Over the past decade, I’ve occasionally written articles comparing what’s going on in the world, especially in the era of President Trump, to what we’re used to seeing on TV. Eight months into his first term, I wrote a column called “Donald Trump’s Pop Culture Presidency Enters Thriller Phase,” in which I argued that Trump was “acting like the unhinged president you see in movies” and that his reckless threats against North Korea were meant to coax a cinematic rise out of us. It was shocking for the entertainment industry. Given how dire and threatening his second term has become (not just a cinematic posturing, but a true descent into authoritarian terror and lawlessness), such comparisons may now seem petty and misplaced. I certainly don’t think there isn’t much that “reminds me of a movie” about Trump’s presidency today.
But about the Epstein file, I’m nagging. Let’s be clear: The Jeffrey Epstein case is an incredibly serious scandal. At this point, the situation is already like Watergate 10 times. This is a story of crime, cover-up, and corruption, not just corruption, but rotten to the core, driven by primal currents of fear, terror, and victimization. Victims are real and there are many of them. To approach this story, it is essential to remain aware of what they have been through.
But what I want to talk about is how many of us have experienced the Epstein case over the past two weeks, especially since Friday, January 30th, when the second document dump of redacted files took place. Please let me confess. I’ve been down the rabbit hole ever since that day. So you’re down the Epstein rabbit hole on the internet and barely come up for air. I’m not a conspiracy theorist by nature (just to be clear, I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone). And sometimes, like the long night I spent from about 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. in what was an internal labor site on 9/11 in 2007 (I was back to reality by the time the sun came up), down a rabbit hole that brought me down a little, I learned how unhealthy and perverse it is to succumb to the desire to look through the mirror.
But the Epstein case is different. Simply put, there’s a lot we don’t know. This story is so disturbing and sensational in its criminality that it is like a car accident. It’s scary, but I can’t turn away. All the while, we’ve been looking at mere pieces of information and trying to explore black boxes and black bars. Our government wants to wall it off forever. This is Watergate, and I wish I had read a serious investigative report on it in a place like the New York Times. But that’s not the world we’re in. Like many others, I’ve been trying to piece together Epstein’s story in the shadowy corners of the web. Because for now, that’s the only way to get a glimpse of reality, to get the tip of the iceberg, to know where it’s going.
So the saga of the Epstein file now takes on the aspect of a labyrinthine dark thriller that promises to lead to startling revelations at the end of the tunnel. The revelation in this case is two things happening at once: the identity of the people involved and what they did. And it’s on that latter point that things are starting to get darker than many of us imagined. The question of this film is a question of intense and unfathomable drama: “How dark is this going to get?” Is it “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” or “Cannibal Holocaust”?
If you look up the Epstein case on the internet, you’ll come across some very disturbing theories and locations. The fact that some of it is speculative, some attached to pieces of evidence, and much of it exists in the gray area between plausibility and creepiness is part of the unique nature of this case. It is an onion of evil that raises the following questions, roughly in order: Simply, are we dealing with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein? Did he indulge in criminal sexual pathology and share it with his fellow predators and associates? We know he had surveillance cameras everywhere (so thousands of hours of Epstein video were seized, but we haven’t seen much of it), so was he involved in extortion? If so, for what purpose is it done – financial or political? Or did he just use all of that as “leverage”? Was Epstein working for the Mossad or for Russian intelligence (Russia is mentioned 10,000 times in Epstein’s files, but Putin is mentioned 1,000 times)? Or both? That possibility is heightened by the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell’s late corrupt media tycoon father, Robert Maxwell, is said to have worked for the Mossad.
But all this has been debated for years. In recent weeks, the specter of Epstein’s darkness has risen to a disturbing new level. And that’s where the “movie” I’m talking about becomes vague…but it’s also where it changes character and its significance becomes more dangerous. Because if that dark level is real, we could be in the midst of the most earth-shaking news event since World War II.
The three million Epstein files that have yet to be released are said to be the worst of them all, the most graphic and extreme. Does it contain images of child sexual abuse? Children as young as 9 or 10 years old? Or younger? Does it contain images of torture? Just thinking about that possibility requires a kind of entryway into a horror movie in your imagination. I say that because it’s pretty much the only paradigm we have. But when you look into things like this and come across stories of “elite” global aristocrats complicit in child sexual abuse and child murder, you find yourself thinking, “Oh my god, was QAnon involved in something?”
There is strong data supporting the idea that QAnon, as free and far-fetched as its theory can be, is convinced of something. In the 1990s, with the rise of the Internet, a significant spike in the amount of sex trafficking was recorded around the world. Because new technology has made it easier. It is now a $150 billion industry. Millions of people are trafficked around the world every year, including children. The question that is too alarming to ask is: “Who are those children being trafficked to?” It seems likely that they are being trafficked by people with wealth and power. And those children are not then “returned” to their parents, orphanage, or any other place. They are abused and then, or some of them, disappear.
Jeffrey Epstein was perhaps the most powerful sex trafficker in the Western world. So it’s natural to look at him and wonder if he was part of that hellish criminal gang. That’s why the clues we’ve left in Epstein’s file so far – references to children, pictures of children, references to torture – are so disturbing. It tells me that until two weeks ago, almost no one had even heard of the Zorro Ranch, the vast property Epstein owned in New Mexico. (He owned miles of land around him, which he bought at a fire sale price, so he was isolated.) It was a “retreat” as large as Little St. James Island, Epstein’s well-known compound. But why is it never mentioned? Rumor has it, and I’m speaking by rumor because I haven’t read the New York Times coverage of this, that’s where he oversaw some of his darkest activities. What happened at Zoro Ranch? After Epstein’s death, the location was sold and was never used as a crime scene.
If you go down the Epstein rabbit hole, you’ll come across stories and theories that seem outlandish, most of which are probably not true. Here we will introduce just a few of them. That Epstein’s death was faked and that he is still alive (there are “photos” of him in Tel Aviv circulating, they are definitely AI). Stanley Kubrick was murdered for exposing the corruption of the global elite in Eyes Wide Shut. And the owner of a pizza shop in Washington DC is a member of the Rothschild family. All of these things would make for a good suspense movie.
But the essence of Epstein’s rabbit hole is that you start encountering “outlandish” things that start to seem less outlandish. For example, the theory that Epstein was murdered (there are significant circumstantial questions about what happened the night Epstein died, regarding security guards and surveillance tapes). Or the fact that Mr. Epstein ordered 60 55-gallon drums of sulfuric acid delivered to the island, dated on the same day that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan reopened a federal investigation into Mr. Epstein. (It actually happened.) Or the haunting videotape I saw online purporting to show a known political operative torturing a child. Is that video real? I can’t say. But part of me says I’m obsessed with it because it’s real.
True or false, confirmed or speculative, all of this has the effect of making us feel like we are watching the curtain slowly pull back to reveal the reality we have been living in without realizing it, the nightmares that lurk behind our daily dreams. It’s truly “Rosemary’s baby.” And if that nightmare turns out to be true, it could shake the very foundations of our society: our core perceptions of power, politics, celebrity, and the secret privileges of those in the “privileged” class. Of course, the videos in Epstein’s files are all too real, and if they were ever released, the crimes they contained could finally be revealed and the ultimate true-story mystery movie could begin to come to a close in a way that’s surprisingly true to the imagination fed by the movie: in a way that lets you see it all for yourself.
