Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Noam Chomsky and Woody Allen were among the familiar faces in the latest batch of photographs released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in connection to the late Jeffrey Epstein. With the Justice Department preparing to make additional files public, the images underscore an uncomfortable truth for us all: The convicted sex offender moved comfortably among some of the most intelligent men in the world. Rhodes scholars, technology leaders and artists.<\/p>\n
Also in the release was a photograph of a woman\u2019s lower leg and foot on what appears to be a bed, with a paperback copy of Vladimir Nabokov\u2019s \u201cLolita\u201d visible in the background. The 1955 novel centers on a middle-aged man\u2019s sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl. Epstein, a serial sexual abuser, famously nicknamed one of his private planes \u201cThe Lolita Express.\u201d And we are to believe that some of the globe\u2019s brightest minds could not put the dots together?<\/p>\n
Donald Trump, who once described himself as \u201ca very stable genius,\u201d included.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,\u201d Trump told New York magazine in 2002. \u201cHe\u2019s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, the two had a public falling out, and Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Great. But denial after the fact is only one side of this story. The other is harder to digest: Either the self-proclaimed \u201cvery stable genius\u201d spent nearly two decades around Epstein without recognizing what was happening in plain sight \u2014 or he recognized it and chose silence. Neither explanation reflects on intelligence as much as it does on character. No wonder Trump\u2019s defenders keep raising the most overused word in American politics today: hoax.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce again, House Democrats are selectively releasing cherry-picked photos with random redactions to try and create a false narrative,\u201d said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. \u201cHere\u2019s the reality: Democrats like Stacey Plaskett and Hakeem Jeffries were soliciting money and meetings from Epstein after he was a convicted sex offender. The Democrat hoax against President Trump has been repeatedly debunked, and the Trump administration has done more for Epstein\u2019s victims than Democrats ever have by repeatedly calling for transparency, releasing thousands of pages of documents and calling for further investigations into Epstein\u2019s Democrat friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson has a point.<\/p>\n
Democrats were cherry-picking which photos to release, even if many of the men pictured were aligned with progressives. That includes the president, who was a Democrat when he and Epstein were running together in New York in the 2000s. Trump didn\u2019t register as a Republican until 2009. Now whether the choice of photos and timing was designed to shield political friends or weaponize against perceived enemies isn\u2019t clear. What is clear is that it doesn\u2019t take a genius to see that none of this is a hoax.<\/p>\n
The victims are real. The flight logs are real. The millions that flowed into Epstein\u2019s bank account have wire transfer confirmation numbers that can be traced. What Democrats are doing with the information is politics as usual. And you don\u2019t want politics to dictate who gets justice and who gets vilified.<\/p>\n
Whatever the politicians\u2019 intentions, Americans can decide how to react to the disclosures. And what the men around Epstein did with the information they gathered on his jet or his island fits squarely at the heart of the national conversation about masculinity. What kind of men could allow such abuse to continue?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying the intelligent men in Epstein\u2019s ecosystem did something criminal, but the lack of whistleblowing before his arrest raises questions about their fortitude for right and wrong. And the Trump White House trying to characterize this conversation as a partisan witch hunt \u2014 a hoax \u2014 is an ineffective strategy because the pattern with their use of that word is so clear. <\/p>\n
We saw what happened on Jan. 6, and Trump tells us the investigation is a hoax. We hear the recording of him pressuring Georgia officials to find votes, and he tells us the investigation is a hoax. Trump campaigned on affordability issues \u2014 the cost of bacon, no taxes on tips \u2014 but now that he\u2019s in office such talk is a hoax by Democrats. As if we don\u2019t know the price of groceries in real time. Ten years ago, Trump told us he had proof that President Obama wasn\u2019t born in the U.S. We\u2019re still waiting. <\/p>\n
In his book, \u201cArt of the Deal,\u201d Trump framed his lies as \u201ctruthful hyperbole\u201d but by now we should understand for him hyperbole matters more than truth \u2014 and his felony convictions<\/a> confirm that some of his claims were indeed simply false.<\/p>\n So if there is a hoax, it is the notion that none of the brilliant men whom Epstein kept in his orbit had any idea what was going on.<\/p>\n YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow<\/a><\/p>\n Insights <\/p>\n L.A. Times Insights<\/a> delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles. <\/p>\n Viewpoint This article generally aligns with a Center point of view. Learn more about this AI-generated analysis<\/a> Perspectives <\/p>\n The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.<\/p>\n Ideas expressed in the piece<\/p>\n The release of photographs and documents from the House Oversight Committee demonstrates that Epstein moved freely among some of the world\u2019s most accomplished and intelligent individuals, including Rhodes scholars, technology leaders and artists.<\/p>\n Either these prominent men failed to recognize warning signs despite obvious indicators like Epstein\u2019s \u201cLolita Express\u201d nickname referencing a novel about child sexual abuse, or they recognized the reality and chose silence\u2014neither explanation reflects well on their character.<\/p>\n Claims that this is a hoax lack credibility because the evidence is concrete: the victims are real[1]<\/a>, the flight logs are documented[1]<\/a>[3]<\/a>, and the millions flowing through Epstein\u2019s bank accounts have verifiable wire transfer confirmation numbers.<\/p>\n The apparent lack of whistleblowing from the men in Epstein\u2019s ecosystem before his 2019 arrest raises serious questions about their moral fortitude and willingness to stand against wrongdoing.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s strategy of characterizing these disclosures as a partisan witch hunt is ineffective, given the pattern of applying the term \u201choax\u201d to numerous matters that subsequently proved to be substantiated, from investigations into January 6 to documented pressuring of Georgia officials.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether Democrats\u2019 selection of which photographs to release was politically motivated, legitimate questions about masculinity and moral responsibility remain central to the national conversation.<\/p>\n Different views on the topic<\/p>\n Democrats selectively released cherry-picked photographs with random redactions designed to create a false narrative while attempting to shield their own political allies, including figures like Stacey Plaskett and Hakeem Jeffries who solicited money and meetings from Epstein after his conviction.<\/p>\n The timing and selection of photographs released by House Democrats appear strategically designed to weaponize the Epstein matter against political opponents while deflecting scrutiny from Democratic figures who also maintained connections to the convicted sex offender[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has demonstrated greater commitment to transparency on the Epstein matter through the release of thousands of pages of documents and calls for further investigations into Epstein\u2019s connections to Democratic associates.<\/p>\n Characterizing this as purely a partisan response overlooks the fact that prominent figures across the political spectrum, including those who were Democrats when they associated with Epstein in the 2000s, had connections requiring examination[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Noam Chomsky and Woody Allen were among the familiar faces in the latest batch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[17980,1751,536,34957,9614,56105,49787,48,52,51,47,50,49,1555,56107,56108,2824,19947,56106,2601,72],"class_list":["post-103342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-democrat","tag-democrats","tag-donald-trump","tag-epstein","tag-fact","tag-further-investigation","tag-hoax","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-man","tag-national-conversation","tag-overused-word","tag-photo","tag-photograph","tag-stable-genius","tag-victim","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}