King Charles insisted “the law must take its course” after police on Thursday arrested his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. The former prince and trade envoy is under investigation for leaking confidential information to Jeffrey Epstein. Police are also reportedly investigating information revealed in released documents that Epstein sent a second woman to England for sex with Mountbatten-Windsor (BBC News):
“I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office.
“What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities.
“In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.
“Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.”
On this side of the pond, our divine-right “king” declares himself exonerated four times in 30 seconds in connection with anything to do with the Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislane Maxwell’s sex trafficking. If only we heard a rooster crow every time Donald Trump repeated his declaration of innocence.
Stephen Collinson of CNN laments the collapse of accountability for Epstein perps on this side of the Atlantic:
The first arrest of a British royal in nearly 400 years posed this question: If legal authorities in Britain and elsewhere in Europe can act independently and breach the protected circle around Epstein’s former network, why is there not a similar faith in the justice system in the US?
“Great Britain is holding its powerful and privileged to account. The United States of America should do the same,” Democratic Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.
In the United Kingdom, the machinery of public investigation appears to be functioning as intended. It’s harder to make that claim with confidence in the US given the politicization of a justice system that has prosecuted President Donald Trump’s opponents and a president who pardoned hundreds of people convicted of crimes linked to the January 6, 2021, riot.
Trump’s Department of Justice has resisted every effort to bring those connected to the Epstein scandal to justice. Epstein’s victims raised their hands during AG Pam Bondi’s House Judiciary Committee hearing last week to affirm that, yes, they’d taken their allegations to the DOJ (under multiple administrations) and, no, they’d heard nothing back. Meanwhile. simply being associated with Epstein has cost some high-fliers their jobs both overseas and in the U.S.
Collinson defines the problem:
The DOJ may be justified in insisting that there is insufficient evidence of wrongdoing to charge anyone with crimes over their ties to Epstein.
This does not, however, address the core issues in the scandal. Even if prosecutions aren’t possible, what about an accounting for scores of women allegedly abused by Epstein? If there was a sex trafficking ring operating in the United States, shouldn’t the government be investigating it, if only to ensure it never happens again? And isn’t the country owed answers about the circle of rich and influential people who continued to associate with Epstein even after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The Trump administration doesn’t think so. Bondi’s unwilling. What’s more, she’s just declared her DOJ a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump Crime Syndicate.
Collinson concludes:
And the idea that the US justice system, like its British counterpart, could operate independently of the head of state — even if it causes him great embarrassment — is no longer credible.
As if to confirm this stark new American reality, the DOJ on Thursday unfurled a massive banner between two iconic columns on its Washington headquarters.
Bigly Brother is not watching out for you, only for himself. If you want to see the law take its course, take your criminal complaints somewhere that the rule of law still applies.
“It’s astonishing how much accountability seems to be possible once you cross the Atlantic,” writes Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie K. Brown. “Meanwhile, neither the U.S. Justice Department or the Treasury Department seems to have made an effort to ‘follow the money’ involving some of Epstein’s friends and associates.”
We’ve forgotten what accountability for public officials looks like in the United States, or even that it’s possible. But here it is in front of us, with a former prince stripped of his royal titles and arrested by the police just like anyone else. The cult of Trump may have temporarily derailed the rule of law in the U.S., at least for its leader, but it can still be restored; indeed, the public is clamoring for that when it comes to the Epstein Files. It’s time to stop protecting rich and powerful men who rape children and others who made that possible, whoever they are. Later this month, Bill and Hillary Clinton will testify on Capitol Hill. There is no possible justification for treating Donald Trump any differently.
