

It wasn’t all that strange, but actually quite expected. Stewart’s offense was categorized as what Americans like to call white-collar crime. Such crimes can only be committed by the very wealthy elite - the middle class and poor simply don’t have the economic means that would lead them to being caught up in an insider trading scandal in the first place. Such crimes often have a social veneer of being quite respectable and clean. Bourgeois society wouldn’t be bourgeois if it didn’t privilege its ruling class at every corner. The wealthy elite have and will continue to get away with every crime under the sun, and even when they are convicted, they still “get away with it” in the sense that they just aren’t imprisoned like everyone else. Justice bends to their social position. Martha Stewart’s sentencing could have happened on Mars, given how alien it is to the average person’s experience with the American justice system. 

Currently, there is another highly publicized scandal, much more severe and long-lasting than Martha Stewart’s foray into insider trading. An elite sex trafficking ring has been exposed, starting with the arrest and “mysterious” death of the well-connected financier Jeffrey Epstein. Allegedly, Epstein owned a private island where he and his powerful and famous associates sexually abused victims of their trafficking ring: usually young women, some girls even of prepubescent age.

Back in 2022, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison for her role in the trafficking operation. She was Epstein’s second-in-command, recruiting vulnerable young women into high-end prostitution for decades. She is currently appealing her sentence on the grounds of a non-prosecution agreement she entered into in 2007 to protect herself. Maxwell is appealing the decision from the comfort of yet another cozy, low-security facility in Tallahassee, Florida, just as Martha Stewart did. The nature of Maxwell’s crimes is a thousand times worse than Stewart's; this much is obvious. However, what is common in both cases is that the two women benefit from being rich and powerful. Their status and wealth serve as unofficial buffers against the full brunt of the law.

Cases like Epstein’s are hopelessly frustrating. It feels like the ruling class is made up of these immortal titans that will always deploy its vast wealth and influence to do as much evil as they can with as few legal consequences as possible. However, in this case, there is a clear political dimension, the opportunity to bring these titans down to earth. This is all thanks to the friendship once had between the sex trafficker and the current President of the United States: Donald J. Trump. Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were like two peas in a pod! Take Trump’s own words to New York Magazine back in 2002: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Throughout the 90s, Jeff and Donald could be seen together in photos at various social gatherings, posing happily for paparazzi, some of those pictures even including a cheesing Ghislaine Maxwell. They were such good friends that Epstein penned a very intimate yet very creepy birthday card to Trump, where the words were shaped in a way that outlined the naked body of a woman. How gross! 

But Trump and his administration vehemently deny that this friendship ever existed, for the obvious reason that it would implicate Trump as an elite pedophile. They take the American public as complete fools, as though we can’t research quotes or even think for ourselves. Congress is also aiding in this ridiculous cover-up by perpetually voting against the release of the Epstein files. These files are the classified results of an investigation into the trafficking ring conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice. 

This has led to a growing rift between the people and the government. We find it absurd that the files have not been released yet, despite the clear egregiousness of the crimes, so much so that “Release the files!” has become a rallying cry whenever Americans feel as though some major political development isn’t a natural event but really just a distraction from the Epstein case. There is growing curiosity, or perhaps better yet, growing paranoia, that those files will expose something very bad about Donald Trump, let alone other public figures—world leaders, politicians, scientists, thinkers, celebrities, and influencers. Miraculously, the issue has become not simply bipartisan, successfully crossing the classic liberal-conservative divide, but politically universal. The progressive Democrat, the hardline Republican, the neoliberal centrist, the free-market libertarian, the America-first ultra-nationalist, the communist, even the political neutral - they all join in on a single rallying cry - “Release the files!” And yet, the American government continues to put its fingers in its ears, yelling, “I can’t hear you!”. They are hoping that we all just forget and move on with our lives. 

The call for releasing the Epstein files is a novel, vaguely populist “moment”. It does have the seeds of something bigger - of a real bipartisan, anti-corruption campaign. I don’t think such a movement will actually come to fruition, though. Despite the strong emotional pull that these crimes have, politics is politics at the end of the day. It is a death struggle through and through, as there is far too much at stake to hand over even the slightest modicum of power to the other side, especially in the name of shared morality. Despite the appalling nature of a sex-trafficking ring, despite its clear class character, as the situation develops, there will be some point where this vague union breaks down, and we all go back to ruthlessly fighting again. As of now, the only thing that unites us is the call for releasing the files, nothing more.

So what should the left do at this moment? Relentlessly call for the release of the Epstein files! We should be bringing these files to the forefront more than any other political group. Say it, yell it, shout it from every rooftop! Don’t stop talking about the Epstein files in real life; post about them on every corner of social media and remind everyone everywhere that those files should have been released yesterday. Hell, make posters, stickers, t-shirts, and whatever other promotional merchandise to echo the same call - Release the files! We should be having protests that magnify the fact that Trump, his administration, and Congress are all playing dumb. The sensibilities of the American people are correct here: they literally are trying to distract us with political theatrics, like controversial soundbites from Trump or even serious concerns like government shutdowns. Pin the call to release the files onto every pressing issue - bring it up alongside Gaza, alongside the next mass shooting, alongside whatever ridiculous political initiative the Trump administration has concocted this week to pull the wool over our eyes. We should not, even for a moment, let our foot off the necks of the powerful. The left can only win by exploiting this situation and maintaining constant pressure. 

This rift caused by the Epstein files isn’t just a divide between the people and the elite. It is also a contradiction within the right wing, a perpetual chasm in the conservative camp. Despite its current position of power, the Republican Party is in crisis. Since 2016, the center-right establishment has allowed for their worst elements, the so-called “basket of deplorables” (the alt-right, ultranationalists, etc.), to lay the foundations for their rise to power. It's time for that establishment to reap what they have sown. Usually, in a struggle, there’s some room for ideological nuance, for two sides to have some legitimate standing. Epstein’s sex trafficking leaves no room for such nuance. There’s no difference of opinion, no plausible deniability when it comes to trafficking children. We need to make them look bad - force right-wingers to defend their side. Remember that these are the same Pizzagate fanatics. What blatant hypocrisy and projection! The crime really is that horrifying - and their cult leader, President Donald Trump, is undeniably at the center. 

Liberalism, and to a large extent, leftism, often presents itself as the superior moral position in relation to conservatism and right-wing politics. When they go low, we go high. Hasn’t Michelle Obama’s famous quip been disproven by now? We fly up to a kingdom of moral heaven that doesn’t actually exist; meanwhile, the “lowly” conservatives inherit the earth, or in other words, the real world. But the Epstein files are a perfect storm of cultural politics, the golden opportunity to yank power from the cold, dead hands of the right by going even lower than our enemies, straight into hell. It’s time for us to play dirty - call Donald Trump a pedophile and be done with it. There’s no more civility - only power to seize by any means necessary.