'The Epstein case is a new version of the classic conspiracy against authentic America'
Behind this phrase lies the theory that justice was prevented from completing its work, stopped by powerful and secret forces intent on protecting their own unspeakable interests. The suicide narrative, according to this belief, was merely a convenient – perhaps too convenient – smokescreen to cover up the truth: surveillance cameras (conveniently?) failed, his cell was (deliberately?) left unmonitored, medical reports (intentionally?) contradicted each other, and so on. In this version, everything is connected, nothing happens by chance, and everything is a matter of lies and manipulation.
Epstein's supposed list of clients guilty of sexual violence remains fantastical. But it is true that the parties organized by the financier were attended by well-known figures from politics, tech, film, and music, such as Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, Woody Allen, Michael Jackson – and even Donald Trump. What better fuel for the most lurid speculation about a network of elite child abusers orchestrating their own impunity? The Epstein case thus encapsulated a worldview and rhetoric typical of binary conspiratorial and populist discourses: them against us, the threatening other (elites, minorities, foreigners) against the good and virtuous people.
From 2019 on, for conspiracy-minded circles of the alt-right, for QAnon supporters, and for fans of commentator Alex Jones, Epstein became a new version of the classic plot against authentic America, involving a satanic network, Hollywood, the deep state, the liberal left, or the Democratic Party. In this narrative, Trump was cast as the would-be champion of the real America, supposedly set to restore true values: "Make America Great Again!"
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LeMonde
9 hours ago
- LeMonde
In the US, the relentless engine of conspiracy theories
The twists in the Jeffrey Epstein case, in which Donald Trump's administration has been entangled since July 7 – the date the Department of Justice released a brief memo discrediting the most radical claims promoted by some of his base – offer an important lesson. After more than eight years institutionalizing "alternative facts" in place of actual facts and relentlessly exploiting conspiracy theories, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic and after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, the president of the United States can now see the devastating effects of his cynical and reckless experiments. After months of denouncing, with the backing of officials now holding the highest positions in the federal government, the opacity of a "deep state" supposedly ensuring impunity for the powerful, Trump supporters have grown impatient with their leaders' inability to provide new information regarding Epstein. The financier, who was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019, had been facing charges of child sexual abuse after initial proceedings dating back to 2006. No matter how forcefully the US president lashes out at the rebels who helped bring him back to power – even going so far as to insult them – he is failing to bring them back into line. To his great surprise, conspiracy theories have proved immune to admonishment and have turned, with the same irrational fervor, against those who once encouraged them with impunity. Trump's frustration no doubt explains why he now bristles at reminders of well-established facts. Like many high-profile figures in the US in the mid-1990s, he was close to Epstein, even if he distanced himself before the financier was brought to justice. The Wall Street Journal, which recalled their past ties on July 17, is now facing a defamation lawsuit and has been barred from covering the president's trip to Scotland. The treatment of the conservative business daily confirms, as have other similar cases, that Trump tolerates only one kind of press, that of complicity, while all news media are uniformly branded as the enemy. Since returning to the Oval Office, Trump has employed the same tactics with the media as he does with other checks on his power, or anything he perceives as such: threats and intimidation. He recently forced the CBS news channel to back down over what were seen as particularly flimsy accusations regarding its coverage of an interview with his Democratic opponent in the presidential campaign, Kamala Harris. He also pressured Congress to fulfill a longstanding Republican demand: the elimination of public broadcasting funding, regardless of the consequences for rural areas across the country that have become news deserts. "You are the media now," Elon Musk declared, speaking of social media, on the night of Trump's re-election, for which he had deployed the X platform algorithm to his advantage. The Epstein affair demonstrates the consequences of sidelining traditional news channels. The result is obfuscation and confusion to the detriment of public debate and the health of democracy.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Trump claims Obama 'coup' as Epstein questions mount
The accusations, delivered in the Oval Office, followed a surprise announcement that Trump's Department of Justice would question an imprisoned, key former assistant to Epstein. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X that disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year sentence for her role in Epstein's alleged pedophile scheme, would be queried for new information. "No lead is off-limits," Blanche said. However, the show of transparency appeared to be part of a concerted effort by the White House and Trump's allies to quell speculation about the convicted sex offender, who was long rumored to be a pedophile pimp to the powerful and who committed suicide in his prison cell in 2019. While meeting with the Philippines' president in the White House, Trump dismissed the Epstein case as "a witch hunt." "The witch hunt that you should be talking about is, they caught President Obama, absolutely cold," he said, launching into a meandering series of unsubstantiated accusations around Obama trying to "steal" the 2016 election, when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. "Obama was leading a coup," Trump said. An Obama spokesman called the claim "outrageous." The coup accusation centers on claims that fly in the face of multiple high-level official probes by the US government. However, it resonates with Trump's far-right base -- in part thanks to blanket coverage by the popular Fox News