Donald Trump, Jeff Epstein and the Politics of Impunity
A culture of impunity, or at least a culture of elite impunity, is now so widely discussed that it has become almost a cliché of American political discourse. But clichés and caricatures have power when they contain a strong or recognizable element of truth. And we are in the middle of a kind of spectacle of impunity that is revealing and invigorating to see. A few days ago, the former Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested and questioned as part of an investigation into alleged crimes linked to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew is the first prince to be arrested in 400 years. (Technically, he is the first British prince to be arrested. The last example, Charles I, was king of England. This was before the 1707 Treaty of Union that created Britain. Charles was tried and executed.) Today, police in the United Kingdom arrested Peter Mandelson, now a Labor Party veteran (he made his name under Tony Blair) who until September was the British ambassador to the United States. The investigation that led to his arrest was spurred by the release of the Epstein files. His earlier resignation as ambassador was also linked to his relationship with Epstein.
