Jeffrey Epstein – When The Abuser Goes To Work…

Another Nail In The Coffin Of England’s Upper Class?

It’s hard to find a guy with less class than Prince Andrew, who allegedly raped a 17-year old American girl several times in 2001 while he was in his 40s.

When the girl, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, now 38, made public accusations against Andrew in 2015, he denied them. He claimed he couldn’t remember even meeting her, though a photo showed him with his arm around her bare midriff.

After Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit, Andrew, now 61, claimed he could not be held liable because pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly trafficked Giuffre to Andrew, had entered a settlement with Giuffre in 2009. Although he wasn’t a party to the settlement, Andrew argued that it absolved “other potential defendants” like him. The judge disagreed and set a civil trial date.

Meanwhile, the royals began sweating that Andrew’s difficulties would cast a shadow on the upcoming Platinum Jubilee commemorating his mother, Queen Elizabeth’s, 70 years on the throne in June.

Reuters announced Tuesday that Andrew and Giuffre have reached a settlement in principle. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed but the New York Post reports it was $12 million. The settlement must be approved by the court.

It remains to be seen where the money will come from to pay the settlement, and whether public funds will be used.

Sexual Assault Victims On Trial (Yet Again) In Maxwell Case

There isn’t much that Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney can do in Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking trial except to put her accusers on trial.

Maxwell’s attorney Bobby C. Sternheim received permission from U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan to call as an expert witness in Maxwell’s trial Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist and “false memory” expert. Technically, Judge Nathan denied the government’s motion to block Loftus’ testimony.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Loftus has been an expert witness in more than 300 trials involving sexual misconduct and murder, including those of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, serial killer Ted Bundy and alleged pedophile Michael Jackson. She typically testifies that victims’ memories are unreliable and can be affected by the media or crass commercial concerns. She is a distinguished professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irving.

Loftus may be Maxwell’s only hope of creating a reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors and securing either a mistrial or acquittal.

A parade of women are expected to say that Maxwell, now 59, befriended them when they were young girls (some as young as 14), took them shopping and made them feel special, and groomed them for sexual assault by financier and convicted child molester Jeffrey Epstein.

Outrage About China’s Treatment of Peng Shuai

There is more than a little bit of hypocrisy with respect to the outrage in the U.S. about China’s treatment of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai’s following her sexual assault complaint against Chinese ex premier Zhang Gaoli.

Things are not going so great in the United States for victims of sexual assault.

MONEY AND JUSTICE

I had to twice check the date on a story published this week by The New York Times because it seemed like a relic from the 1970s.

Christopher Belter, then 16 and a student at an elite private boys school, pleaded guilty to the sexually attacking four teens (including the rape of at least one victim). He faced up to eight years in prison but instead was sentenced to probation.

County Court Judge Matthew J. Murphy III of Niagara, N.Y., claims he “prayed over” the appropriate sentence in the case and concluded that “incarceration or partial incarceration isn’t appropriate” for Belter.

The Buffalo News reported that Peter M. Wydysh, an assistant district attorney, did not make a sentencing recommendation to the court. This is unusual, especially since Belter pled guilty to four counts of sexual attacks on teenage girls.

Is it purely coincidental that Belter comes from an extremely wealthy family?

Is Bill Gates Too Big To Fail?

If Bill Gates was a member of the U.S. Congress, he likely would be investigated over recent disclosures of his association from 2011 to 2019 with the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, is not a public official.

He is a private person who wields power around the world by virtue of his wealth. He is the co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the richest private foundation in the world. Gates also is regularly featured on news pages weighing in on diverse matters ranging from climate change to workforce robotics.

Gates seemingly is insulated from the mundane measures that hold “little people,” including members of Congress, accountable for bad behavior.

Gates relationship with Epstein came under renewed scrutiny last week when it was announced that he and his his wife of 27-years, Melinda Gates, are divorcing. The Wall Street Journal reports she warned him to stay away from Epstein after the couple met Epstein at his New York City mansion in 2013.

Depravity on Steroids

After years of alleged sexual exploitation of young girls, Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting an underage girl for sex in Florida. That prosecution stemmed from a complaint by parents that Epstein had sexually abused their 14-year-old daughter.

The Democratic Convention Thumbs Its Nose At #MeToo

The Democratic Party is effectively thumbing its nose at the #MeToo movement with its invitation to former President Bill Clinton to appear as a speaker at the Democratic Convention tonight.

The invitation also establishes a new bar of hypocrisy with regard to criticism by party officials of the sleazy history of Republican President Donald J. Trump.

On Tuesday, The Daily Mail, ran a photograph of a victim of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein giving Clinton a neck massage in 2002. Clinton, then 56, had a sore neck after he reportedly fell asleep in a chair aboard Epstein’s private jet, otherwise known as the Lolita Express. The jaunty group was en-route to Africa on behalf of Clinton’s foundation to raise awareness about poverty and the AIDS crisis. Continue reading “The Democratic Convention Thumbs Its Nose At #MeToo”