Epstein affair: millions of new documents released
The US Department of Justice has released further files in the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein: according to US Attorney General Todd Blanche the more than three million pages of documents, thousands of videos and well over 100,000 photos contain "disturbing material", but do not provide grounds for new investigations. Commentators call for clarification at various levels.
A honey trap set by the Russian secret service?
Corriere della Sera sees a trail that leads to Moscow:
“The network of relationships built up by Jeffrey Epstein is looking more and more like one of the most sophisticated espionage operations of recent decades, a scheme that took the tried-and-tested Russian art of 'kompromat' - putting key figures in compromising situations in order to gain leverage against them - to unprecedented heights. As intelligence sources pointed out to the Mail on Sunday, it is becoming increasingly clear that the American paedophile magnate staged the world's largest 'honey trap' operation on behalf of the KGB. Epstein is said to have procured girls for heads of state on behalf of Russian and possibly also Israeli intelligence services in order to expose them to blackmail.”
King's brother must break his silence
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor must finally come clean, demands The Sunday Times:
“Newly released documents showing the closeness of his friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein - most notably a disturbing photograph of him crouching over a woman lying supine on the floor - will reignite questions over his conduct and that of many other wealthy men. It will also revive demands that he come clean about what he knows. ... Andrew should now end his evasions. He has remained mute since his 2019 Newsnight interview. ... Andrew denies wrongdoing, so he should be prepared to give evidence, if not to a congressional committee then to some other inquiry.”
Failure of the rule of law
For the news website TVXS the justice system has failed across the board:
“The crucial question arising from the publication of the files is not whether all they describe is true. The crucial question is why we don't know what was investigated, what was rejected, and based on what criteria. When allegations as serious as these are levied against those at the pinnacle of political and economic power, the lack of a thorough, independent and transparent investigation is not just an institutional failure. It constitutes a breach at the very core of the rule of law and the definition of civilisation.”
Acid test for Trump and his morals
El Mundo writes:
“The recent publication of three million declassified documents points in so many directions that an attitude of 'every man for himself' has spread among the world's most powerful. ... It's clear to all that in the United States a political and legal strategy aimed at cornering the current occupant of the White House has been pursued for months. ... A little over a year ago, Americans elected a man with two convictions related to sexual misconduct. ... Trump boasts that 'his morals' are the only limit on his administration's actions. But perhaps the Epstein case will be the acid test of where the bar for ethical responsibility lies in 2026, especially for those in the highest positions of power.”