Epstein And Indiscriminate Allegations

 Martin Longman writes about the allegations against Trump that we know of in the Epstein Files that have actually been released. 

He makes a good point that these allegations or even simply contact between Epstein and other elites - broadly defined - tend to erode our judicial system's requirements of the presumption of innocence. Some of the people being dragged or fired seem to have been in Epstein's orbit in some manner and that alone is enough to cost them a job. The arrests in Britain actually deal with sharing classified information with Epstein, not his more lurid crimes. Andrew Windsor-Mountbatten almost certainly raped minors. He's apparently a world class scumbag.

That's the thing, though. One of the legacies of #MeToo was that men who treat women badly, tend to treat WOMEN badly. If they sexually harass one woman, they harass multiple women. Few men rape ONE woman. The crime of rape is not fundamentally about lust but about power and violence. 

Donald Trump's presence in one specific incident - the Bitten Penis, if you will - represents that power and violence. So does the Access Hollywood tape. So does the E. Jean Carroll case. So does the testimony of Stormy Daniels, where she acquiesced to sex rather than risk violence. So does the allegation of abuse by Ivanka Trump. 

Sometimes, women invent accusations of sexual assault. That happens. Rarely...never to my knowledge...do multiple women invent accusations about the same man. Deshaun Watson was a sex pest, harassing masseuses with great regularity. It wasn't just a one time misunderstanding. We have ample, ample evidence that Trump sees women as sexual hosts not romantic partners. 

We keep waiting for some final smoking gun to be discovered that definitively links Trump to raping someone. I don't think we are ever really going to have that moment of clarity. I would also argue that we don't need it. It is precisely the multitude of credible - if not always proven - allegations against him that should allow us to pass judgment on this fucking monster.