THE WRAP: "Conspiracy Theorists Are Right"

From Sharon Waxman's 11-17-25 THE WRAP article entitled "The Epstein Emails Show That Conspiracy Theorists Are Right: ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Is Real":

The shocking revelation in the trove of 20,000 emails from the sordid world of Jeffrey Epstein is not that crimes were being committed.

It’s more sinister. The emails are disturbing because what they reveal — and in fact prove — is that conspiracy theorists are right. That their theories of full-on corruption in the upper spheres where power lives are valid. That the “Eyes Wide Shut“ cabal of political and financial interests married to sexual deviance depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 film is not, in fact, fiction. It is reality.

So often journalists like myself attempt to demonstrate to family members and voters in the far reaches of the country, away from centers of power and money, that their conspiracies are false. That politicians are flawed, but that corruption is not the norm. It isn’t how we all operate. 

But the Epstein emails suggest otherwise. They suggest that in fact there is a widespread code among people with power and money who support one another. They are pals no matter what side of the aisle. They are in the club no matter the sins of their members — transgressions that get contextualized, explained away, “understood” [...].

Just a few months after this exchange [with Larry Summers], Epstein was arrested again, this time by the feds, on charges of sex trafficking. As a reminder, the search of his Manhattan townhouse at the time turned up evidence of sex trafficking and “hundreds—and perhaps thousands — of sexually suggestive photographs of fully — or partially —nude females,” according to the indictment. In a locked safe, there were CDs with handwritten labels: “Young [Name] + [Name],” “Misc nudes 1,” and “Girl pics nude.”

“So many people tried to ingratiate themselves with him,” observed Julie K. Brown, the intrepid journalist from The Miami Herald who first exposed Epstein’s crimes and has doggedly pursued the story long after. She hopped on the phone with me on Sunday.

I asked Brown if she thought the emails validated those who believed in wacky Pizzagate-style theories (where Hillary Clinton was bizarrely accused of participating in a pedophile ring).

“What do you mean by conspiracy? (Ghislaine) Maxwell and Epstein — that was a conspiracy,” she said. “And that’s exactly the way they should be looked at. He got away with this. And our criminal justice system is broken. People who have money and power get away with crimes. That’s just a fact. [The email trove] shows that people are willing to overlook even the worst crime if they think that somehow they’re going to benefit.”

She added: “It’s what they call the swamp.”

The swamp is specifically what Donald Trump promised to clean up. But he and Epstein are the swamp.

To read the entire article, click HERE.