network. Trump's attacks on Obama are "part of a larger strategy of distraction, but they also serve another function: to cast the president as a victim of Democratic treachery," said Todd Belt, at GW University's Graduate School of Political Management. Obama's spokesman echoed this, saying Trump engaged in a "ridiculous and weak attempt at distraction." In another ploy to bury the Epstein controversy, Speaker Mike Johnson, a key Trump Republican loyalist, said he would shut down the House of Representatives until September. This was to avoid what he called "political games" over attempts by mostly Democrats to force votes on exposing more about the Epstein case. Entangled in conspiracy theory Epstein was awaiting trial on trafficking charges when he was found hanged in his New York cell. Authorities declared it a suicide but the death super-charged fears, especially on the far-right, that a "deep state" cover-up is in place to prevent the names of Epstein's clients from being made known. Trump's attempts to stop Epstein speculation clash with the fact that his own supporters are the ones who have most pushed conspiracy theories -- and believed that Trump would resolve the mysteries. They were outraged when Trump's FBI and Justice Department said on July 7 that the death was confirmed a suicide and that Epstein never blackmailed prominent figures or even had a client list. Trump tried numerous measures to placate his base, including ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to try to obtain release of grand jury testimony in Epstein's aborted New York case. But the issue flamed up again last week when The Wall Street Journal reported that it had seen a birthday greeting penned in 2003 by Trump to Epstein on his 50th birthday. The letter reportedly featured a hand-drawn naked woman, with Trump's signature forming her pubic hair, and reference to their shared "wonderful secret." Trump insists he did not send the letter and has filed a lawsuit against the Journal. Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing but was close friends with Epstein for years and was photographed attending parties with him. Among the other celebrities with connections to Epstein was Britain's Prince Andrew, who settled a US civil case in February 2022 brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17. Giuffre committed suicide at her home in Australia in April. Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate who has been convicted. She is appealing her sentence before the Supreme Court. David Oscar Markus, Maxwell's lawyer, confirmed on X that he was in discussions about her meeting with government representatives.
France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Afghan beauty salons in struggle to survive after Taliban ban
Donald Trump is simply unable to shake off the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. A part of his support base is furious over Trump's flip-flopping on Epstein's alleged "client list". In a bid to deflect attention, as The Washington Post notes, Trump created a debate about a football team's name, released hundreds of thousands of classified documents pertaining to the death of Martin Luther King Jr, surmised about how former USAID ambassador Samantha Powell made her money and then reposted a bizarre AI-generated video appearing to show former president Barack Obama being arrested by federal agents. According to one analyst, "nobody turns the page better than Donald Trump". However, this scandal has called into question his ability to do so because he's in a real fight with his own base and the mainstream media are more than happy to fan the flames of discord. Le Monde newspaper, meanwhile, has published a series focusing on the US tech titans who are cosying up to Trump. It's a long-format read which takes us behind the scenes of Trump's inauguration earlier this year: in particular, the notable presence of tech billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. Bezos' overt embracing of Trump contrasts with his previous support for Democrats. As for Zuckerberg, his management style was previously more casual and informal but has since transformed to more authoritarian – all in a bid to curry favour with Trump. Turning to Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to arrest Taliban leaders over gender persecution of Afghan women, in what the academic website The Conversation calls a world first. Earlier this month, the court in The Hague issued arrest warrants against Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, accusing them of being guilty of crimes against humanity of persecution on gender grounds. In other words, the court hopes to bring them to account for the draconian measures imposed on girls and women in Afghanistan, who have been forbidden from going to school after the age of 12 and banned from public spaces since the Taliban's takeover in 2021. The Washington Post specifically looks at the plight of beauty salons in Afghanistan. In the aftermath of the takeover, beauty salons were largely excluded from Taliban's draconian crackdown on society. Women flocked to the country's 12,000 beauty salons, which provided much-needed financial stability for the often female salon owners. Until 2023, that is. Officials then ordered women to shut down their salons, citing sharia law violations. At the time, the government justified its decision by saying that 95 percent of Afghans did not want women to go to work. More recently, they've tried to take a more moderate line, with women able to work in girls' schools or female hospitals and prisons. But as the Post notes, in a country scarred by four decades of war, women are often the only or primary breadwinners for many families — and many are now struggling make ends meet. Finally, the French regional newspaper Ouest-France talks about all the bizarre – and sometimes ugly – gifts that sports champions are given when they win! When you are a high-level athlete, winning might not be as hard as feigning happiness for an odd gift you receive from the host organisers. Tennis player Loïs Boisson recently won a competition in Hambourg sponsored by the shipping company MSC. In return, she received a miniature shipping container! Mathieu van der Poel, the winner of the Paris-Roubaix cycling race – known as the Hell of the North for its hard roads – received a piece of pavement as a reward. And cyclist Benoît Jarrier received a pig in 2015 – not for winning, but for being the first Breton to cross the finish line in a Brittany cycling race. He won that accolade four times!
