When Does America Reckon with the Gravity of Donald Trump's Alleged Rapes?
For more than a decade, it’s been no secret that multimillionaire hedge-fund manager Jeffrey Epstein trafficked, molested, and raped dozens of underage girls. And yet, until his arrest last week, it seemed as if he might escape with little more than a slap on the wrist because he’s rich and well-connected.
In 2007, federal prosecutors prepared a 53-page indictment that could have put Epstein in prison for life for the sex trafficking of minors. Instead, Epstein served only thirteen months for solicitation—during which he was allowed to leave and work from his office for 12 hours a day, six days a week—thanks to a sweetheart plea deal brokered by Alex Acosta, then a federal prosecutor in Florida and now Trump’s secretary of labor.
Acosta is now under fire for helping the wealthy pedophile escape federal prosecution. Amid growing calls for Acosta to resign, and at President Donald Trump’s urging, he defended his handling of the case in a press conference on Wednesday, arguing that “we live in a very different world” for sex-abuse victims than we did a decade ago and that a lenient plea deal resulting in any jail time at all was the best he could have hoped for at the time. The implication is that perpetrators are actually held to account now, regardless of their money or power; that the Me Too movement has forced the nation to reckon, finally, with how many men are allowed to get away with sexual harassment, abuse, and rape in a system indifferent to the lives of victims.
So, then, when is America going to reckon with the alleged serial sexual abuser in the White House? Donald Trump has not only been accused of rape and sexual misconduct by more than 20 women over the past several decades, but he regularly uses his power to threaten survivors who come forward and to protect and promote men who abuse women.
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https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein
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